When was the last time you read someone a story?
If you have young children in your life, chances are you've done it recently. But did you know that rather than just keeping little ones happy, there are serious perks to making a storytime a life-long habit?
Scientists say there are mental and physical benefits to be gained from reading aloud - it could even help you live longer. All you need is an engaging paperback, a voice and a bit of time, as Meghan Cox Gurdon reveals in her book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud.
Book at bedtime
Doctors have found that regularly reading out loud to children, starting from birth, brings emotional and intellectual benefits.
Staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital found the brains of children whose parents read to them had greater activity in the cerebellum, making their brains agile and receptive to narrative. This helped them master speech quicker.
Now studies involving premature babies have revealed the language centre in a newborn infant's brain comes to life at the sound of its mother's voice: they are primed to pay attention. At the same time, the voice that excites the mind has calming effects on the body - infants too young to look at pictures become more placid if their parents read to them.
A 2017 study into the effects reading aloud had on 20 premature babies found not only did the infants become more content, but their heart rates, blood pressure, oxygen levels and breathing all stabilised. The effects lasted for at least an hour.
Ditch the phone
For older children and teenagers, reading aloud helps them to stay emotionally and physically connected to family. Where screens and technology divide people even when they are in the same room, sitting with a book in physical proximity brings benefits. As soon as a parent sits down with a child and reads, stress and anxiety downshift as the hormone oxytocin floods the bloodstream, bringing relaxation and feelings of security.
Additionally, when someone reads aloud and someone else listens, their brains synchronise so the storyteller and the story-hearer are experiencing the same brain activity and release of neuro-chemicals. This process, known as neural coupling, was shown by US scientists using fMRI scanners at Princeton and explains why reading with others can create a sense of unity and closeness.
In an age where loneliness and anxiety are endemic, this discovery is more fascinating than ever.
Reading together helps keep people connected to each other.
Former US surgeon general Vivek Murthy explained how the feeling can impact physically as well as emotionally. "Loneliness causes stress, and long-term or chromic stress leads to more elevations of a key stress hormone, cortisol, which is linked to inflammation in the body," he said. "This in turn damaged blood vessels and other tissues, increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, joint disease, depression, obesity and death."
In 2010, a UK survey of elderly adults who joined a weekly reading group reported they had better concentration, became less agitated and were better at socialising.
Use it or lose it
Language is like a muscle - it wastes away if you aren't using it. Reading aloud with other adults, especially older adults, helps to keep everyone's brains in good condition. In Japan, which has many elderly people, clinicians are exploring how daily reading can sharpen cognitive skills that have been dulled by age and lack of use. Research in 2016 at Tohoku University got a group of healthy elderly people to undertake "learning therapy", which involved performing maths calculations and reading short passages out loud. They found after six months, many of the subjects showed significant improvements in brain function.
In 2017, a study carried out at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, found reading aloud improves recall by 15%, so it is no surprise there are positive results to be had for dementia patients, too.
And research at Yale University found people who read books - and were read to - live an average of two years longer than non-readers.
The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, by Meghan Cox Gurdon (£13.99, Piatkus)
Getting Started
Start small Begin where you are and do it today. You don't need to read aloud for an hour, or a year, or forever. Just begin. Pick up a book or a magazine or even a packet of breakfast cereal, and start reading to someone you love. Turn off your phone Give everyone time and mental space to engage with the words and to enjoy each other. Tech devices interfere with our ability to be present in the moment, so during read-aloud time don't have them around.
Have fun Reading aloud isn't supposed to be work. Just read what's on the page and let the words cast their spell.
Don't worry If you feel shy about reading out loud, you're in good company. Lots of people do. Stick with it. If your listeners want to get up and move around or play with toys, let them. Some people focus better when their hands are busy. There's no "correct" way to read aloud, there's just your way.