Accommodating Reading Comprehension with Listening: Good Idea?

  • listening comprehension reading comprehension accommodations
  • 01 March, 2025
  • 62 Comments

 

Parent question: My son is 11 years old, and he suffers from dyslexia. I’ve been told you oppose accommodations for dyslexic children. That is irresponsible. I don’t think you understand how these children suffer.

RELATED: Eight Ways to Help Kids Read Complex Text

Shanahan responds:

I do oppose some – though not all — accommodations for students with dyslexia.

The purpose of accommodations is to enable people with disabilities to access and participate in activities, jobs, and learning. An accommodation is an alteration to an environment that increases individual access.

Examples of accommodations that I fully support are modifications to curbs to allow those who depend upon wheelchairs to get where they want to go. Or the provision of large print texts to those with vision problems that can be overcome or minimized by such text. Basically, if access or learning can be enhanced through some alteration of the environment I’m all for it.

But as your letter suggests, there are “accommodations” that I do consider problematic. I often hear from teachers (and sometimes parents) who hope I will endorse replacing reading with listening for kids who struggle with decoding.

I get their thinking: Why should we hurt kids’ feelings by asking them to try to read a science or social studies text when we know they find reading itself to be hard?

Obviously, our purpose is not to make these kids feel bad. But it is – or at least should be – to teach students to read. Accommodations that prevent or limit learning are a bad idea.

There is no question that providing audio versions of text will make those texts more accessible to many students with reading disabilities. 

What such an accommodation cannot do is help these students read any better.  Comprehending while reading is a different game than comprehending while listening. They both have value, but they are not the same thing. One should not be allowed to take the place of the other.

Accommodations are protections. They protect kids from being excluded or penalized due to disabilities. As such, accommodations have a role to play in schools and in society generally.

But reducing reading instruction is not an accommodation. Just the opposite. It is an act of exclusion. Replacing reading with listening may seem protective, but it is protecting kids against learning. 

These days I hear from teachers who love the idea of replacing reading instruction or reading assignments with products like Audible. They usually aren’t focused on kids with disabilities, just garden variety struggling and reluctant readers.

These teachers often seem to assume that reading and listening are interchangeable, that gains in one generalize to the other.

These beliefs are not supported by research, however.

First, there are a slew of studies that find big differences between reading and listening. These studies suggest that these abilities have only about 40% shared variance (e.g., Silinkas, et al., 2024; Wolf, et al, 2019). That’s not nothing, but it suggests the unlikelihood that the teaching of one will automatically transfer to the other.

(I’m not satisfied with this 40% figure. To my way of thinking, the major outcome of such studies has been an increased appreciation of the complexity inherent in trying to measure oral and written comprehension in analogous ways. It has turned out to be a very complicated problem).

Even if we accept that figure, it is important to remember that is a correlational estimate (a squared correlation in fact). The way to think about that 40% is: “IF there is a causal relationship between these variables, then 40% is an estimate of how much effect one of these may have on the other.” In other words, knowing that two variables are related does not prove that teaching one will have an impact on the other.

For that, we turn to experimental studies – studies in which listening comprehension is taught, with the impact being measured through reading comprehension. It turns out that there are few such studies and even fewer that report any cross over benefits (e.g., van den Bos, et al., 1998; van Zeijts, et al., 2023).

Teaching listening comprehension should have a place in our schools. Replacing reading instruction and practice with listening comprehension is a bad idea, however.

I appreciate that many folks who seek reading accommodations for their kids are thinking more about testing situations than instructional ones.

Is it okay to replace reading with listening when we are evaluating reading comprehension, such as on state tests?

Given the important differences between reading and listening noted above, that elementary students usually have better listening than reading comprehension (that eventually shifts for most of us), and that those tests are meant to identify how well our kids can read with comprehension, I would argue against that testing modification.

However, replacing reading with listening is not the only possible accommodation in such testing situations.

Research has found that allowing – or encouraging – these students to read test texts aloud rather than silently improves their performance significantly (Giuisto & Ehri, 2019).

One thing that I like about that approach is that it is an accommodation that is under the control of the student rather than the adults. That means that it does more than take away an impediment to performance. It empowers students to minimize or solve the problem.

Another thing I like about it that it is something that any reader could do in any real reading situation – reading a textbook in a dorm room or doing a work task in one’s cubicle.

Let’s not replace reading comprehension instruction with listening comprehension, and let’s use reading centered accommodations when we are testing reading comprehension.


READ MORE: Shanahan on Literacy Blogs

References

Giusto, M., & Ehri, L. C. (2019). Effectiveness of a partial read-aloud test accommodation to assess reading comprehension in students with a reading disability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 52(3), 259-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219418789377

Silinskas, G., Gedutiene, R., Torppa, M., & Raiziene, S. (2024). Simple view of reading across the transition from kindergarten to grade 1 in a transparent orthography. Scientific Studies of Reading, 28(1), 60-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2023.2220848

Wolf, M. C., Muijselaar, M. M. L., Boonstra, A. M., & de Bree, E. H. (2019). The relationship between reading and listening comprehension: Shared and modality-specific components. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 32(7), 1747-1767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9924-8

van den Bos, Kees P., Brand-Gruwel, S., & Aarnoutse, C. A. J. (1998). Text comprehension strategy instruction with poor readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10(6), 471-498. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007976225000

van Zeijts, Brechtje E. J., Ganushchak, L. Y., de Koning, B. B., & Tabbers, H. K. (2023). Stimulating inference-making in second grade children when reading and listening to narrative texts. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-023-10463-x

 

LISTEN TO MORE: Shanahan On Literacy Podcast

Comments

See what others have to say about this topic.

