Why Audiobooks Are Essential for Students with Dyslexia
By Evelyn Haselmann • The 20 Percent Club
If your child has dyslexia, you have probably watched them struggle through a reading assignment with a sinking feeling in your stomach. You have seen the frustration. The avoidance. The quiet belief they are forming about themselves: that they are not a reader.
I want to offer you something today that changes that story completely.
It is called ear reading, and it is one of the most powerful tools available to a dyslexic learner.
What Is Ear Reading?
Reading is not an activity that happens in your eyes. It is an activity that happens in your brain.
When information enters through your eyes, your ears, or your fingertips (as with Braille), it all travels to the same destination: the language centers of your brain, where it is processed for meaning, stored as vocabulary, and connected to everything else you know.
Eye reading, Braille reading, and ear reading are three different roads to the same place.
This is not a theory. Brain imaging research has confirmed it: listening to a book activates the same neural pathways as reading that book with your eyes. The comprehension is real. The vocabulary growth is real. The story is just as real.
For a student with dyslexia, ear reading is not a lesser version of reading. It is reading, delivered through a channel that works.
Why Dyslexic Students Need Ear Reading
Dyslexia is a neurological difference that affects the ability to decode written words. It has nothing to do with intelligence — and everything to do with how a student’s brain processes the sounds within language.
When a dyslexic student struggles to decode words, all of their mental energy goes to sounding out (or decoding the words). Not to understanding. Not to enjoying. Just decoding.
Audiobooks remove that barrier entirely. They let the content in. A child who is ear reading:
- Builds vocabulary at the same rate as grade-level peers
- Develops comprehension and critical thinking from complex texts
- Stays current in content knowledge across subjects
- Experiences the joy of story, the foundation of a lifelong love of reading
At The 20% Club, we use the Orton-Gillingham approach and the Barton Reading and Spelling System to teach students how to decode. That work is crucial. But while a student is learning to decode, they cannot afford to fall behind in everything else. Ear reading bridges that gap.
The Best Audiobook Platforms for Students with Dyslexia
Here are the tools I recommend to every family, starting with the most specialized.
1. Learning Ally — Best for Dyslexic Students
| Cost: ~35/year • Requires disability documentation • Dyslexia qualifies |
Learning Ally is the gold standard for students with print disabilities. Originally called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, this nonprofit has been serving students for decades. Their library includes more than 80,000 human-narrated titles, real voices, not robots, covering K–12 textbooks, classic literature, and popular books.
What makes Learning Ally uniquely powerful is synchronized text highlighting: as the narrator reads, the words highlight in real time. This connects the sound of language to its written form — exactly what structured literacy teaches.
Because Learning Ally operates under federal copyright rules, you will need documentation of your child’s print disability. A dyslexia diagnosis qualifies. The process is straightforward.
★ I can provide families with a referral discount for Learning Ally. Contact me through The 20 Percent Club website to get started.
2. Libby — Best Free Option for Current Titles
| Cost: FREE with a public library card |
Libby connects to your public library’s digital collection. With a library card, you can borrow audiobooks, ebooks, and magazines for free. Used by more than 90% of North American public libraries.
Libby’s strengths: large curated selection including new releases, Kindle integration, a dyslexia-friendly font option, adjustable playback speed, automatic returns, and a clean interface. The main limitation: popular titles have waitlists. But there is always something available, and libraries often honor title requests.
Start here. It costs nothing and takes two minutes to set up.
3. Hoopla — Best for Instant Access
| Cost: FREE with a public library card • 8–10 items per month |
Hoopla operates differently from Libby, no waitlists, ever. If a title is in the collection (500,000+ items), you borrow it immediately. This makes Hoopla ideal for when your student wants to start a book right now.
Use Libby and Hoopla together. When Libby has a long wait, check Hoopla. Between the two, your student will never be without a book.
4. Everand — Best Paid Subscription Option
| Cost: ~11.99/month (formerly Scribd) |
Everand is a subscription service offering audiobooks, ebooks, and magazines for a flat monthly fee. A good option for families who want broader access than the library apps provide. Note: as of 2025, Everand has introduced a credit system for some premium titles, so the catalog is not entirely unlimited.
How to Start Today
- Get your library card out (or get one (free)
- Download Libby and Hoopla (both free) on iOS and Android
- Let your child choose something they are genuinely curious about — and let them listen
Then let them listen. In the car. Before bed. During a long drive. Ear reading happens everywhere.
A Note to Parents
I know it can feel like giving your child an audiobook is “not really reading.” We hear this from families all the time.
Hear this clearly: it is reading. The research supports it. The educators who specialize in dyslexia support it. And the children who discover they can finish a book, who come home excited about the story, who ask for the next one in the series, they know it is reading.
Ear reading does not replace the work of learning to decode. At The 20% Club, we do that work every single session. But it runs alongside that work, making sure your child stays connected to the world of ideas and stories while their decoding skills are catching up.
Both matter. Both belong.
Evelyn Haselmann is the founder of The 20% Club, a dyslexia tutoring center specializing in the Orton-Gillingham approach and the Barton Reading and Spelling System. Her team works with students in the Twin Cities, Minnesota and remotely across the world. Learn more at The20PercentClub.com.