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Comment by hx8 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, both the reduction in the amount of reading and the reduction in the complexity of the average read text is leading towards a decline in cognition. Less than half of American adults have read a book in the last year, and younger people are reading less books[0].

The empirical evidence for cognitive benefits of reading books is so numerous and obvious that citing sources feels silly. Reading increases vocabulary, which are the building blocks that ideas are formed. This alone would be worth the time cost but reading also increases concentration, improves memory, and reduces cognitive decline.

Reading books is roughly the same level of benefit as exercise.

[0] https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-...

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We don’t let our kids on to TikTok, but all their friends are on and it surprises me how much they take whatever advice is shown them as gospel. Lucky for me my kids will tell me “Hey, Johnny said the best way to get ripped is X” so I get the chance to teach proper research techniques (for the level they are at). Two of my four kids are avid readers, mostly fiction but some not, the other two I am really struggling to get them engaged.

After being forced to read books in high school over the summer (school mandated summer reading) I got turned off on reading for years until I picked up Harry Potter. That changed my perspective and I read gobs of books now. I actually prefer to read information mostly than to watch a video about it.

How do one train their kids to read?

One idea I read somewhere (online) is to financially incentivize them once they get an understanding of cash/money. No clue if it would work or how effective it would be.

My kid is on the way and my spouse has zero interest in reading.

We read to them from the time they were born. Simple stories and picture books at first. I think exposure is key, but I’ve also found that kids learn way more with what they observe than what they are told to do. So they see mom and dad reading is going to have a much larger effect than just telling them to read. We take them to the local library and let them pick whatever books they want to try. One of ours took a long time to ever find anything, then discovered he loved dragons, so for a year he devoured any dragon book. Even graphic novels, which I had thought “Isn’t my 12 year old to old for these?” Primed the pump and she’ll go through 2-3 chapter books per week.

We also made age appropriate audiobooks available to them and all 4 adore listening. Congrats on your baby! I’ve never been more exhausted in my life but I’m loving it.

> any dragon book

Here are "a few", if still in that phase https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonriders_of_Pern

In the context of kids, note that those books essentially legalize rape by saying the humans telepathically connected to the dragons mating just have to also do the deed.

Maybe go through them yourself first to decide when is appropriate, and talk about how compilations of old thoughts can be good and bad at the same time.

100%. Imho, parents should generally at least skim books before giving them to younger children, if only to know what topics their child might ask about after reading.

As a YA author at a recent con panel put it: "I let my kids read any book they want, but I describe the themes. Sometimes, they decide they might not be ready for specific topics"

Help kids censor for themselves, if they choose. (Personally, less-so on censoring for them, especially books)

I'm thinking less censorship and more understanding of when starting to think about something is appropriate, how to build a healthy worldview, and how to communicate about uncomfortable things. Like, A Song of Ice and Fire is a great world with captivating storytelling where some nasty things happen, and its characters can sometimes be "bad people", and that's part of the story! It's fine that books also portray things that are not just happy endings. GRRM is a good enough writer to make that improve the story.

(The author of Dragonriders of Pern, unfortunately, is not a good enough writer that her addition of certain topics into the books could be said to improve the books. I'll leave you with <https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Tent_Peg_Statement>. It's still a fun series, even if the author is not someone I'd invite for dinner!)

Unilaterally deciding as an adult "when" is censorship.

A big discussion point in the panel, which I agree with, is that kids will move on to more mature themes when they're ready (and not before).

Retarding that development process by deciding what is and isn't age appropriate for them (a) breaks down trust and communication and (b) substantially raises the risk of their doing so secretly, which increases the very risk you're trying to prevent.

We may have had different childhoods, but no bans my parents put in place that I felt strongly about weren't circumvented.

My philosophy on parenting is that you should support and be involved in your child's development, at the pace they choose, not plan and meter it.

I think you're projecting your own background into my words. Adjust your bias from "parental decision to censor" to "things to think about and discuss" and re-read.

>> more understanding of when starting to think about something is appropriate

What did you intend to be the consequences of appropriate vs inappropriate in the above?

It's a synonym of "suitable" or "fitting". I don't really understand what you're asking. Are you expecting me to lay down some strict rules that people under the age of X must not be exposed to topic Y? I'm not American/religious enough for that kind of thinking.

Personal anecdote: Before I could read, my mom would sit down and read Donald Duck comics with me. It started out as looking at pictures for a few minutes, soon was her reading a whole comic book aloud in one sitting, and when I eventually learned to read myself, the teacher's feedback was that I read out loud to the class in a way that brought the story to life, where others were just reciting the words.

To think of replacing that shared time with a financial incentive comes across as really cold. (Sorry.) Also, way too late!

Kids are mimics. Read to them, and let them see you reading.

Solution for my kids was buy or borrow whatever books they show interest in.

If they like reading comics, then get a stack of comics.

I allowed them to stay up later (if they want) but the condition is that time only can be used for reading. They really enjoyed that and it helped.

In time they traded the comics to fiction novels and their reading ability kept improving. They now get books from the library on their own and read quite a lot for their age. No parental pressure needed, they are addicted.

High school also killed my love for reading. I really regret that I didn't start reading again outside of assigned works until I graduated college. Now I read a pretty significant amount, and it's a joy to me! Something about how school analyzed literature and required you to read what they dictated didn't align with me.

I just finished the Odyssey, a required book in high school, after I previously finished the Iliad, which wasn't required in high school. Reading those two together after reading Stephen Fry's Mythos and Heroes books was a wonderful experience that I felt could have been replicated in high school rather than the whirlwind of bouncing around to unrelated books like the Catcher in the Rye.

I use Outlook to compose emails at work, and outlook's grammar system is constantly telling me to remove certain words from my sentences.

For example, I would send an email saying something like "there's actually another permission I need to grant you so you can see this, so I'm submitting the form real quick to take care of that."

Outlook will request that I change it to "there's another permission I need to grant you so you can see this, so I'm submitting a form to take care of that."

> Less than half of American adults have read a book in the last year, and younger people are reading less books[0].

-fewer books-

...sorry, I had to, since we're talking about literacy :)

Reading increases vocabulary, which are the building blocks that ideas are formed.

Perfection.

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