Michael Shanahan Mar 26, 2025 08:36 PM

I appreciate the argument that audiobooks can’t teach reading comprehension—completely agree there. But I think the way this debate is framed often sets up a false dichotomy: either we teach reading or we accommodate. In reality, we can—and often should—do both.

It all depends on purpose. If the purpose of reading instruction is to improve decoding and comprehension, then yes—students need to engage with text directly. But if the purpose is access to content knowledge, class discussion, or demonstrating understanding in other subjects, then listening might be the only viable option for now.

Let’s return to the analogy of the wheelchair ramp. A ramp doesn’t teach someone to walk. But it lets them access what’s at the top—whether that’s school, work, or community life. If the purpose is to reach the destination, the ramp is essential. If the purpose is to teach walking, then physiotherapy is required. These aren’t mutually exclusive. You don’t deny someone a ramp while they’re doing rehab. You offer both. And maybe, one day, the ramp isn’t needed. Maybe crutches are the interim step.

This is particularly relevant for students who, despite years of structured, high-quality reading intervention, still cannot decode fluently enough to access the curriculum. At what point do we say: “Let’s keep working on reading—but also make sure this student can learn, participate, and succeed now”? That’s not giving up. That’s equity.

And finally, I was uneasy with the suggestion that accommodations are just about “hurt feelings.” That trivialises the lived experience of students who are being shut out of content, assessments, and opportunities because we’re focused on a single narrow goal. The consequences aren’t just emotional—they’re academic and social. No one thrives if they’re locked out while working hard and waiting and waiting to be taught to read.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 13, 2025 05:08 PM

Jane-
You are correct that there is shared variance between reading and listening comprehension. What we lack are studies showing that teaching listening improves reading comprehension. And, then there is those big differences in text and utterance (written and oral language) -- different, but overlapping, vocabularies, syntax, cohesion, discourse structure -- all of which alter the role that memory plays. So far, no one has found that teaching listening improves reading. You can assume that it must but that puts a lot of kids' reading ability (and its subsequent impact on social participation) at risk. I'd teach reading comprehension at least until we know how to teach listening comprehension in a way that enables reading comprehension.
tim

Wanda Steuri Mar 01, 2025 01:50 PM

I respectfully disagree. I also encourage dyslexic children to read and comprehend as much as possible. Where I disagree is when considering the fact that dyslexic children typically are unable to keep up with their peers in the amount of content reading due to the slower rate. If this accommodation is not used, the students are at a risk of learning less of this content. This is a life-altering disadvantage. Stating that this accommodation should not be used as an accommodation for students with dyslexia has the potential of causing them irreparable harm.

Patty Duncan Mar 01, 2025 02:25 PM

I am just beginning to truly study the dyslexic population and reading accommodations. I know others may disagree with your statements and I understand their concern; however it my observation that the disagreement may be an emotional response rather than a reality response. In contemplating your statements, I agree in many ways with what you are saying, but again still understanding the arguments. My mission is to address the issue. My current position as Education Director at Vooks gives me an opportunity to perhaps make accommodations available to dyslexic readers that address all concerns.

As an educator, I have long followed your work and it is greatly influenced my teaching - thank you!??. I am wondering if you might take a look at Vooks at https://www.vooks.com/ and let me know what you think. I am just entering into research partnering with Eric Theissen at Carnegie Mellon to use Vooks in a school with dyslexic students to evaluate the efficacy of Vooks for that population. I would be honored to know your opinion.

Thanks for all you do for the education of our children.

Patty Duncan

Susan Mar 01, 2025 02:36 PM

What are your thoughts about having a read-aloud accommodation for non-reading tests, like math/science?

Timothy Shanahan Mar 01, 2025 02:39 PM

Susan--
If the purpose of the test is to figure out how well the student can do math or how much he/she knows about science, then reading the material aloud makes sense (since the decoding problem could obscure what you are trying to determine). But if the purpose is to see how well the student can read or to teach reading, then reading the text aloud to the student is a barrier rather than a support.
tim

Luz Barrera Mar 01, 2025 02:52 PM

I found this response revealing and eye opening. I believe that it is appropriate for a student with Dyslexia to have access to audio books if they have difficulty reading grade level content, I think you would agree. I am wondering when teaching reading comprehension with students with dyslexia or reading difficulties, how would you recommend to teach in a way that has rigor, while at the same time meeting the needs of the students reading deficits?

Stacey Mar 01, 2025 02:59 PM

I live in New York and have wondered why having tests read that are measuring reading comprehension is such a common testing accommodation (on classroom tests and state assessments)?

William Keeney Mar 01, 2025 03:09 PM

I have had success with adolescents who are trained to use “sight and sound” simultaneously to train their word recognition and correct misreadings. With variable speed to increase their rate, many improve both their oral wcpm and oral fluency, along with their illtheir unaided silent reading comprehension. Is there any research out there on this approach?

