Are Audiobooks Good for Dyslexia? What the Research Says

Yes, as a companion to reading, not a replacement for learning to read. Dyslexia makes decoding words slow and effortful, but it does not limit how well someone understands a story or an idea. Audiobooks let a dyslexic reader take in books at the level of their thinking instead of their decoding. Following the words on the page or screen while listening is what dyslexia experts at Yale and the British Dyslexia Association recommend.

The research backs a modest benefit. A 2018 review of 22 studies found that having text read aloud improved reading comprehension for students with reading disabilities. Small trials of audiobooks have also found gains in motivation, well-being and reading fluency. What audiobooks do not do on their own is fix decoding, so they work best alongside structured reading instruction.

Why audiobooks help dyslexic readers

The International Dyslexia Association's definition, updated in October 2025, describes dyslexia as "difficulties in word reading and/or spelling that involve accuracy, speed, or both." It adds that "secondary consequences include reading comprehension problems and reduced reading and writing experience."

That second part is where audiobooks earn their place. A child or adult who reads slowly reads less, and reading less means meeting fewer words, ideas and stories. Listening breaks that loop. The IDA's own guidance says plainly that "students can benefit from listening to audiobooks."

It works because the hard part of dyslexia is usually turning print into words, not understanding language. In the classic model of reading by Gough and Tunmer, reading comprehension depends on two things: decoding and language comprehension. Dyslexia mainly affects the first. Some people with dyslexia also have wider language difficulties, so not everyone understands spoken text easily, but for many, listening comprehension is noticeably stronger than reading comprehension.

How common is it? The IDA says "perhaps as many as 15–20% of the population as a whole" have some symptoms of dyslexia. A 2022 meta-analysis put diagnosed dyslexia among primary school children at about 7%.

What the research says

• Read-aloud tools improve comprehension, modestly. Wood and colleagues pooled 22 studies of students with reading disabilities, from grade 3 to adults, in a 2018 meta-analysis. Text-to-speech and read-aloud tools improved reading comprehension with an average effect size of d = 0.35. That is a small-to-moderate effect, and it shrank to 0.24 after correcting for publication bias.
• Audiobooks may lift confidence and accuracy. In a 2010 Italian study by Milani, Lorusso and Molteni, 40 adolescents with dyslexia either used audiobooks or carried on with ordinary books for five months. The audiobook group improved in reading accuracy, showed less unease and fewer emotional and behavioural problems, and did better at school. It is a small study, so treat it as promising rather than settled.
• Reading along can build fluency. In a 2011 study by Esteves and Whitten, 20 students with reading difficulties spent eight weeks of silent reading time following printed books while listening to the audiobook. Their reading speed rose from 84 to 101 words correct per minute, against 75 to 79 in the comparison group.
• Audio does not replace reading instruction. In the largest trial here, 149 Swedish students with severe reading difficulties trained with text-to-speech and speech-to-text apps. Their reading gains did not differ from students who had their usual teaching, though motivation rose.
• Audio is not always faster. A 2022 study of secondary students with dyslexia found that adding audio to a text made reading take longer and did not change comprehension. So audio is not automatically better for every reading task.

So the honest summary is: audiobooks give dyslexic readers access to books, help them keep up with what peers are reading, and seem to help motivation. They are not a treatment for dyslexia itself.

Does reading along with audiobooks help dyslexic readers?

It is what experts advise. The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity tells teachers to "recommend that students read along with the audiobook version or to follow the words alongside the reader." The British Dyslexia Association notes that "some audio book apps will highlight the text on screen as it is being read, which can help your child identify words."

Reading along keeps the printed words in front of the reader, so they still see the spelling of each word they hear. Most audiobooks do not come with text, which is the gap apps like HushBook fill by making word-by-word text from the recording itself. That is the idea behind the fluency gains in the Esteves and Whitten study. Listening alone gives access to the story. Reading along adds practice with print.

Is listening to audiobooks cheating?

