Impact of Audiobooks on Young Dyslexic Readers Cal Forde Audiobooks have long been used as devices and supplements to help dyslexic readers learn to read. Audiobooks help dyslexic readers bridge the gap between them and their peers and improve reading fluency. Understanding what audiobooks do in terms of how brains process them as stimuli is important. Processing of audiobooks as reading stimuli is called ear-reading. Ear-reading is a process of reading through which words in audiobooks or other text-to-speech software are processed by hearing through the ears and then integrated by the brain, rather than arriving as stimuli through the eyes. Studies have found that audiobooks help boost students' confidence and speed of reading, as it is easier for the brain to recognize words when there is an additional auditory component. For many young dyslexic readers, their vocabulary is far more advanced and sophisticated than the number and types of words they can read. Audiobooks help bridge that gap and are able to act as an auditory supplement when teaching dyslexic children to read. Carmen Goslan
13 | Reading and the Brain | Volume 4 | Spring 2022
