How Do Audiobooks Help Struggling Readers?

/
""

Table of Contents

Audiobooks + Print

We often get asked, “How do audiobooks help struggling readers if children are not reading independently?” Audiobooks are a great resource for struggling readers and every parent should taking advantage of them. The key to maximizing the benefit of audiobooks is to listen to audiobooks while following along with the print. This combination is key and can really help take your child to the next level on their reading journey. 

How Do Audiobooks Help Struggling Readers?

1. Exposure To Reading

Research has shown that children who struggle to read need more exposure to print over a longer period of time. Following along with audiobooks helps get them the appropriate exposure.

  • Reading 20 minutes daily allows children to read an average of 1.8 million words per year.
  • Reading 4 minutes daily averages about 282,000 words per year.

Students with reading differences such as dyslexia, struggle at the word reading level. Many times, they spend so much mental bandwidth trying to decode one word and it looks brand new to them when the same word pops up in the next paragraph. Because of this, reading connected text such as a passage or book can be daunting. These challenges stop students from reading and prohibit them from getting the appropriate amount of reading exposure. Furthermore, it stops them from getting all the benefits books provide. Books allow people to travel through fantasies, learn a new skill, or be transported to another time with the turn of a page. Their decoding skills should not bottleneck them. 

""

2. Written Word And Spoken Word Association

Children who struggle to read require more exposure to print. They need practice linking the written word and spoken word together so it may stick in their long-term orthographic memory.

  • Neurotypical children need an average of 4-14 exposures to a new word for it to stick in their long-term memory.
  • Children with learning differences like dyslexia need at least 40 exposures to a new word for it to stick in their long-term memory. That number only goes up depending on a child’s needs.

Audiobooks provide students with more opportunities to make associations between the written word and spoken word without exhausting the brain. The 40 word exposure can potentially be accomplished by following along to an audiobook for 45 minutes. This is a higher success rate than depending on your child to hit that exposure independently due to how challenging reading is. It is hard to want to do something frequently that is difficult. Audiobooks provide a great solution to helping your child bridge the reading gap.

""

3. Practice Higher-Level Thinking Skills

Audiobooks allow children to grow their higher-level thinking skills. Struggling readers typically have an independent reading level that is below grade level. This allows them to practice decoding skills but often does not allow them to grow their comprehension skills. 

It is important to remember that just because a student struggles to read does not mean they lack intelligence. All their higher-level thinking is in place for most students. Unfortunately, they cannot access those skills when information is presented to them in print alone. Print combined with audiobooks allows students to read above their independent reading level and work on higher-level thinking skills such as:

  • Comprehension
  • Prediction
  • Inferencing
  • Critical thinking
""

Educational Audiobook Resources

Learning Ally:

Learning Ally is a nonprofit organization and website that provides over 80,000 audiobooks to students. Their books are appropriate for grades K-12, college and graduate students. The books are read by human narrators which also models appropriate phrasing and expressiveness for younger students. 

Their services stand out because the audiobook is also presented in print and every word is highlighted as the narrator reads it. A 1-year subscription is $135 and grants you unlimited audiobook access.

Epic:

Epic is a website that offers virtual reading material for students. Epic has a free version with limited options and a paid version. Parents can choose $79.99 for a 1 year subscription or $11.99 for a month-to-month subscription.

Their library includes 40,000 books to choose from but not all of them are audiobooks. Epic offers three different services: 

– Read To Me: This option allows children to pick a book and the text is highlighted as the book is read by a narrator.

– Audiobook: This option is strictly audio and does not offer a text to follow along to.

– Read Solo: This option does not provide any audio and is only a virtual book for your child to practice decoding.

Are you looking for more ways to support your reader? Follow our link to 5 Activities For Struggling Readers to learn more ways to help your child on their reading journey. You can also reach us in the comments or via our connect page with any questions.