No. Listening is a different way into the same book, and for understanding a story the two come out about the same. We go through the evidence in does listening to an audiobook count as reading. For a dyslexic reader, the alternative to an audiobook is often not reading the book at all.

Audiobooks for kids with dyslexia

For children who are still learning to read, audiobooks belong next to reading lessons, not in place of them. Understood.org puts it simply: using assistive technology "doesn't keep people from learning to read," but these "tools alone will probably not improve reading skills."

A sensible split:

• Reading lessons and practice at the child's decoding level, ideally with a structured, phonics-based approach.
• Audiobooks for the books they want or need to read but cannot yet decode: class novels, series their friends are reading, non-fiction they are curious about.
• Reading along with the text visible when possible, so listening time also becomes print time.

Audiobooks for adults with dyslexia

Adults have different goals: work documents, books for pleasure, study. Audiobooks make long books manageable. Reading along helps when you need to keep the text, quote it, or check a name you did not catch. And adjusting the speed lets you slow down for dense material and speed up for light reading.

Do dyslexia fonts help?

Not measurably. In a 2017 study by Wery and Diliberto, 12 students with dyslexia read in OpenDyslexic, Arial and Times New Roman, with "no improvement in reading rate or accuracy" from OpenDyslexic, and no student preferred it. A 2018 study by Kuster and colleagues tested the Dyslexie font with 170 children with dyslexia and found it did not make reading faster or more accurate either. Most preferred Arial.

Spacing is more promising. A 2012 study in PNAS by Zorzi and colleagues found extra-large letter spacing doubled reading accuracy for 74 children with dyslexia and made them slightly faster. Later studies found smaller effects that were not specific to dyslexia, so wider spacing may help some readers more than others.

The practical advice: use whatever font feels comfortable, and try wider letter and line spacing.

How HushBook helps

Most audiobooks come without text. HushBook transcribes an audiobook on your phone and highlights each word as the narrator says it, so you can read along with any audiobook file you own or with free LibriVox classics built into the app.

It has a Dyslexia and ADHD reading profile that sets up the text for easier reading, with font, spacing and size controls you can change while the narrator keeps going. Fonts include OpenDyslexic for readers who like it. As the research above shows, the font is a matter of comfort, while spacing and size are worth experimenting with. You can tap any word to jump the audio back to it, and slow the narration down from 0.5x.

Honest limits. HushBook is a reading aid, not a medical or therapy tool, and it does not replace reading instruction. The text comes from speech recognition, so unusual names can come out wrong. And it cannot import protected files such as Audible downloads. There is more on the reading profiles on our audiobook app for dyslexia page.

Sources

• International Dyslexia Association, "Definition of Dyslexia" (October 2025)
• International Dyslexia Association, "Dyslexia Basics"
• Wood, Moxley, Tighe and Wagner (2018), "Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students With Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis", Journal of Learning Disabilities
• Milani, Lorusso and Molteni (2010), "The effects of audiobooks on the psychosocial adjustment of pre-adolescents and adolescents with dyslexia", Dyslexia
• Esteves and Whitten (2011), "Assisted reading with digital audiobooks for students with reading disabilities", Reading Horizons
• Svensson et al. (2021), Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology
• Knoop-van Campen, ter Doest, Verhoeven and Segers (2022), Annals of Dyslexia
• Gough and Tunmer (1986), "Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability", Remedial and Special Education
• Adlof and Hogan (2018), Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
• Yang et al. (2022), prevalence of developmental dyslexia in primary school children, Brain Sciences
• Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, "Kids Can't Wait: Strategies to Support Struggling Readers"
• British Dyslexia Association, "Reading"
• Understood.org, "Assistive technology for reading"
• Wery and Diliberto (2017), "The effect of a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy", Annals of Dyslexia
• Kuster et al. (2018), "Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia", Annals of Dyslexia
• Zorzi et al. (2012), "Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia", PNAS
• Hakvoort et al. (2017), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology