4 Benefits of Reading Fiction For a Child

Every good parent wants what’s best for their child, and will tend to explore all sorts of different educational avenues that can help to develop their child’s full potential, and to give them the best possible grounding and sense of direction in life, from an early age.

Some things, such as improving reading fluency, are essential to the educational process for any child, whereas other things – such as developing an active interest in the world at large – will have more to do with the specifics of how the child is parented, than with the classroom and education system in and of itself.

Out of all the different pastimes that can be extremely beneficial for children – and for that matter, for people of all ages – reading fiction stands out as one of the most potentially beneficial and uplifting of all.

Here are just a few of the benefits of reading fiction to your child, and encouraging them to read fiction themselves.

A sense of magic and adventure

The world always has the potential to be a deeply magical, exciting, and engaging place in all sorts of different ways – and one of the things that is so beautiful and life-affirming about seeing children at play, is the fact that they naturally tend to perceive things as magical and fascinating in this way.

Reading fiction helps to feed, support, and reinforce your child’s sense of magic and adventure – especially as they grow older.

Too many of us become somewhat jaded over the course of our lives, but reading fiction is just one way of reminding ourselves of the fact that there is always a deeper, richer, and more adventurous and exciting way of looking at the world, and our experiences, at large.

In childhood, reading fiction can help to engage that part of the imagination that helps us to see the fascination and excitement in every moment, as opposed to being bored or worn down by everyday frustrations.

Out of all the different things that it’s important to safeguard for your child, their sense of magic and adventure is certainly up there.

Heightened empathy

Although it may seem as if reading fiction is just a matter of light-hearted entertainment, research has found that reading fiction can actually significantly impact the way in which we relate to other people, understand others and our place in the world, and develop our sense of self, as well.

In particular, research has apparently found that individuals who read fiction seem to have a heightened sense of empathy versus those who don’t. Something about vicariously experiencing the lives, triumphs, trials, and tribulations of the characters found in books seems to have very real implications for how people relate to others, and how capable they are of putting themselves in others’ shoes.

Empathy is one of the most important traits to develop, for the sake of nurturing good interpersonal relations with others, being moral and responsible in day-to-day life, and getting on with other people and society at large in a mutually beneficial way.

While it’s always going to be the case that empathy is best developed through face-to-face social interactions, there’s a lot of reason to think that getting a child to read fiction – or reading to them – can also work wonders in terms of developing their sense of empathy.

Looking at things in a bigger picture sense

There’s always a big difference between looking at things “up close,” and looking at things in a bigger picture sense. Both of these perspectives are extremely valuable in the right context, but the ability to look at things in a bigger picture sense may be especially important in various ways.

When you can look at things in a bigger picture sense, you can be more creative and insightful in general. You can often avoid potential negative consequences, while taking steps to ensure that positive outcomes are more likely. And you can, in many cases, plan more effectively, too.

Reading fiction can help your child to see how different threads of a narrative end up being woven together into a more comprehensive story, with all that entails. This, in turn, can help them to better understand how their everyday actions and situations may be part of a greater whole, and how there may be bigger things to consider, at any given time, than what is immediately obvious.

Seeing things in a bigger picture sense can also make life seem a lot richer and more interesting, as it can uncover a lot of meaning, direction, and purpose that might otherwise have remained obscured if you were only paying attention to each individual action and situation, one at a time.

A greater understanding of the potential effect of different actions and attitudes

Over the course of everyday life, it’s not always easy and straightforward to get a sense of how different actions may impact others, or lead to potential effects or situations beyond those that we can immediately observe in the present moment.

This is enough of a tricky thing for adults to wrap their heads around, and it’s especially difficult for children – and is one of the important skills that they need to develop in order to act responsibly in the world, and to avoid creating careless problems for themselves or others.

One of the great strengths of reading fiction is that it can help kids learn from all sorts of different potential situations, while showing a variety of different causes and effects, and a range of different actions and attitudes, and the potential consequences that may come along with him.

Although children will naturally learn a lot from their own experiences and mistakes, there are many things that you wouldn’t want your child to experience directly. Fiction can give them a window into all sorts of different potential scenarios, and can therefore help them to develop their own sense of discernment, without them having to literally live out everything that the various characters in the novels they have read have experienced.