It’s Children’s Mental Health Week. Sadly the impact of Covid has made the week more vital than ever before. It feels appropriate to explore the benefits books and reading can offer.
There is a proven correlation between reading, mental health and wellbeing. Here are some key research findings:
- Children who are engaged with reading and writing are three times more likely to have high mental wellbeing than children who aren’t, and children who use the school library have, on average, higher mental wellbeing scores.
- Children who read for pleasure regularly are less stressed than non-readers, an extra inducement, if any is needed, to focus on building a reading for pleasure culture. In adults reading reduces stress by as much as two thirds.
- Reading has the potential to promote positive attitudes and positive self-image, while also increasing empathy, respect, tolerance and acceptance of others.
Books and reading can help children feel good about themselves. The finding that they can reduce stress is so pertinent right now. These views come from children of 7, 9, 12, and 15 years of age:
I love reading books. They cheer me up.
I read sometimes to get out of the real world or if I am unhappy.
I like reading books a lot. I can get away from reality for a while and enjoy myself.
Reading takes you away from real life for a bit. I just love it.
A survey carried out in the first lockdown found that audiobooks also support children’s wellbeing.
Books help children realise that they are not alone. These words from Frank Cottrell Boyce very much resonate with me:
A book is not a learning resource. It’s the knife that picks the lock of your isolation.
I concur with this too, from Emily Drabble of Booktrust:
Story characters can be models for your child, which can help foster coping skills and build confidence.
Children’s author Tom Perceval says this:
It’s important for children, and their parents, to be offered books that might help them navigate their emotional journeys.
I agree. Books are powerhouses of emotional support. They build resilience too.
I mentioned research about reading and empathy. Empathy impacts on well-being, and reading is a great way to strengthen it. Here is Malorie Blackman:
Books allow you to see the world through the eyes of others. Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.
This reflection comes from a child in year 5:
When I feel empathy in stories, I slow down; sometimes I stop and think so much more.
Books and reading develop children’s (and adults’) understanding of themselves, of others and of the world. Children’s author and ex-headteacher Bernard Ashley makes this point:
Books can answer questions we do not know we’re asking.
Books can challenge attitudes and change views. Author SF Said says this:
Children’s books can be bridges connecting people, showing them that however different someone else might be, the things which unite us are greater than those which divide us. And that difference can be a source of richness: something to be celebrated, not feared.
My final quote is from a child in key stage 2, in a review of Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy:
This book has inspired me to follow my dreams.
There is no doubt that books and reading aid children’s mental health. I will blog soon on the sorts of books that can make a difference to their wellbeing, and effective ways to use them. Meantime, I recommend these links, the last three particularly for school librarians:
- Reading Well for Children
- Reading Well for Young People
- Books to support mental health awareness
- Children’s books to support mental health awareness
- Read for Empathy Collection 2021
- Letterbox Library mental health collection
- Healthy Books
- Pupil Wellbeing and Mental Health
- Creating a bibliotherapy collection to support pupils social and emotional well-being
- The School Librarian (SLA) Vol. 68(3), Autumn 2020