Happy Reading Month! Throughout the month of March, we've sprung into reading with a variety of novels, comic books, picture books, and other books that strike our fancy. But audiobooks are another form of reading that are often overlooked, and shouldn't be.
Audio reading offers amazing benefits, especially to our littlest learners. Children who are new to reading or who are still learning their basic reading comprehension skills can learn and grow from listening to books. Take, for example, this list of benefits of audiobooks as proposed by Denise Johnson, assistant professor of reading education at the College of William & Mary in Virginia! Audiobooks can:
- Introduce students to books above their reading level
- Model good interpretive reading
- Teach critical listening
- Highlight the humor in books
- Introduce new genres that students might not otherwise consider
- Introduce new vocabulary or difficult proper names or locales
- Sidestep unfamiliar dialects or accents, Old English, and old-fashioned literary styles
- Provide a read-aloud model
- Provide a bridge to important topics of discussion for parents and children who can listen together while commuting to sporting events, music lessons, or on vacations.
Audiobooks can also make reading easier and more enjoyable for those with different learning needs, like ADHD or dyslexia. According to Annie Suhy of Libby Life, "Challenges presented by decoding, word recognition, or sitting still and focusing may deter kids from even trying [to read visually]. Audiobooks allow them to keep up with the material, expose them to new concepts and ideas, and build their confidence in the classroom."
Interestingly, the human voice present in an audiobook also adds an emotional connection, which often triggers the magical nostalgia that many of us feel from being read aloud to by parents or caregivers. Listening to an audiobook may stimulate a stronger emotional response than reading visually does, and may help us connect more deeply with the story, making for a more enriching and valuable reading experience.
Audio reading offers many benefits to the developing mind, but is also beneficial to adult readers. A study conducted at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences suggests that regular audio reading can benefit the mental health of seniors by decreasing some symptoms of anxiety and depression. Plus, audiobooks are an amazing way to multitask! Audiobooks can help us tackle our ever-present to-do list and our regular routines. Why wouldn't you want to finish the novel you're obsessed with while you're driving, cooking, doing yardwork, cleaning, or working on other tasks that keep your hands and eyes busy? Increased productivity can not only make us healthier-- it can also boost our energy and mental health to accomplish certain tasks. So why not get lost in a good story while you work on this week's projects?
But is audio reading really reading? Science suggests that it is! A study from the September 2019 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience indicates that audio information is received in the brain in the same way that written information is, indicating that audiobooks interact with the brain in the same way that reading physical books does. Enjoying an audiobook is never "cheating", in the world of bibliophiles, and it absolutely counts as reading, just as much as a paper book or a kindle does! All forms of reading are amazingly beneficial, so enjoy whichever reading method you prefer! As you dive into a good story or learn something new from the non-fiction section this month, remember that audiobooks are a wonderful way to read, learn, and grow.
Cheers to the tremendous power of audio reading!
Looking to explore the magical world of audio reading? Check out a book on CD from the Cromaine shelves! You can enjoy both fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for all age groups. Or, enjoy audio reading digitally with the tremendous audiobook collection available on Overdrive and hoopla, both available for free with your Cromaine Library card! Overdrive is a digital resource that grants library cardholders access to ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more. hoopla offers movies, music, audiobooks, ebooks, comics, and TV shows to enjoy via computer, tablet, or phone. Both of these digital resources are fantastic ways to access audiobooks, and so much more.