Your vocabulary aged 40 depends on how much you read as a teenager

https://theconversation.com/your-vocabulary-aged-40-depends-on-how-much-you-read-as-a-teenager-33852

So who increased their vocabularies the most between the ages of 16 and 42? Our statistical analysis took account of differences in people’s socio-economic backgrounds and in their vocabulary test scores at the ages of five, ten and 16. We found that reading for pleasure in both childhood and adulthood made a difference to rates of vocabulary growth between adolescence and middle-age.

Reading for pleasure as a child appeared to exert a long-term positive influence of vocabulary development up to the age of 42. In addition, those who continued to read for pleasure frequently at the age of 42 experienced larger vocabulary gains between adolescence and mid-life than those who did not read.

It seems that it isn’t just how much you read, but also what you read that makes a difference. People in their 40s who now read high-brow fiction (such as classic fiction and contemporary literary fiction) made the greatest vocabulary gains.

Bryan Spondre bryan@luminesce.biz Posted from WordPress for Android