Home

Encouraging Thais to Read: A Strategy to Transform the Nation

8 min read Reading BooksHuman Resource DevelopmentThai Education

Over the past few decades of Thailand’s development, investment in physical infrastructure—roads, railways, industry, or technology systems—has typically been seen as the primary driver, “boosting short-term GDP immediately.” Yet long-term matters like “human development” and “lifelong learning”—“investment in the intellectual infrastructure of human beings,” the most powerful strategy and the one with the highest, most sustainable return to the nation—have steadily weakened, to the point where Thais generally accept that “Thai education has problems, with many long-term consequences.”

The ability to learn is something that those in power rarely have a clear, continuous plan to devote adequate resources to, while strong neighboring countries develop people from childhood and have a deep understanding of the value of reading.

Consuming pre-packaged information in the form of images, audio, and video is not inherently bad, but learning in a manner that is “directed” and “constrains imagination” cannot replace books. Text that lacks color, lacks a human voice, and lacks a soundtrack is an excellent way to accelerate the power of thought, stimulate the power of imagination, and train the power of concentration. Reading too little and quitting too soon is a missed opportunity for brain development at a young age (the human brain continues to grow until approximately the age of 25).

Reading just fifteen minutes a day can boost your learning capacity and improve your performance in every subject, not only in those related to the content of the books. This should come as no surprise. A better-developed brain, the habit of patiently sitting still to read many pages, and attention trained through repetition are all assets that belong to those who grow up reading enough.

Imagine if Thailand’s leaders truly recognized the importance of reading and elevated it to a “national agenda,” restructuring the bureaucracy to support an integrated drive. This would involve adjusting the curriculum in every school to include a mandatory daily “hour for recreational reading and analytical thinking” lasting 30–45 minutes, while allocating a budget to procure high-quality books and distribute them to community libraries and schools nationwide. This policy would require a fraction of the budget compared to large-scale construction projects, yet if implemented consistently and seriously over ten years, the results would miraculously transform the country. Children and youth would grow up with brain circuits developed for deep analytical thinking (Critical Thinking), possessing lasting concentration, intellectual agility, and empathy (Empathy). These qualities form the foundation for reducing conflict and factionalism in society, and for creating a population with high potential to generate new innovations for the country.

Neuroscience offers a robust, evidence-based answer to why reading has such a profound power to reshape the brain and human capital. This is not limited to children and young people; it yields diverse benefits across all age groups, as detailed in the academic research compiled below:

(The content in the following section was compiled and edited using AI.) Decoding the secrets of the grooves: Why “reading books” is a life-changing elixir for people of all ages In the digital era, when people spend hours every day staring at smartphone and tablet screens, many may question whether reading physical books still matters. Neuroscience research confirms that the human brain is not born with a neural circuit for reading; rather, the process of modification and the creation of new neural networks (Neuroplasticity) occurs every time we learn and practice reading. The benefits of reading extend far beyond mere entertainment or information acquisition, profoundly impacting the development of brain structure, mental health, and life skills across every stage of human life.

  1. Early Childhood: Building Neural Highways and Brain Armor The ages of 3 to 5 represent the period of the highest rate of brain growth and synapse formation. Promoting reading from early childhood yields the following structural and circuit-level outcomes in the brain:

  • Imagery and language comprehension: Children who grow up in environments that promote reading at home and are regularly read to show significantly greater activation in the left hemisphere’s Parietal-Temporal-Occipital Association Cortex while listening to stories[1]. This region of the brain functions as a hub for translating spoken language into mental imagery and processing linguistic meaning[1].

  • Development of spoken language and emotional regulation: Interactive shared reading of picture books between caregivers and children (Dialogic Shared Reading) stimulates the function of the frontal brain regions, including the Inferior Frontal Gyrus (Broca’s Area) and the Anterior Insula, which are neural circuits supporting spoken language, emotional processing, and self-regulatory attention[2]

  • Shielding against the impact of screen media: Excessive screen media use in early childhood is associated with reduced White Matter Integrity, specifically in the Arcuate Fasciculus, Uncinate Fasciculus, and Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus[3]. However, family co-reading acts as a Moderator, protecting the brain network from disruption by screen time and fostering children’s emotional and social development[4].

  1. School-age children and adolescents: Neuronal recycling and the development of reading fluency Upon entering school age, the brain undergoes a major structural reorganization to support systematic reading:

  • The emergence of the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA): The brain undergoes a process of repurposing the left Fusiform Gyrus to develop into a region for visual word-form processing, or the VWFA, enabling rapid and automatic decoding of letters[5]. The pre-existing connectivity between the VWFA and the brain’s language centers determines the developmental location of the VWFA even before children begin learning to read[6].

