For Struggling Readers, the Benefits of Audiobooks are Many
Have you wondered about, or been asked about the benefits of audiobooks for struggling readers? Have you felt challenged with answering the question of “Is listening to audiobooks cheating?” Hopefully Jet’s story will help you understand the answer to this question is, “No, audiobooks are not cheating.”
It’s not an uncommon misperception to think that listening to audiobooks or “ear reading,” actually gives an unfair advantage to the listener over a student who reads the book by decoding each word, or “eye reading.”
The underlying belief is that we must actually decode the words on a page in order to truly read a book.
Why do you read? Why do we teach our children to read? My own answer has many facets, but simply put, I read for information, to grow, to learn and expand my world. I hope the access to information and stories will do the same for the children I teach to read. Ultimately, we read in order to access, understand, synthesize and think critically about information; this allows us to grow and participate in society in many ways.
There are many benefits of audiobooks for students with disabilities, especially for students with reading disabilities. This is an accommodation that is often misunderstood but essential for the success and sanity of our struggling readers.
In this post you’ll get clear on the benefits of audiobooks that pertain especially to our struggling readers. You’ll learn the top 5 reasons why audiobooks are helpful for struggling readers and you’ll get suggestions for further reading, listening and learning. Share this blog with parents and colleagues who may also wonder about the benefits of audiobooks for struggling readers or who may have questions about the accommodations for students with dyslexia.
A Real Life Story About the Benefits of Audiobooks
A sixth grade student of mine, whom I will give the pseudonym of Jet, came to me after years of struggle in a private school, with shame and confusion around his struggles with reading and writing. His mom, a former teacher, had done everything she possibly could and felt helpless amidst his lack of progress and continuing decline in self esteem and motivation.
Jet had a sophisticated spoken vocabulary, superior listening skills, critical thinking skills, superb social skills, kindness, creativity and endless athletic and hands on skills. When put in a classroom, ask him to read aloud, when given loads of impossible-to-complete homework, he shrank. He felt “dumb” and he said so.
The initial assessments I did with Jet showed that his decoding ability, that is, his ability to literally read or decode the words, was at the level of a typical first grader. This meant he could successfully and independently read words such as “dog, black, hid, man.” But his grade level words such as “education, mundane, civilization” etc, were far beyond his ability to decode. He could understand, and he even knew the meaning of these words.
Jet told his brother that he wanted to be homeless. “At least I wouldn’t have to read,” he explained. My heart broke. Jet literally saw no other option and had placed unimaginable limits on his own future at 12 years old.
Jet did not understand that his reality could change, that he was highly intelligent despite his challenges and that his future was indeed bright and hopeful. He didn’t know this, because he had not had the right teaching, nor the right accommodations for struggling readers, such as audiobooks.
Not long after I began working with Jet and he made progress in his decoding, I introduced him and his family to the benefits of audiobooks for students with disabilities, specifically with struggles in reading. Keep in mind that kids at this age are beginning to reject the close academic support that parents are willing to give their struggling students. They thrive on, crave and need independence. Academically, their work load increases, the texts, vocabulary and writing they are required to do becomes increasingly greater and more complex.
Introduced to Learning Ally, an extensive online database of human read audiobooks, Jet began to devour books. One of my most cherished affirmations is when his mom texted me and said, “He told me he can FINALLY read books he loves and he actually wants to! He can’t put them down.” I had no doubts that audiobooks are not cheating, but in fact, audiobooks are a MUST among accommodations for struggling readers.
Jet loved stories. He loved to tell them, he loved to hear them and he had a great recall of and commentary on the stories he had heard. He gained a great deal from character experiences and complex plots. There was no reason why he should not be enjoying books at his cognitive level with independence and confidence, while at the same time receiving instruction in learning to decode words and understand complex texts.
I wholeheartedly believe in the benefits of audiobooks for students with disabilities, especially struggling readers, because I have seen their impact. I believe audiobooks can change lives because I have seen them do so.
Let’s dig deeper to understand why audiobooks are not cheating.
The Benefits of Audiobooks for Struggling Readers : #1
Leveling the Playing Field
A struggling reader may struggle with reading for several reasons. The most common reading difficulty manifests in word reading, automaticity and accuracy. So, you may have a 4th grader who has normal cognitive/thinking abilities, but can only decode simple, one syllable words at a forst grade reading level. This student is at a disadvantage. Although he/she can understand any word at his/her grade level, he/she cannot decode any word at his/her grade level.
