Two Studies about the Benefits of Audiobooks
Because I talk so often about audiobooks for kids, I get a fair amount of questions from parents who are worried that audiobooks aren’t helping their kids or are reluctant to try them out for fear that their child will never learn to read on their own.
Whether you’re a teacher working with parents who are resistant to audiobooks, trying to convince a spouse to get on board with audiobooks for your children or just need a little reassurance yourself, here are two studies about the benefits of audiobooks. .
Two Studies about the Benefits of Audiobooks
A research study on audiobooks for 2nd and 3rd graders in the San Francisco Bay Area School district’s after-school program had students listen to audiobooks for 20 minutes, five times per week.
In 10 weeks, those students achieved 58% of the ANNUAL gain in reading achievement in 10 weeks (so more than half a year’s worth in 10 weeks), plus outperformed the control group in every category, including 3 times the reading comprehension, SEVEN times the second-grade vocabulary, and almost four times the reading motivation.
The full details of this study are here.
And for the record, this study was listening only – no following along with books, no worksheets, no quizzes. Just sitting and enjoying a wonderful story being read to them.
Another study, done in 2013 and written about in School Library Research began an audiobook book club for students who were performing below grade level in reading. At the beginning of the study, virtually all of the students identified themselves as poor readers (not surprising, since they were all underperforming). When the audiobook club concluded 93% of the students identified themselves as good readers – this experience CHANGED how they saw themselves. 100% of the students said they would participate again AND 100% said they would invite a friend to join the audio book club.
You can see the full research study here.
If you want to help your child love reading, audiobooks are an incredible tool to help them do so, and I hope these studies will help you feel more comfortable about incorporating them into your routine.
