- June 22, 2026
- 7
- Blog
I don’t remember the exact moment I learned to read, but I remember what reading gave me.
It gave me adventures long before I could afford to travel. It introduced me to people I would never meet and places I would never visit. Most importantly, it taught me how to think, imagine, question, and dream.
As a parent and educator, I’ve seen children grow in confidence through many different activities—sports, music, clubs, and academic success. Yet nothing has had quite the same transformative effect as reading.
I still smile when I think about reading bedtime stories to children. Sometimes they would ask for the same story every night for weeks. As adults, we desperately searched for variety, while they were perfectly happy hearing the same tale for the forty-seventh time. We would occasionally try to skip a page, convinced they wouldn’t notice. They always noticed. Every single time.
What seemed like a harmless obsession was actually doing something remarkable. Those repeated readings were strengthening vocabulary, building comprehension, developing memory, and helping young minds recognise patterns in language.
Modern neuroscience confirms what many parents and teachers have suspected for years. During the formative years, children’s brains develop at an extraordinary rate. Reading aloud exposes them to thousands of words they may never encounter in everyday conversation. Research has shown that children who are regularly read to arrive at school with significantly larger vocabularies and stronger language skills than those who are not.
But the benefits extend far beyond words.
When children read stories, they practise empathy. They step into the shoes of characters who are frightened, brave, lonely, excited, confused, or hopeful. In doing so, they begin to understand emotions—their own and those of others. Scientists studying brain development have found that reading narrative fiction activates areas of the brain associated with social understanding and perspective-taking.
In simple terms, books help children understand people.
I often think about the children who arrive at school believing that reading is simply another subject. Then something magical happens. They discover a book that speaks directly to them. Perhaps it is a mystery, an adventure, a fantasy, or even a story about a child facing challenges similar to their own.
Suddenly reading is no longer a task.
It becomes a doorway.
That moment matters because children who enjoy reading tend to read more, and children who read more become better readers. It is one of the most powerful virtuous circles in education.
There is also growing evidence linking reading for pleasure with academic success across multiple subjects. Children who read regularly often develop stronger concentration, broader general knowledge, improved writing skills, and greater critical thinking abilities. Reading doesn’t just help children succeed in English; it helps them make sense of the world.
Yet in an age of endless notifications, streaming services, and short-form videos, encouraging reading can sometimes feel like swimming against the tide.
Many parents worry when their child would rather stare at a screen than pick up a book. The truth is that reading habits are rarely built through lectures. They are built through modelling.
Children notice what we do far more than what we say.
If they see adults reading, they learn that reading has value. If books are present in the home, they become part of everyday life rather than a school requirement.
Some of my fondest memories involve nothing more complicated than sitting together with a book. No expensive gadgets. No elaborate plans. Just a story, a voice, and a child leaning in to discover what happens next.
Years later, children may forget the specific books we read together. They may forget the characters, the plots, and even the titles.
What they rarely forget is the feeling.
The feeling of being close to someone.
The feeling of being transported somewhere else.
The feeling that words can create entire worlds.
That is why reading in the formative years matters so much.
It is not simply about literacy scores, examination results, or academic outcomes, important though those are.
It is about building imagination, empathy, resilience, curiosity, and confidence.
It is about giving children a lifelong companion.
A child who learns to love reading is never truly alone. They carry with them an endless supply of ideas, adventures, and possibilities.
And in a world that often moves too fast, that may be one of the greatest gifts we can give them.
