So, you find that your child has been listening to an audiobook pertaining to marine biology. They seem deeply enveloped by what they're hearing, maybe even doodling colorful sketches of aquatic life across the margins of an open textbook in front of them.
Later on, at dinner, you bear witness to their outpouring of all sorts of facts about what they've learned – species of whales, how sharks smell blood, the unique camouflage of an octopus, you name it. Their mind is a faucet of curiosity and newfound delight. It's a wonderful example of how audiobooks for dyslexic children can open up a world of curiosity and learning.
Naturally, you get them a book on the topic, thinking they'd enjoy it as it further stokes their interest. But instead, they come up drawing blanks. The same information they seemed to effortlessly pull from chapters and chapters of narrated facts remains locked behind the barriers of physical print. You're concerned. They're already starting the reading race a pace behind. Will audiobooks only delay the closing of dyslexia's reading gap?
Not exactly.
Is listening to audiobooks helping or hiding the reading problems dyslexia presents? Many parents and teachers worry that audiobooks are a shortcut and that they could put off real progress in overcoming the challenges of written text. It's a reasonable worry, but one that can be addressed with a brief look into the research that underpins the subject.
Audiobooks can give your child access to stories and ideas that fuel their enthusiasm for interests, hobbies, and the simpler joys of life. They won't teach them to read print, but they don't necessarily harm the process either.
Children struggling with dyslexia need both: space to enjoy leisure, creativity, and their interests, as well as structured reading instruction and hands-on practice. Both are essential, and neither replaces the other.
P.S. Have you screened your child for dyslexia? Take our free dyslexia test to check for potential signs.
One Child, Two Readers: Understanding Dyslexia and Comprehension
Reading researchers and academic experts have long described reading as a combination of two separate abilities working together.
The first is decoding, which is the act of turning the visual shapes of text into words. The second is language comprehension, which means understanding what those words actually mean once you've decoded them.
This model of reading, called the Simple View of Reading, explains why your child's situation isn't a contradiction, and why audiobooks can fit in without causing extra difficulty. Dyslexia is understood to primarily affect the first ability: decoding.
This is where audiobooks fit in.
When a child with dyslexia accesses information through reading print, everything they understand has to first squeeze through the decoding process. So, a book they may otherwise easily follow by listening is locked behind words that remain as jumbled text.
An audiobook presents the words already decoded, bypassing the need to work through the printed text. With this bottleneck removed, your child's second ability – language comprehension – is free to work at its actual level.
This is why your child may be able to discuss and completely understand a complex text they've heard aloud, yet stumble over a simple passage from that same work when reading it on the printed page.
(If you're wondering whether your child's reading difficulties might be related to dyslexia, understanding the signs of dyslexia in kids can help you recognize what to look for.)
Benefits of Audiobooks for Dyslexic Children
Audiobooks can offer several benefits for children with dyslexia, from supporting comprehension and vocabulary to making reading a more enjoyable and independent experience.
Access to Books That Match Your Child's Age and Interests
The first prominent benefit of audiobooks for dyslexic children is that they can help bridge the gap to books that match a child's age and mind, while skirting the hurdle of decoding.
A ten-year-old with dyslexia may otherwise only be able to decode books written at a six-year-old level, while being perfectly able to understand – and badly wanting to engage with – the books their friends and classmates are reading.
Audiobooks close the gap between what your child can decode and what they can follow. They allow for a space where comprehension can operate unhindered.
Improved Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary
More than that, audiobooks can help further develop your child's comprehension ability.
A 2018 analysis led by Sarah Wood combined the results of around twenty studies of text-to-speech and read-aloud tools and found that they improved comprehension for students with reading disabilities. The improvement was modest, not dramatic, but the overall direction was positive: when the text was read to them, these children tended to understand more of it.
Vocabulary is another complementary gain. Children have been shown to pick up new words simply from hearing stories. In a New Zealand study, Warwick Elley found that seven- and eight-year-olds learned a meaningful share of the unfamiliar words in a story just from hearing them read aloud.
Less Mental Effort Spent on Decoding
Listening also lightens the mental load. Researchers have understood since the 1970s that attention is limited, and reading taxes it heavily by relying on it twice: once to work out the words and again to make sense of them.
A child who has to labor over every word has little of an attention stockpile left over for comprehension. By the time they finally reach the end of a sentence, they may have already lost the beginning.
Take the decoding away, and your child can instead spend more of their available attention on the story, the characters, and the ideas, allowing them to understand and connect with the language on a deeper and more consistent level.
Exposure to Fluent, Expressive Reading
A good narrator can also help show what fluent, expressive reading sounds like, leading by example to demonstrate where to pause, which words to stress, how a question differs from a statement, or how a character's fear or joy changes the intonation of their voice.
Children who struggle with decoding rarely get to produce that kind of reading themselves, yet research links expressive reading closely with understanding. There is also some evidence that listening can feed back into a child's own reading.
In a study by Kelli Esteves and Elizabeth Whitten, students with reading disabilities who followed along with audiobooks over several weeks improved their reading fluency more than classmates who spent the same time reading silently.
This detail matters: those children were looking at the print while they listened. Reading along is a different activity from listening alone, and it is the one the fluency evidence supports.
The Enjoyment and Independence of Reading
Finally, and arguably most importantly, there is the enjoyment and independence of reading.
A story does not cease holding significance as a story because it arrives in a child's mind through the ears instead of the eyes. Humans have been passing myths and legends down by word of mouth long before inventing written language. Don't let our modern literary culture fool you otherwise.
When your child listens to a novel, they are still encountering new worlds, puzzling over the ins and outs of characters, wondering what will happen next, and carrying the ideas of the text around with them all the while.
This is truly what reading matters for, and none of that necessarily depends on a physical page. A child's curiosity and imagination are powerful, transformative tools. And they shouldn't be stunted to wait around until their ability to decode written words catches up.
An audiobook lets your child follow their interests wherever they lead. And in the case of a child with dyslexia, it allows them to do so on their own, without an adult beside them.
Academic progression has its place, and no doubt, the structured work of learning to read print should go on. But so too should the simple pleasure of being lost in a book. A child who has that pleasure has a reason to keep working at the harder parts. There's no reason your child should be deprived of this true essence of reading simply because their ability to decode dictates otherwise!
What Audiobooks Can't Teach Your Child
Though, as we've discussed above, audiobooks present a great many possible benefits for children struggling with dyslexia, they also have their limitations. It's important to take the good with the bad, so to speak, to get a complete answer to our earlier questions.
The main point is this: listening does not teach decoding.
Decades of research show that children learn to read words through explicit, step-by-step instruction in how written letters map to sounds. Phonics instruction is one of the most tried-and-tested approaches for helping children with reading disabilities develop this essential skill, and audiobooks simply can't address this dimension of the process on their own.
But what about the question, "Will my child become dependent on audiobooks?" The answer is to make listening a part of the plan, rather than the entirety of it. A balanced approach could consist of a mix of short sessions of structured, phonics-based instruction alongside independent listening sessions with audiobooks your child has chosen.
That way, your child can continue doing the critical work of building decoding skills while still enjoying the content, subjects, and types of material they want to explore in their free time. A dyslexia app for kids can provide additional reading practice alongside audiobook listening.
Audiobooks for dyslexic children aren't a replacement for learning to read print. Rather, they can complement structured reading practice, allowing your child to enjoy stories while continuing to develop their reading skills.
How to Use Audiobooks to Support Your Child
Audiobooks can be a valuable addition to your child's reading routine, especially when they're used alongside structured reading practice.
Here are a few steps you can take to effectively integrate audiobooks as a tool for both enjoyment and reading development:
- Choose for the ear, not the eye: Pick books that match what your child can understand and wants to hear about, rather than what they may be able to read at their current decoding level.
- Let them choose: A book they picked is a book they'll be more inclined to finish. Give your child the freedom to explore stories and subjects that genuinely interest them.
- Pair audio with print some of the time: Following the text while listening is where the reading fluency evidence lies. It doesn't have to be constant – perhaps not with content they're listening to in their free time, if they don't want to – but with school texts or other extracurricular material, it can provide an opportunity for tangible reading progress.
- Stop and talk: Listen along with your child. Explain an unfamiliar word, or ask what they think will happen next. It's an effective way to check their comprehension while making the experience a bonding activity.
- Welcome re-listening: Hearing a favorite story over again can help new words stick.
The bottom line is that letting your child listen to audiobooks instead of making them physically read every story is not giving up on reading, nor does it mean slowing the work of overcoming dyslexia's challenges. It means giving your child space to truly enjoy what they want to enjoy.
Help Your Child Build Reading Skills With Readability Tutor
This week, let your child pick an audiobook and listen to a chapter together. Reading doesn't have to be a fight. It's meant to be a joy as much as it is a way of learning and overcoming challenges.
Leisure and fun don't have to interfere with structured reading practice. On the contrary, the two can work perfectly alongside each other. Audiobooks for dyslexic children provide the freedom to enjoy stories and follow their curiosity, while dedicated reading practice helps them develop the skills needed to tackle printed text.
And if you want support with that side of things, you've come to the right place. Readability Tutor offers the kind of skills-based reading practice that audiobooks alone can't provide. Its AI reading tutor listens as your child reads aloud, offers real-time pronunciation support, and asks comprehension questions to help strengthen their understanding.
Give your child the gift of Readability Tutor, so that as their decoding skills develop, they'll have the vocabulary, knowledge, and love of stories to make the printed page worth the effort:
Frequently Asked Questions About Audiobooks for Dyslexic Children
Are audiobooks good for children with dyslexia?
Yes! Audiobooks can help children with dyslexia access age-appropriate stories and information without being held back by decoding difficulties. They can support language comprehension, vocabulary development, and a love of stories while your child continues building their reading skills.
Is listening to audiobooks considered reading?
Listening to an audiobook isn't the same as reading printed text, since it doesn't require decoding written words. However, your child is still engaging with language, following stories, understanding characters, and developing comprehension skills. Both experiences have value.
Do audiobooks help children with dyslexia improve reading fluency?
Audiobooks can model fluent, expressive reading, including pronunciation, pacing, and intonation. Some research also suggests that children with reading disabilities may improve their fluency when they follow along with printed text while listening. However, listening alone isn't a substitute for reading practice.
¿Pueden los audiolibros sustituir la práctica de lectura en niños con dislexia?
No. Aunque los audiolibros ofrecen varios beneficios, no enseñan directamente las habilidades de decodificación y fonética que los niños necesitan para leer palabras impresas. El mejor enfoque es combinar la escucha placentera de audiolibros con una instrucción de lectura estructurada y práctica regular. También puede incorporar juegos de dislexia para niños para hacer que la práctica de lectura sea más atractiva.
Sobre el autor: Michael Kirst es escritor, periodista y estudiante de inglés, actualmente cursando sus estudios en el Trinity College de Dublín.
