Does reading books with pronunciation written above the characters develop one's skills? I've got some books in Chinese, written both in characters and pinyin. Can reading such a book develop anything when it comes to my Chinese? I started reading it by hiding the pronunciation with a purposefully prepared piece of paper but it's so uncomfortable that I want to give it up. I wanted to read books in order to enhance my character recognition. But if I don't hide anything, I can see everything and it's not possible to pretend that it's not there. I can read even characters that I'd never seen. So it seems to me that such a book can be treated as a light entertainment more than a study resource.

I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your experience. Thank you!
I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your
  experience.


I choose experience to answer.

In Taiwan, Students of lower grades of elementary school have a subject called 國語(in English: an official language used by our country).

In Taiwan, people use Zhuyin to denote pronunciation. So textbook of 國語 have article written in Traditional Chinese and Zhuyin on the right side of characters. You can see it if you google to search image with 小學國語課本 in search bar. Some of the pictures show that there are Zhuyin on the right side of characters.

After we grew, we became higher grade students of elementary school. The Zhuyin part were not be given.