Teresa Franks Mar 01, 2025 03:17 PM

I see your point - we do not want to replace reading with listening; however, for dyslexic students who have word level reading difficulties, the content, vocabulary, and syntax development that occurs from reading complex text cannot wait WHILE we remediate. Many dyslexic students are not identified in school systems until 4th grade, at which point the complexity of the texts is far beyond their word reading abilities.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 01, 2025 03:34 PM

Luz-
No, I don't agree. If you are trying to teach reading comprehension, then students need to read the text. Doing anything else is to avoid teaching (and to allow the student's problem to metastasize.

tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 01, 2025 03:36 PM

William--

There is research on reading while listening. However, for the most part that focuses on students doing oral reading while being read to, and its impact on comprehension is usually not the purpose.

tim

Lori Mar 01, 2025 04:08 PM

I understand what you are saying, and I would like to continue the conversation. I agree that we shouldn't have kids listen to material when it is for reading class. We should be teaching them to read. What I would like to extend is for those middle school and high school students who still are not reading at the level of their peers, and they are required to read science and social studies texts. I taught high school students with dyslexia for many years and I often requested accommodations for my students (who were receiving reading instruction from me) to have their science and social studies books on audio. This gave them the access to grade level material that they might not otherwise be able to access. They need both- reading instruction to be able to read anything and access to the material they aren't able to currently access.

Tamara Martin Spady Mar 01, 2025 05:31 PM

You say it, Tim! You are spot on! We need to teach these kids to read and we can teach these kids to read! Let’s put all of our money on that!

Kelly Mar 01, 2025 05:41 PM

I teach a reading intervention at the high school level. While some of my students appear to be on the dyslexia spectrum, a few have much more obvious challenges. While I agree with the importance of teaching them phonemic awareness and opportunities to improve their fluency, I find myself wondering how well a standardized reading test can capture these students true comprehension levels. Again, no doubt texts need to be accessible to these kiddos; however, I don’t feel the results provide an accurate account of comprehension. So I guess I wonder if accommodations might make more sense as students progress beyond elementary school?

Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses! I really appreciate your insight.

Dawn De Lorenzo Mar 01, 2025 06:23 PM

Dr. Shanahan, this perspective presents a false dichotomy. As a 24-year veteran special education teacher and literacy specialist, I fully agree that listening should never replace reading instruction. However, dismissing it outright disregards the critical role it plays as a scaffold for students who are still learning to decode.

Students not only deserve but are legally entitled to access the curriculum, and for many, listening is their only viable means of engagement while they develop foundational reading skills. No responsible educator advocates for substituting listening for explicit reading instruction, but denying students this support can leave them further behind. Given your influence in the field, I urge you to recognize that accommodations like listening access are not a crutch—they are a bridge.

Jo Anne Gross Mar 01, 2025 06:49 PM

I really like Dawn’s comment.
One of my kids attended the famous Gow School for Dyslexia students in grade 7.
The students wore headphones while they listened to their books daily while remediating their Reading also took place daily.
He learned and got out of Special Ed for high school at home.
We got him a homework tutor 3 x per week for support but it was because of processing speed, his ability to read was intact.

Jennifer L Collins Mar 01, 2025 07:53 PM

Hello! I'm a literacy specialist, relatively new to my current school. We have an issue that seems related to what you speak of here. It is also the number one reason I want to pull my hair out most days. The district requires grade-level common assessments every few weeks. We have a pretty large number of 3rd-6th grade students (SPED identified and not) who simply do not have the foundational skills to even access most of the text nor the questions on these assessments. We are working on that with a new foundational skill program K-2 and hoping to see less of these students in the future. In the meantime, I discovered teachers had been reading the assessment to those students then having them select the answers and basing their grades on listening. I was horrified. After speaking with the staff, the teachers explained that they felt uncomfortable having the kids sit there, disengaged and guessing, failing so many students. They further explained how they believed it was important to still assess their ability to use whatever strategy (infer, compare, etc.) that was the focus of the assessment. I explained that, as, teachers of reading, it's our job to help them do that thinking based on information gained from reading a text; often kids can already infer and compare, etc. but they must know how to do that based on the information they gain from reading the words. The district guidance is to give the test and the resulting score and use the assessment as a teaching tool. I am concerned about the large amount of time, in our already super-short day, kids are not actually reading on these test days. I suggested giving the assessment, letting them try, but once we know they are not engaged, trying to use that time for a small-group phonics or fluency lesson. They said logistically not possible, to test and teach at the same time. I suggested providing a test over the same strategy but more accessible (lower Lexile) so at least the kids are reading something independently at that time. I'm torn between the kids needing to be in grade-level text and text they can make sense of independently. Of course, there are things that need to change systemically, but this is our reality right now. Teachers ask but I'm unsure how to guide with this particular issue. However, I would prefer the teachers not read the assessments to the students at all on testing day. Might there be an alternative?
Perhaps, as you mention in the article, might it be helpful to just give the grade-level assessment but make sure those kids are reading aloud what they can? Thanks.

Rosaruth Palmer Mar 01, 2025 08:24 PM

I absolutely agree with you! Of course a read aloud accommodation makes sense in math, science, or social studies! Here I am not assessing a child’s reading ability. As a classroom teacher I am seeing this appear as an accommodation more and more! If I’m assessing reading comprehension in my ELA class, then the read aloud accommodation is actually a modification of curriculum. With my experience in the classroom, adding this to IEPs for ELA on prevents reading growth in the long run. I tend to see that this is added around third grade. In my fifth grade classroom, students with that accommodation have not progressed past that. I have seen this year after year. As a parent, I do not ever want a read aloud accommodation added to my child’s plan for reading courses. I would instead opt for rigorous intervention for that child during and in addition to the ELA block or fight to include a push-in model for support in “keeping up” with the material. I would even opt for reduction of material over the read aloud option. There are many other ways to support students AND encourage reading growth. Unfortunately with our current system the read aloud accommodation is an enabler and a scapegoat, not an instructional equalizer.