This means that a fourth grade student who decodes at a first grade level may be asked to do a book report on text written for a first grader. Can you imagine a 5th grader reporting on Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House or Ranger Rick’s “Snakes”? What sort of plot complexity or information would be contained in such text and how would classmates perceive his/her intelligence? And what would it do to that student’s self esteem? (This is a real life example in my own experience with struggling readers.)
Consider a blind person. Would you refuse him/her the accommodation of using braille to take in information? Would you refuse him/her the accommodation of audiobooks? And if not, why not?
I loved Terrie Noland’s mention of “visible and invisible” disabilities in her presentation on the benefits of audiobooks for struggling readers. A visible disability would be blindness, she explains. This is a disability that’s easy to see and therefore easy to accommodate and ACCEPT the need for an accommodation. We can clearly and obviously see that the accommodation is necessary in order for that person to fairly access the same information which everyone has access to.
Dyslexia and reading disabilities are invisible. We cannot see them because they are rooted in the wiring of the brain. We see instead an intelligent kid who hasn’t learned to read and we think perhaps he is defiant, lazy, isn’t trying or just needs more time.
The fact is that many students with a reading disability have average to above average cognitive abilities and they should not be deprived of content appropriate for their grade level. At the same time they should also be given multisensory, systematic and explicit instruction in reading.
What is equal (having ALL students “eye read” or decode their grade level text) and what is equitable (allowing accommodations for struggling readers like audio books) are not the same. Access to literacy must be equitable.
(Illustration credit to: www.interactioninstitute.org and www.madewithangus.com with permission)
Brain Science of Reading
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) can actually SHOW the activity of the brain during reading tasks. In effect, this imaging allows us to see something otherwise invisible, somewhat like an x-ray allows us to see a broken bone.
fMRIs show us that the areas which are firing in a dyslexic’s brain when he/she tries to read are actually inefficient; they are not the areas a typically developing and efficient readers uses. In fact, they even rely on the right hemisphere of the brain, while reading requires we use the left hemisphere.
Check out this video (begin at 3:23) to learn more about the difference of a typical reader’s brain and one who struggles to read.
There is a neurological basis to dyslexia which means that the difference in the way an individual’s brain with dyslexia works is real. This is not something that goes away like a broken bone that needs a splint, nor is it something we can see like a blind person needing Braille books. Yet it is a disadvantage that clearly impedes a person’s access to information. An accommodation is necessary and fair, even though this is a disability we cannot see.
Reading is an especially difficult and laborious task for a struggling reader, especially one with dyslexia. He/she is literally expending an exorbitant amount of cognitive energy on just trying to decode the words on the page. This leaves little energy left for comprehension. Read more about Cognitive Load Theory here. IF we allow this reader audiobooks, he/she is able to focus energy on comprehension.
Reading Fluency and Audio Books
Reading fluency is one of the BIG 5 areas identified by the National Reading Panel in 1997 as necessary for reading instruction to be effective. Let’s look at the connection of reading fluency and audio books.
Many people think of fluency as only the rate or speed at which a student reads text and as a result, we often see reading fluency measured in terms of words read correctly per minute along with an accuracy score. While rate and accuracy are a piece of the reading fluency puzzle, another critical piece for reading comprehension is prosody.
The tone and expression with which an author intends the text to be read will be illustrated by the punctuation and grammar an author uses. We use our voices, or prosody, as fluent readers to help us understand text.
Our voices convey meaning. Many struggling readers struggle with correct use of grammar. Symbols such as commas, periods, question marks and exclamation points indicate that our voices must DO something as we read. A period indicates we must make a significant pause, and exclamation shows strong emotion while a question mark indicates that our voices rise as we ask a question. By hearing the use a fluent reader’s voice, the struggling reader hears the modeling of correct prosody. They are essentially hearing the punctuation. And when they can hear the punctuation, they can begin to apply it in their own reading and writing.
Consider fluency in terms of rate (words read per minute). Take a student in 7th grade who reads accurately but reads slowly, at nearly half the rate of her peers. Her fluency is not at grade level, but her accuracy is at grade level. She is cognitively able to understand and synthesize information at her grade level. She is curious and capable. Homework takes her twice if not three times as long as her peers because of her slow rate of reading.
As time goes on, this student becomes frustrated and experiences anxiety on a regular basis. She becomes depressed and doesn’t want to come to school, feeling the impossibility of completing assigned tasks. Talk of medication for anxiety is brought to the discussion. Because of her unseen, but very real processing delays, she is a slow reader and will continue to be so.
Access to audiobooks alleviates the pressure of time that has impeded this student’s ability to complete homework. Audiobooks build her confidence and motivation to learn and succeed and allow her to complete homework at the same rate as other students her age. Consider the alternative. There is no reason to deny this student access to audiobooks.
Accommodations for Struggling Readers and Direct, Systematic, Explicit Instruction
We cannot ignore systematic, explicit and multisensory structured literacy instruction in addition to providing audiobooks as an accommodation for struggling readers. We must also provide consistent and quality structured literacy instruction while allowing the use of audio books for struggling readers.
The work of educators of struggling readers literally requires that we facilitate the rewiring of neural pathways to help a student learn to decode words; to break the code of our written language. fMRIs show that this actually happens with the right instruction. Changing the brain takes time. Students need accommodations to access the content of their same aged peers while they work to rewire their neural circuitry.
Estimates show nearly 20% of the population has dyslexia, that it runs on a continuum and it is NOT always diagnosed. In our classrooms, we have kids who are not and may never be diagnosed with dyslexia, yet struggle significantly to access the written word.
We must provide our students with the content they need to become responsible, literate and secure members of our society, our communities and families. Denying them this access is nothing less than cruel; just as it would be so to deny a blind person access to braille, or a person with a broken leg access to crutches.
Give them instruction and give them audiobooks.
Read on to learn more about why audiobooks are not cheating.
The Benefits of Audiobooks for Struggling Students #2
Oral Language Development & Comprehension
It doesn’t take the research to tell us that the reason why we read is to comprehend text; we are reading to gain information, to learn about people and our world. In order to gain that information, we must understand it.
Scientific models within the body of research known as the science of reading such as the Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tunmer 1986) and Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) show us that one of the very main components leading to reading comprehension is the development of oral language. In a nutshell, the Simple View of Reading states that decoding multiplied by language comprehension = reading comprehension. If a part of of the equation is weak, the other suffers. So, if language comprehension is weak, READING comprehension suffers.
Without understanding of our oral language, how will we understand the words on a page? Oral language is quite literally one of the fundamental building blocks that will lead to comprehension. Reading is a language based skill and literacy depends on our oral language development, which is dependent on many strands.
When we hear words, they become stored in our phonological lexicon. Words that are stored in our phonological lexicon are easier to retrieve when reading. Frequent exposure to sophisticated and grade appropriate vocabulary allows easier retrieval when reading.
Reading is connected to the sounds of our language, yet with limited exposure to how those sounds are put together in words one is at a disadvantage. His or her phonological lexicon is diminished, making it more difficult to decode words that he/she has not heard spoken. Audiobooks provide exposure to age appropriate and sophisticated language, expanding phonological lexicons and making it easier to decode these words in text.
Further, access to sophisticated and complex syntax via audiobooks allows a reader to hear the composition of language. Not given this exposure, his/her understanding of the syntax (how words are put together into sentences) of our language will remain limited to what he/she can decode. This is not a levelled playing field.
By allowing access to audio books you help to strengthen a reader’s understanding of and exposure to age and grade appropriate oral AND written language. He/she is hearing and learning vocabulary and syntax of language at his/her cognitive level. You are allowing access to CONTENT through audiobooks, versus restricting it. When requiring that a student only have access to information and content he/she can decode, you restrict access.
Benefit #3: Building Background Knowledge & Comprehension
Let’s start with the importance of background knowledge for comprehension and how that relates to the benefits of audiobooks for students, namely those that struggle to decode grade level content. How do we gain background knowledge? Exposure. Exposure to people, to places, to ideas, to varied texts. Text allows us to be exposed to all of these things without traveling. Consider students whose parents do not have the means nor the education to expose their children to a wide variety of these experiences and ideas. How else will they be exposed than through experiences at school and within the texts they are reading?
Further, consider an English language learner whose second language is English and does not speak English in the home. The only exposure to English may be limited to school, to teachers and peers. Given that average adult discourse has been shown to be delivered at a 4th grade level of vocabulary and syntax, they are not getting much exposure to the academic language they need in order to succeed. Sophisticated language is found in texts, not in our everyday discourse. In order to understand it, they need to be exposed to it. The more they hear it, the better.
What happens to the exposure for the kids who cannot decode at their grade level, yet they can understand and synthesize information at their grade level? We must not confuse reading comprehension with learning to read. We must teach students to learn to read using a structured literacy approach, while also giving them access to content and knowledge that will improve their comprehension in addition to teaching them comprehension strategies. Giving them access to content at their grade level build the background knowledge they need for strong comprehension at their grade level.
If we limit students who struggle to read to the level of text they can decode, we limit their growth in comprehension of complex language and complex text. We stunt their access to the information that allows them to build their background knowledge. Background knowledge is essential to comprehension.
#4 Among the Benefits of Audiobooks for Struggling Readers
Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary is a predictive of reading comprehension. Is it one important strand of the Reading Rope that is essential for reading comprehension.
Consider this quote:
One of the ways that students build their vocabularies is through reading. If students read 60 minutes per day, five days per week, they will read more than 2,250,000 words per year. Mason, Stahl, Au, and Herman (2003) estimate that this level of reading will result in students learning 2,250 words per year, far more than could ever be taught through direct instruction alone.
Let’s consider vocabulary building for struggling readers. How about those older students say, 4th grade and up who are not decoding at their grade level, yet expected to read advanced texts with academic vocabulary they cannot decode? They can UNDERSTAND and ACQUIRE the knowledge when exposed and taught, but they cannot decode the words. In fact, these students often have superior listening and oral language skills.
How will they gain exposure to advanced vocabulary rather than limited home and school opportunities? They likely will not, without access to audiobooks, gain that 2,250 words per year mentioned above.
A training I once attended noted that regular adult discourse resides at a 4th grade level of sophistication in syntax and vocabulary use. Yikes, that’s limited language exposure, especially for students older than 3rd or 4th grade. Where will their knowledge of language come from? Will it come from peers? Television? Movies?
A struggling student left to text at their decoding level means they will be reading books with the vocabulary of a child perhaps three years younger and even more in some cases. This makes no good sense if we hope for our students to become literate, critically thinking adults.
In addition, struggling students become frustrated with the “babyish” content of the texts they can decode and give up reading all together. Thus, once again limiting exposure to advanced vocabulary, syntax and concepts.
Why Audiobooks for Struggling Students? Reason #5
Increase Motivation & Self Esteem
We saw how self esteem is affected when a struggling reader is restricted to reading books that he/she can only decode. Shame and embarrassment are common for these students, even though they are trying their hardest to do the work they need to do.
Furthermore, a student who reads at grade level, yet with much lower rate or speed than his/her peers often becomes frustrated with the amount of time required to complete homework and classroom tasks. What may take a peer an hour to complete, could take a slower reader twice if not three times the amount of time to complete the same task.
In addition to depression, anxiety, negative self talk and anger, years of struggle, inadequate instruction and support will lead to a significant decrease in motivation for our struggling readers. I have seen it too often in my 15+ years of teaching these intelligent and deserving students.
Allowing a student access to content at their grade level and cognitive level of understanding only expands and opens their world. Allow and encourage this. We are teachers; this is our job.
If you are wondering how to motivate struggling readers, give them access to audiobooks in addition to consistent, systematic, explicit and multisensory instruction based on the science of reading.
Understanding the benefits of audiobooks for students struggling to read can help you make a huge difference in someone’s life. I am sure because I have seen it happen. Don’t wait.
Audiobooks are Not Cheating
The problem for our struggling readers is that many of them have not been taught HOW to decode words, yet they can cognitively handle the content at their grade level. Give these students appropriate instruction in all areas of reading through a structured literacy approach, while at the same time, allow them access to content through audiobooks.
Are you convinced yet that audiobooks are not cheating?
Remember these things:
- Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading.
- Reading comprehension relies on oral language development. Without exposure to grade appropriate language, one’s vocabulary, background knowledge, awareness of complex syntax and ideas decreases.
- Motivation and self esteem are directly connected to a student’s ability to read.
- A reading difficulty is a legitimate, neurological & invisible disability that deserves the same support, respect and understanding as a person with a visible disability such as blindness.
- Cheating is getting something unfairly, without having worked for it. Struggling readers work harder than any of us to do something many of us take for granted.
- Audiobooks level the playing field; audiobooks are not cheating.
If you’d like more information on the topic, you might like the following:
- Listen and Learn : How audiobooks can support literacy development
- 7 Ways Audiobooks benefit students who struggle with reading
If you are wondering where to start with your struggling reader, start with assessment. Get your free phonological awareness assessment here.