Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Reading vs. audiobooks? Need expert opinion

So DS11, dysgraphic with ALL the symptoms of stealth dyslexia, has entered 6th grade, a grade with very taxing amounts of reading. He has always been an extremely slow and reluctant reader and will only read comics for enjoyment.

I finally bought him "Huck Finn" for school as an audiobook to try for a car trip. Three hours later I had to pry the audiobook out of his hands at bedtime. He loved it! He covered 17 chapters in a day, an unprecedented feat.

So, my question is: could all of his literature assignments be replaced by audiobooks? Does the act of reading rather than listening contain part of the learning such that audiobooks should not be substituted? When I asked the 6th grade teachers if he could use audiobooks they told me he should also follow along in a book to strengthen his reading ability. Will this type of practice be worth the time and effort involved and actually improve his reading that substantially?

I should mention that he scored 160 on the oral recall portion of the WJ III. He remembers everything that goes into his ears. When he reads aloud he word substitutes at least 10% of the words and is so very slow. I suspect he actually gets better comprehension from audio because he is hearing the actual words not the hodge podge of correct and incorrect that he sees when reading.

Anyway, should he follow along even if it slows him down and steals the joy? Can I just let him listen instead of read without depriving him of important learning? Or will it be a frustrating diminishing return like handwriting practice with no serious improvement?

I am not an expert but I think you should get him an iPad. They have built in text to speech so anything on the screen can be read to him once it is highlighted. This would keep you from having to buy a hard copy and an audiobook. He could also increase the speed so his time spent listening is more similar to someone who is reading silently.

Most likely Oct/Nov time frame, Apple is expected to release their mini iPad. I'm waiting for this device to get for my dysgraphic/dyslexic kiddo. It is rumored to have Siri, so he'll be able to set audio calendar reminders as well as download audio and kindle books from our library.

And, yes, following along with print is helpful, but it also makes it less enjoyable and more like work - so we did a mix. Novels were for sheer pleasure, anything for school needed to use both audio and text if possible.

We are in the process of figuring all this out too. We started audio books for DD the summer before kindergarten. She "read" so many that she was asked to represent her school receiving an award from the governor for the Summer Reading Challenge. She listens to middle school level books and truly can't get enough of them. (Age 7 - just started 2nd grade.) When we recently redid our neuropsych eval I asked about it. He explained that the complex plots, rich language and high level vocabulary must "feel really good". He has told the school that they need to work in 2 "enrichment/anxiety" breaks per day so she can go listen to her high level books and get a break from the rest of the day that is SO difficult for her.

I am not an expert - and we are in the process of trying to figure it all out - but DD will absolutely be doing her "comprehension" work this way. If we asked her to follow along with the text she would just shut down. I assume she would give up these audio books she loves rather than have them add to her anxiety.

Please continue to post about this. I am eager to hear how other kids have worked with these. Thanks.

I would not make your son follow the audio books with reading the physical book. It sounds like the reading for enjoyment arrived with the audio books which should be encouraged. This can lead to reading physical books with the right text format later. My son started reading lots of graphic novels with larger text fonts, and now reads regular books voraciously. He has jerky eye tracking as well as CAPD and mild dyslexia.

I still get the audio book or the movie for English or other projects as a supplement to the reading. Getting the information multiple ways seems to help my son process and synthesize it well. He uses Youtube and other online sources for research for projects too, which is still ok in high school.

My HG+ dd8 struggled to learn to read due to a weakness in associative memory (linking visual cues into long-term memory). This is a different type of challenge than stealth dyslexia, but fwiw it was recommended to us that she use audiobooks for higher-level reading (reading material that matched and challenged her cognitively), but that it was also important for her to continue to develop her visual reading skills by reading without audio and reading with audio and following along with her finger - however the time she spent reading specifically to develop visual skills was supposed to be limited each day (so she doesn't get stressed out over it) and was supposed to be with *easier* level books, so that she's actually developing her skills. If she attempted to follow along on the level of books she's capable of understanding she'd not be able to, would get frustrated and give up.

With the level of reading kids get once they hit middle school, I'd probably switch to audiobooks as much as possible for language arts assignments (the type of assignment where you're analyzing and discussing content) and put together a program on the side that addresses specific reading skills that your ds needs to develop further.

I also think adding in audiobooks to take some of the stress off of reading large amounts of material for a slow reader would be really important if you're dealing with dysgraphia also, because dysgraphia has the potential to really impact the time it takes to do homework, at least that's been our dysgraphic ds' experience. I'd guesstimate he's spending at least 2-3 times the amount of time on homework his classmates do simply due to physical challenges and he's using a TON of AT.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I love the way he put this. I'm not an expert, but 'Dyslexia Advantage' is written by 2 experts. They love Audio to help develop reading and also to develop the mind in ways that reading is known for. Makes sense to me!
Love and more love -
Grinity

Reading versus listening accesses different parts of the brain, so it would make sense that one type of "reading" would be easier or harder for some kids.
However, the bigger question is if you want to solely replace with audiobooks. Long-term, you would want your child to be able to read and comprehend quickly since it will greatly limit their job choices in the work world. Maybe try both- have them read and listen to the audiobook.

No question that good reading skills pay off in adulthood. The crux of the issue for me is how much he can really improve? My understanding is that DS' struggles with reading and writing are part of his brain wiring. I have never let him use audiobooks yet and his reading improvement has been only incremental. DH, who also struggles with reading, has never used audiobooks and is the slowest, most plodding reader I have ever known. He also hates it.

So if I make him follow along will the quantum of improvement really be worth the time and struggle involved? Handwriting work with DS does not produce enough noticeable improvement to justify the time (and the angst) involved. If it really produces marked results I will heave a sigh and be the bad guy again.

Coming at this from the perspective of a much older child...


the answer to "is the tiny incremental improvement worth it?"

is a resounding YES in my estimation. This is, in fact, the entire point of all of the repetition in regular curriculum. Most kids need a lot of practice/repetition and not all of them make impressive gains all of a sudden-- ever.

I think that parents of gifted children have some trouble wrapping our understanding around the need for a LOT-- no, really a LOT-- of practice at some skill when it doesn't really seem like the progress is "worth it" or maybe even happening at all. If it is causing change, it must be happening on something like a geological time-scale.


It's even harder when that area is in contrast to the virtually instantaneous, effortless leaps in cognitive ability that we've come to anticipate with such children.

But if it's a skill that is truly necessary to your child as an adult (or young adult), and I'd argue that reading text very certainly IS such a skill; then you really can't "give up" unless there is a documented, organic reason why progress is truly impossible. If you have an expert opinion there that says "your child cannot learn to read because ____" then, okay-- adding more time and angst there is pointless.

But otherwise, I'd probably opt for a mix of things here.

Agree that your child can use audiobooks for pleasure in an UNLIMITED fashion (that is, as you'd allow any other child to read for pleasure). Also agree that the price for that freedom is that he must spend some percentage of time using the audio along with the written text for schoolwork.

That's me. While DD doesn't have any particular diagnosed disability w/r/t writing, it has been a battle of epic proportions for almost a decade. She hates to write, and loathes practicing the skill; naturally, she doesn't do it very well in light of those things. But we are finally (after years and years of firm but compassionate insistence) seeing some results for our intense efforts. It's been slow and unsatisfying, to say the least.

I guess what I'm saying is that you are unlikely to get "marked results" except by comparing progress year-by-year, not even 'month-by-month.'

Do not give up!!