Lori C Josephson Mar 02, 2025 12:02 AM

Here is a concept no one has mentioned:

Have children listen to an audio version while following along in the text.

Do I think reading comprehension should be assessed via listening? No, thank you.

Do I think children's reading can improve (and please never eliminate reading instruction!) by having student practice reading while listening? I think so.

Devorah Sasson Mar 02, 2025 12:52 AM

In theory everything you say makes sense, but how would this play out practically in a middle school classroom in which the students are expected to keep up with a grade level novel?

Beth Hankoff Mar 02, 2025 12:55 AM

What about older students in Middle School and up? I have allowed listening to content that is not for English, such as History and Science. When you have reading struggles, this content is extra difficult to understand, and the point is the content, not the reading. I also tell parents to have their children read along with audiobooks if they are doing it at home. For reading instruction and tests, I agree with your point that we don't just want to work around it when reading could be achieved.

Cristine Carrier Schmidt Mar 02, 2025 01:04 AM

I appreciated this piece and reading the research cited (unfortunately, two of them were inaccessible behind paywalls). It is particularly concerning when offer an "audiobook" or "read-aloud" accommodation results in less of a feeling of urgency when it comes to remediation. Unfortunately, I have seen this many times.

As an interventionist, I am often working with students who are 3 or more grades behind in reading, and who are not able to access grade level curriculum or age- and interest-level appropriate literature without basic decoding, fluency, and working memory issues severely interfering with comprehension. It's not a matter of well, if we don't give them the accommodations, then they will get more practice, even if it's hard. It's an issue of the material simply being inaccessible to the student at the current moment. In order to facilitate access to the curriculum, including exposure to new vocabulary (something that was cited repeatedly as important to both listening and reading comprehension in these studies), I almost never recommend audiobook or read aloud only, but will often recommend the use of an immersion reading program like Learning Ally _at the same time_ as making sure the student is engaging in a serious remediation effort to help the student close the gap. I noticed that none of the studies you cited considered immersion reading (where the student sees the text highlights as they simultaneously hear the text read aloud). Given that immersion reading involves simultaneous listening comprehension with text exposure, it seems like it may be qualitatively different than audiobooks alone, and thus it may be hard to apply any of the cited research to this situation? I am realizing that I have never actually done a literature review on immersion reading, and should probably do so ASAP, if there is any literature on this. In your opinion, should immersion reading (I believe this is also what Lori Josephson was referring to) be considered as the same as listening comprehension rather than involving any reading skills, or somewhere in between? Would you be less hesitant to recommend immersion reading as an accommodation vs just audiobooks/read aloud?

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 01:56 AM

Christine-
Reading while listening has been found to help young kids improve their fluency. In that case, the kids are reading aloud along with the teacher or tape. I’d suggest that you try following a text while you listen to a text that you can’t read well and I think you’ll see very quickly that it becomes mainly a listening task. This is especially true if the text is more than a page or so. I can’t say that this activity has no value, but it likely should play a small part of instruction.

Tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 01:58 AM

Beth-
I think you are right on the money.

Tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 02:05 AM

Devora-
Think of the implications of what you are saying. Since a youngster is struggling with reading in middle school, we should stop teaching reading at the point. We’ll keep him/her up with a novel, but when that student leaves school he/she will still not be able to read a middle school book. That’s a very different conception of education: if they are going to struggle with something, don’t teach them how.

Tim

Devorah Sasson Mar 02, 2025 02:57 AM

I am sorry if my tone came across otherwise, but I’m sincerely asking. I agree with you, but as a coach I’m asked to translate research and best practice into actionable stuff for teachers. How would you recommend teachers help dyslexic students with the classroom novel when they read much more slowly than everyone else and struggle to keep up?

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 03:13 PM

Devorah-
I have a book on that coming out this summer. However, on this site you can find many articles, powerpoints, and blog entries on these issues. Look for blog entries on complex text (or on the teaching of vocabulary, syntax, cohesion, text structure) and articles on teaching with complex or challenging texts.
good luck.

tim

Brenda Mazza Mar 02, 2025 12:23 PM

Dr. Shanahan,
I agree with your thinking, teachers should not accomodate so much that we "steal" a student's ability to learn. But, I'm also concerned about a student's frustrational level with having to read what is essentially "unreadable" for them. I'd LOVE to know your thoughts on differentiating the text by using apps that can adjust the lexile levels of a text such as Rewordify or Brisk? My thinking is, the student's brain is still doing the reading, but is feeling some success. This way they can still participate in comprehension discussions with their peers. In the meantime, during small group instruction the teacher can focus teaching those missing decoding strategies. Thoughts please?

Lwj Mar 02, 2025 01:45 PM

One thing which never seems to be addresses is time. The older the student and the greater the reading deficit, especially for decoding, the more specialized and specific the instruction has to be. What gives? In my case, the teacher and student are expected to be in class keeping up with ALL instruction if they don’t have an IEP with certain requirements for pull out. ELD students and others frequently need specialized help that is not accounted for in the “keep them all together “ scheme.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 02:46 PM

LWJ--
You are correct that secondary students who are far behind typically receive some kind of Tier 2 supports. Those could be used better to facilitate students' ability to "keep up" (and learn) in at least some of their classes. Unfortunately, those "supports" often have little to do with making those students successful.

tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 02, 2025 02:50 PM

Brenda--
Those kinds of AI revisions have not been studied. Research on human revision aimed at altering readability CAN WORK, but often do not. The issue seems to be whether the revisions are mechanical (shortening sentences, switching out words) or responsive to problems that readers have with texts. Ask a good writer to revise a text to make it clearer for a larger audience and they can do pretty well. Ask them to shorten sentences and/or simplify words and it tends not to have as good a result.
You aren't wrong that this could be made to work, but be skeptical until there is evidence.

tim

J.J. Wildy Mar 03, 2025 02:05 AM

This final comment, Susan and Tim, rounds the dilemma out nicely. If we want students to understand science and social studies through reading, then they will need that practice. So - help them with reading, in a guided-reading setting. Include questions and dialog, re-reading and notes. If testing the student on that knowledge, having them listen makes sense.

