It is often thought that only children benefit from reading aloud, but in fact, it can also have positive effects on the brains and hearts of parents according to a joint research performed by Nagai City’s local government in Yamagata Prefecture and Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC).
An eight-week study of about 40 children and their parents showed that depending on how many books they read aloud together, mothers showed a decrease in their stress levels. A mother’s stress caused by their child’s behavior, such as feeling “displeased, distracted/hyperactive, sensitive to stimulation/difficult to control, and so forth”, were found to be reduced. In other words, the stress that mothers themselves feel can be reduced as reading to a child can calm a child’s feelings and behaviors, which allows mothers to work on other tasks.
To further demonstrate that reading aloud reduces stress, an analysis of the relationship between the changes in a mother’s stress level and the length (amount) of the story-telling was conducted, and showed that stress decreased overall. The joint research also showed that story-telling in itself may lead to positive changes in the relationship between a mother and her child by reducing stress on the mother as well.
The longer the reading time was, the lower mothers felt stressed. So even if you find yourself busy, it is worth the while to take some time to read aloud as it may make it easier to raise a child.