  • Accelerating neural signal transmission through myelin: Consistent reading practice stimulates the formation of myelin sheaths around white matter tracts, such as the Left Arcuate Fasciculus[7] and the pathways connecting the VWFA to the Parietal Lobe[8], resulting in faster neural signal transmission and more fluent reading[7][8]

  • Brain restoration in individuals with dyslexia: In children with dyslexia, who typically exhibit reduced activation of the VWFA, intensive reading instruction grounded in language structure can stimulate neuroplasticity, prompting the formation and enhanced function of left-hemisphere neural circuits that support word decoding[9]

  1. Adulthood: Reading Literature to Understand Humanity and Restore Focus For adults, reading books helps elevate social skills and cognitive well-being in an era of information overload:

  • Developing Theory of Mind: Reading Literary Fiction helps develop Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to understand and interpret the complex mental states, emotions, and perspectives of others—more effectively than reading non-fiction, popular fiction, or not reading at all[10]. This is because Literary Fiction focuses on conveying the complex psychological dimensions of characters, compelling readers to practice interpretation and cultivate Empathy[10].

  • Restoring the Deep Reading Circuit: In a digital age where people have grown accustomed to skimming and consuming short-form information, carving out time to read a book with sustained focus on a regular basis helps restore the deep reading circuit, fostering concentration, intellectual endurance, and critical analytical thinking[11]

  • Relaxing the nervous system and reducing stress: Focusing on quiet reading helps lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone), relaxes the nervous system, and protects the hippocampus in the brain from the effects of accumulated stress.

  1. The Elderly: Building a Reserve Brain Bank and Reducing the Risk of Dementia In old age, reading is an intellectual activity that plays a crucial role in maintaining brain health throughout the lifespan:

  • Reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia: Participating in brain-stimulating activities, such as reading regularly in old age, is associated with a 50% reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia (OR 0.50), and doing so consistently from middle age reduces the risk by 34% (OR 0.66), with results that are independent of educational level and socioeconomic status[12]

  • Building Cognitive Reserve: Reading books accumulated throughout one’s life helps build Cognitive Reserve, a compensatory mechanism that enables the brain to continue processing effectively even when pathological changes or age-related degeneration occur in the brain tissue[12]

References

  1. Hutton, J. S., Horowitz-Kraus, T., Mendelsohn, A., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. (2015). Home reading environment and brain activation in preschool children listening to stories. Pediatrics, 136(3), 466-478.

  2. Hutton, J. S., Phelan, K., Horowitz-Kraus, T., Dudley, J., Altaye, M., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. K. (2017). Shared reading quality and brain activation during story listening in preschool-age children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 191, 204-211.

  3. Hutton, J. S., Dudley, J., Horowitz-Kraus, T., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. K. (2020). Associations between screen-based media use and brain white matter integrity in preschool-aged children. JAMA Pediatrics, 174(1), e193869.

  4. Huang, P., Chan, S. Y., Ngoh, Z. M., Ong, Z. Y., Low, X. Z., Law, E. C., … & Tan, A. P. (2024). Screen time, brain network development and socio-emotional competence in childhood: moderation of associations by parent–child reading. Psychological Medicine, 54(9), 1992-2003.

  5. Dehaene, S., & Cohen, L. (2007). Cultural recycling of cortical maps. Neuron, 56(2), 384-398.

  6. Saygin, Z. M., Osher, D. E., Koldewyn, K., Reynolds, G., Gabrieli, J. D., & Kanwisher, N. (2016). Connectivity precedes function in the development of the visual word form area. Nature Neuroscience, 19(10), 1250-1255.

  7. Moulton, E., Dubois, J., Billard, A., Poupon, C., Dehaene, S., & Dehaene-Lambertz, G. (2019). Connectivity between the visual word form area and the parietal lobe improves after the first year of reading instruction. Brain Structure and Function, 224(4), 1519-1536.

  8. Thiebaut de Schotten, M., Cohen, L., Amemiya, E., Braga, L. W., & Dehaene, S. (2014). Learning to read improves the structure of the arcuate fasciculus. Cerebral Cortex, 24(4), 989-995.

  9. Barquero, L. A., Davis, N., & Cutting, L. E. (2014). Neuroimaging of reading intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e85258.

  10. Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science, 342(6156), 377-380.

  11. Wolf, M. (2018). Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. HarperCollins.

• 12. Dhana, K., Wilson, R. S., Beck, T., Evans, D. A., & Rajan, K. B. (2025). Cognitive Activity From Early to Late Life and the Risk of AD Dementia: A Life-Course Study. Neurology, 104(1), e0002.

CC BY-SA 4.0