Oh, but hang on a sec. How many teachers, past 4th or 5th grade, engage in close reading or guided reading? Sometimes yest, but often there is simply independent reading for homework. Especially in Science classes, how many upper middle schoolers simply go home with a packet? In my experience, most of them. So in this case we hope that the dyslexic child has received enough instruction to give their assignments the time they need to comprehend them. Which means - time and a half, usually... and how much homework does the student have? How much reading, in how many subjects?

The best gift to the dyslexic child at this point (noting that many are also carrying an ADHD brain) is how to MANAGE their studies, so that they can keep up with their class, learn a lot, not be burnt out, avoid frustration and the ensuing depression, and have time to enjoy their lives in this special time of happy adolescent energy.

Sandra Marder Mar 03, 2025 12:25 PM

Estimado, me parecen muy valiosos sus aportes. En relación a lo que plantea respecto de las adecuaciones, si lo que queremos evaluar es la comprensión lectora creo que la mejor alternativa seria adecuar el texto al nivel lector ( reducir la longitud del texto y complejidad de vocabulario, simplificar la gramática, etc). Qué opina?
En mi experiencia de trabajo con pacientes disléxicos esto ha funcionado.
Gracias!
Sandra


Timothy Shanahan Mar 03, 2025 03:37 PM

Sandra--
Making the text easier can make a text accessible to a person who would not be able to read it otherwise. This is essential with certain health, financial, and legal documents. However, it will not teach the person to read -- they will still be dependent on someone making the text sufficiently easy for them to deal with.

tim

Jamie Mar 03, 2025 10:53 PM

Is there not an obvious differentiation between reading instruction and content area instruction? Reading instruction needs to be reading. In science class the goal is for them to access the science content, and if an audio book is the only way to do that, they need an audio book. Now I also agree that difficulty reading or even a simple dyslexia diagnosis does not make that accommodation best for the child -- if/when they can manage, it is best if they try. However we have all seen students who we know cannot/will not read that textbook, and the middle school science teacher is not typically a reading teacher.

Jessica Mar 03, 2025 02:12 PM

I can agree with some aspects of your post, but certainly not all. Students struggling with Dyslexia need individualized support. Of course, reading can not be replaced solely with listening. That would be like riding a bike, because learning to rollerblade was too difficult. Both will get you to your end destination, but biking everywhere will never make you a better rollerblader. As we look at each student as an individual, each student will have different needs. A twelve-year-old that has a second grade reading level needs to be met where they are. They will most likely need explicit instruction to help them encode and decode, beginning with fundamentals closer to a second grade level and building from there. They need to practice reading every day; reading material that is challenging, but they have the skills to decode. This may be reading material that is grade levels below where they actually are. If that student is in seventh grade, they should be allowed to have their core class reading materials available to them in an audio version. That seventh grade reading material would not be where they are yet developmentally as a reader, but they should have the same right to have that material available to them. If you're telling a student who might be in that situation, the only way for them to learn about a said topic is for them to read about it, you are leaving those students at a large disadvantage. It may take them twice, maybe three times as long, to read it. There will be words that are too challenging for them to decode, leading to mistakes in comprehension and what I have seen far too often is that students will just feel discouraged and give up. Our job as educators is to keep kids curious and provide them with the tools to better themselves each day. If we are doing anything which supports keeping the barriers they face in place, we are not doing our best.

Gaynor Mar 04, 2025 09:23 AM

Well , I agree with Timothy . My mother taught hundreds of dyslexic students and is one of few teachers it seems who maintains all dyslexic children can completely overcome their dyslexic problem with an enormous amount of intensive phonics and heaps of spelling . to become normal readers. Also written comprehension exercises every single day. The issue is as I have said before you must give them this intensive phonics early preferably before seven years old. After that age it will be a lot more difficult to overcome. If there is a family predisposition to dyslexia have the child start learning sounds , phonological awareness with rhyming etc and phonemes , when they are three years old. Actually , why not give this to all small children especially low SES( Socio economic status) children. Whereas some children may need very minimal phonic instruction dyslexics need two , three or even ten times or more as much in repetition / drills of phonemes read and spelled .The child must also learn to be compliant and have endurance.

My own son had signs of dyslexia combined with dysgraphia and started learning phonemes when he was three years old along with sight words and reading books , spelling all he learned and when he was a teenager and did the NZ written PAT reading comprehension test at school scored in the 98th percentile for his age. No sign of dyslexia at all.

For goodness sake teach dyslexics early and really really thoroughly and the symptoms will go.This , I will admit , is a complete slog but it works. Determination also which many teachers lack. Parental or other family / friend is essential to help. The only dyslexic students my mother had limited success with were teenagers who had never had any phonic instruction when they were younger. When she taught in low SES schools in the 1930s for seven years for infants who are 5-7 year olds ( about 250 students overall ) she maintains she never saw a dyslexic student just those who read more slowly but still had good comprehension. This was you understand driven originally by Scottish Calvinist ideas of everyone reading the bible for themselves - the Protestant dictate. I believe that fellow who wrote early American readers was also Presbyterian probably with the same motivation. Nothing like religious fervour as a driver !

I would have to question these people who are still trying to remediate dyslexics in even middle school what their initial reading programme was like .

Sarah Powell Mar 04, 2025 02:23 PM

It would be helpful to contextualize this position by age group, the degree the student is impacted, and the demand of task. Additionally, strategies for teaching comprehension must be considered and applied. I teach high school students. There are many who literally cannot keep up with the reading load without audio due to their rate of reading. Additionally, their comprehension suffers greatly due to the mental effort of decoding. When these students use audio, I ask them to read the hard copy text, while listening. The audio eases the decoding burden and the hard text grounds them. These students are asked to annotate, which is when support of comprehension begins. They pause the audio and annotate their hard copy as they go along. They are given annotation aids to support comprehension like reading comp questions, themes to look for, and/or types of literary devices, etc. These annotations are step one in comprehension, step two is classroom discussion, step three writing. Your argument simplifies the use of auto without discussing the complexity of teaching reading compression to students at various ages and the severity of their language based learning challenge. Reading comprehension doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it needs to be taught, especially for students with reading challenges. Audio should not be the default for younger students, but becomes a very necessary tool a dyslexic student must learn how to use as reading demands increase sometimes in middle, in high school for sure. It would be irresponsible not to coach these students on how to use audio effectively for college.

Adrienne Miller Mar 04, 2025 02:37 PM

I am wondering if you mean audio instead of reading, or if you are also discussing audio as a support while students are reading (with eyes on text). We have always encouraged our students to have audio support while they read a text that is above their decoding level. What are your thoughts on that?

Antoinette Barriga Mar 04, 2025 02:41 PM

Thank you so much for clarifying this for your readers. It is absolutely critical that striving readers read (eyes on page) every day. As you pointed out, it is incredibly problematic when the majority of their reading is done through listening. Many students aren't reading at home, so we need to make time and space in the school day to give them time to read (eyes on paper). However, I've seen it time and time again: without a structured independent reading program in place and with the teacher either reading the text aloud or giving students access to the audiobook, students aren't reading, and their skill gap perpetuates year after year.

To give you some context, I am an ELA educator and literacy coach with almost 20 years in the classroom, and my son and I both have dyslexia. He was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade, and is currenlty in 3rd. He struggles to read every day, but he is getting better every day because he is reading (eyes on page). He also has better perseverance than most adults I know, which we know is a positive outcome of dyslexia.

Elissa Blabac Mar 04, 2025 10:55 PM

What I believe you are failing to consider is that the purpose of reading in social studies, science, math or even novel studies in ELA is NOT to teach the skill of reading. The purpose of reading in those instances is to convey information or to engage in the language comprehension strands of the reading rope. In order to access grade level, educationally appropriate text, many struggling readers need audio accomodation. And that's fine because these instances are not teaching reading skills, so long as those reading skills ARE being taught elsewhere in the school day.

If students with reading disabilities and struggles with reading are denied access to grade level appropriate text via audiobook, they will never learn to comprehend grade level text and understand grade level concepts. They will be forever hindered.

Let's consider a 4th grader who is receiving reading intervention but still is reading 2nd grade decodables. Per the argument you presented, they shouldn't get to read their social studies text about geography, because they can't decode it and audiobooks are just exacerbating this problem. So they don't get to read it. Now they are in 6th grade and they've made great strides in their decoding but they don't understand their text about the civil war because they missed out on vocabulary and concepts in 4th grade geography.

This thinking is exactly what leads to the Matthew Effect.

Students who cannot read on grade level need intervention, explicit, systematic instruction, AND audio support until they can read and comprehend grade level text. It is not a crutch, it is inclusion.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 05, 2025 12:00 AM

Elissa-
I think you are incorrect about all of that. First, the research does not say that fourth graders who are struggling to read at a second grade level should be taught with second grade books. The schools that don't do that are the most successful at preparing their students. Second, look at your state standards. Students are not just supposed to gain subject matter information, but they are supposed to learn how to read like historians, scientists, mathematicians, and literary critics.
If you believe that the job of teachers is to tell kids information about their subject matter then I suggest you take a look at your state's educational standards and the kinds of students that colleges are looking for. It is important that students be enabled to read science, history, and literature.
Your conception of teaching could be accomplished more efficiently by television than by teacher, which would be a huge economic savings for your community.
Not teaching students what they need to learn is not inclusion -- its surrender.

tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 05, 2025 12:11 AM

Adrienne--

You and many respondents seem to think that if students are looking at the text and listening to a recording of the text that they are reading. I don't know if you have ever tried this in a language that you are learning, but what the learner tends to do is to focus on the easiest or most proficient channel. In other words, the kids who are struggling with reading or who don't like reading, will listen to the audio and ignore the text -- too hard to do both (especially if you are expected to read silently).
For most kids, if you are going to provide the audio, you might as well dump the text. They aren't reading and you aren't increasing their ability to read it. That means that 6th grader who reads at a 4th grade level has a good chance of leaving high school at a 4th grade level. Thanks teachers.

tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 06, 2025 07:55 PM

Kelly-
The types of students that you are talking about need some additional supports beyond what you will likely be able to provide in a classroom. I definitely would not be focused on phonemic awareness.
A Tier 2 program aimed at building word reading skills would certainly be helpful. This should focus on decoding and encoding, but with a heavy emphasis on morphological units within words and multisyllable word decoding.
In the classroom, there are many things that a teacher can do to build students' ability to handle a high school curriculum. I have a book coming out this summer that addresses that and there are many blogs on this site that explore how to teach vocabulary (words, morphology, context, references), syntax, cohesion, text structure, strategies).

tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 06, 2025 08:06 PM

Lori-
I'm not a big fan of that solution. I don't think kids actually read much when they are listening to an audio (unless they can already read the text pretty well).

tim

KES Mar 06, 2025 08:09 PM

I really appreciate your reasoning here. What I understand you to be saying is that you would not recommend audio replacement of texts when students are learning to read or struggling to read as the go to option. But, you can understand how it is used in situations where it could be obscuring what non-reading skills the student is being evaluated on, such as various content skills, in math for example. As more teachers become more skill at delivering on the ways struggling readers learn to read, hopefully we see a shift in supplementing reading with listening. But, I do see value in it helping students have access to complex texts in other content areas as they are working on gaining the reading skills to be able to grapple with the other texts. What do you think about the "ladder" approach where you offer students less complex texts on the topic they are learning and scaffolding them up to the more complex texts? Some are suggesting the use of AI to help generate varied complexities of texts. Thoughts?

Timothy Shanahan Mar 06, 2025 08:13 PM

Jennifer-
That sounds like a badly confused program. I don't understand the purpose of so much testing. I can't imagine that the teachers are actually using that data or that it makes much sense. The differences you are likely seeing in scores from one administration to another is likely to be due mainly to unreliability of the testing (so what good is that?).
I agree with the teachers that it makes no sense to test a student if you already know what the test results will be, but the solution isn't to destroy the validity of the test by reading it to him/her but to not waste the youngster's time. It would be better to use that time to teach. For most kids, instruction should take place with grade level materials. My new book (which will be out this summer) will provide lots of guidance as to what such instruction should look like and why that is the best approach -- but there are many blog entries here on teaching vocabulary, syntax, cohesion, fluency, text structure, etc. that should be helpful.
Limit the testing. Test in ways that allow for a valid assessment of what you want to know. Use the assessment to target the instruction or to evaluate the program. Use the time that you save to teach students.


tim

Timothy Shanahan Mar 06, 2025 08:29 PM

KES-
Yes, it can make good sense to have students reading multiple texts of varied degrees of difficulty on a topic. That can increase the possibility of the students successfully reading the more difficult passages.

tim

Sue Mar 07, 2025 04:17 PM

"Comprehending while reading is a different game than comprehending while listening." Yes, because listening comprehension involves nonverbal communication; facial expression, tone of voice, etc. Students learn to read between the lines by using syntax (pronoun referent), gist, renaming and text form (one looks for hyperbole in an ad).

C Mar 09, 2025 09:21 PM

There’s an error in the beginning of the next to last paragraph.

Carolyn Groff Mar 10, 2025 12:16 AM

Hello!
I appreciate this issue being addressed on this blog. I am a learning specialist for NCAA Division 1 student-athletes, and I work with students on an individual or small-group basis. Most of the time, college-level texts and writing tasks are not accessible to them without some intense intervention. We do not listen to our texts because we want to learn how to read them and understand all of the terrific vocabulary words we encounter along the way. I do, however, wonder about speech-to-text for writing tasks. I feel that this tool is very much along the lines of using audiobooks. However, it differs in a couple of ways. First, the students must develop their ideas and put them in a sequence that makes sense for the task. Second, because the took is so imperfect, they must correct not only words that are misheard but also entire sentences. They must also go back and add the ideas they missed the first time or move ideas around, as well as make the sentences "sound" better. So, there is still a lot of work to be done after using this tool. However, they do miss out on the orthographic knowledge used in writing. I am very curious to hear your thoughts on this. Your website is such an excellent tool for my graduate students, and I thank you for taking the time each week to engage with those of us who are teaching struggling students.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 10, 2025 01:47 PM

Thanks, C. Got it.

tim

Jane Smith Mar 13, 2025 05:01 PM

Dr. Shanahan, in your post, you express concerns about replacing reading with listening as an accommodation, emphasizing that it doesn't help students improve their reading skills. However, the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Reading (DIER) by Kim (2020) posits listening comprehension as a critical proximal skill with a direct influence on reading comprehension. Furthermore, DIER outlines a hierarchical structure where listening comprehension is supported by foundational oral language skills like vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, which then indirectly bolster reading comprehension.

Given this model, and the research suggesting a significant overlap and shared variance between reading and listening comprehension, particularly concerning vocabulary, how do you reconcile your stance on limiting listening accommodations with the understanding that strengthening listening comprehension could potentially contribute to reading comprehension development, not by replacing reading, but by enhancing these foundational and proximal skills identified in DIER? Could it be that providing strategic access to content through listening, while simultaneously focusing on explicit reading instruction, might leverage these direct and indirect pathways to support overall literacy development for struggling readers?

George J. Cavuto, Ph.D. Mar 15, 2025 12:51 AM

Dr. Shanahan….i, and other reading experts, agree with you 100%!
Keith Stanovich: “The Matthew Effect in Reading,” a parallel to the Biblical text: “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” I took some liberty with the Book of Matthew verbiage, but I’m sure my point is well taken!
Jim Trelease: “No one ever got good at reading by not reading! Good readers do it well, so they like to read; because they like to read they read more; because they read more, they get even better at it!”
For poor readers, especially struggling with deciding, reading is a struggle; hence they don’t like it; hence, they don’t do it; because they don’t do it, they don’t improve and often regress even more! (The Read Aloud Handbook). We really don’t need science of reading to figure this one out…simple common sense will do the trick! I’ve listened to a lot of music in my life, I still can’t read even the easiest page of sheet music!
Should this really be debated…simply apply Ockham’s Razor to the discussion !!
As usual, Dr. Shanahan, your conclusion that Listening Comp does not increase Reading Comp with struggling readers/decoders (they can’t make a “print-voice match”) is spot on!
Congrats, Professor Shanahan!!

Jessica Sager Mar 15, 2025 02:36 AM

This is not a gotcha question, I genuinely am curious: if reading is superior to listening, then is it necessary for a blind person to learn braille? I am not familiar with what is standard in educating blind students. It might be unthinkable to *not* learn braille - I’m able to see, so I don’t have the right perspective. But if someone is unable to learn how to read, will they be at a disadvantage in comprehension compared to their typically developed peers? Again, a genuine question, not being glib. If the answer is yes, there’re indicators that suggest they are at a disadvantage, I would accept that. Obviously there are things like braille that, I assume, close the gap. My 14 y/o is extremely bright, has always been several grades ahead in comprehension, but he has always struggled with the regimented way mastery must be shown in school. More and more, as things like universal design for learning are implemented in school, and as he and I have learned to advocate for slight changes in assignments while still adhering to the teacher’s responsibility to meeting standards, he’s less frustrated. But we had to employ a lot of work around for writing. It was simply the composition component, not a motor skill deficiency or vision. He’s learned how to present fully formed ideas onto paper (or screen), but this was after many years of scribing, and then using the computer vs handwriting. Soon enough, as I see it, he matured enough to tolerate the frustration, but if he had been forced to write in the lower grades, who knows where he would be. The OT tested him many times to see if it was a fine motor skill, but I knew it wasn’t. When he draws and labels his work, like maps or signs, he has impeccable handwriting. I’m glad he was allotted the opportunity to grow into the skill.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 15, 2025 02:11 PM

Jessica--
My point isn't that reading is better than listening (though in some ways that is true). The point is that if you want to teach someone to read, then you need to teach reading comprehension and not listening comprehension. If a blind person wants to learn to read, then teaching them not only to "decode" braille but to comprehend the result of that process would make great sense. I don't know whether more complicated is better or worse, but written language tends to be more complex and extensive than oral language. That is likely one of the reasons that listening comprehension so weakly transfers to reading beyond the lowest levels.
tim

Rosalie Fleming Mar 15, 2025 07:44 PM

I am alarmed at the number of spelling mistakes/grammatical errors I encounter reading replies from colleagues!

Alana Mar 19, 2025 10:02 PM

Assistive technology has an important role in allowing students to access grade-level knowledge, but I whole heartedly agree that it can't be the substitution for appropriate intervention and instruction-- and certainly not to test comprehension. I think the William v. Clarksville decision has shown us that schools rely too much on technology without simultaneously developing the useful skills they'll need to eventually read and succeed. What instructional shifts do you think need to take place in order to balance access and skill development?

Timothy Shanahan Mar 20, 2025 07:42 PM

Anna-
I think what is not happening is careful thinking about the purpose of the various things that we do with students. As you put it, we need to make a clear distinction between access (is a student losing out on some societal benefit or advantage) and learning (is the students supposed to come away knowing something). I don't think we are doing that well. A reading lesson is supposed to make a student a better reader -- helping them to avoid reading in such a lesson does not provide access to a societal benefit, but it will reduce the chances of a student learning. Many secondary teachers will claim that they are only responsible for getting information to the students (i.e., knowledge, content). But they are neglecting the need for students to be able to deal with the specialized reading demands of those subjects -- something that most states include in their standards. In such cases, replacing reading with listening prevents learning and does not increase access.

tim

Beth Mar 21, 2025 02:45 AM

WOW... this all seems so obvious and I'm gobsmacked that I've gone this long neglecting this mindset! When all is said and done, reading is READING. If we want students to comprehend text they need to be able to read. Modifying this skill makes sense in other subjects. When tackling complex text during science I might be inclined to support with a read aloud or audio so that the student faces less hurdles when learning about photosynthesis... but it is especially clear now why we should not modify when it comes to reading non-fiction text during ELA. The skill of reading during ELA must not be compromised because it is not the content that is the primary focus. It is the skills and strategies to read the words so that students can understand the content that we are working on. Am I understanding this correctly?

Additionally, this makes me reflect on students, even those with significant reading disabilities, who have read aloud as an accommodations for their reading assessments.

Timothy Shanahan Mar 21, 2025 06:36 PM

Beth--
Without going to far into Part 2... content is important... not the "main thing" as you point out, but not nothing either. I think it is valuable to have kids gaining knowledge of the world from the texts that we have them read (why would we not get that benefit?), and yet, there is also more to comprhension than just reading the words well (decoding is essential and, yet, it is not the whole ballgame either).
tim

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Accommodating Reading Comprehension with Listening: Good Idea?

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One of the world’s premier literacy educators.

He studies reading and writing across all ages and abilities. Feel free to contact him.

Timothy Shanahan is one of the world’s premier literacy educators. He studies the teaching of reading and writing across all ages and abilities. He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a former first-grade teacher.  Read more

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