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The Benefits of Audiobooks for Education

Three children sitting on the floor in a school library. Two children are reading printed books and one is wearing headphones and looking at an iPad.

There are so many benefits to using audiobooks, both for education and mental health support. 

Here are a few of the reasons you should use audiobooks with your pupils:

  • Using audiobooks helps children to concentrate on the content, rather than the process of reading. They can increase literacy and communication skills, as well as help students to keep up with the books their peers are reading and support reading for pleasure.
  • Listening to audiobooks eliminates the struggle some may have ‘decoding’ the words on the page, allowing the listener to visualise as they listen.
  • Student's understanding of the text is helped by the tone of voice, accent, emphasis and timing given to the text by the professional reader.
  • Students absorb the structure and conventions of storytelling and develop much greater confidence to communicate both orally and on paper, which has enormous benefits for their writing.
  • When they discover the excitement of books through listening, pupils want to read more rather than less. If they follow the text while listening, their word recognition and reading speed improve.

Not only is it beneficial to have access to audiobooks at school for learning support, access at home can also have mental health benefits:

  • Using audiobooks can help rest a busy mind
  • Using audiobooks can calm feelings of anxiety
  • Uplifting or funny audiobooks can distract from emotional pain
  • Listening to books about mental health can be a great learning tool for managing symptoms
  • Students can 'read' books that are written for their age, not their reading ability, improving their confidence

If you would like to become a member of Listening Books, click here to join online now.

Just some of the educational titles in our collection

Yapping Away

Yapping Away

Author: Joshua Seigal

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Author: John Steinbeck

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: William Shakespeare

To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Wonder

Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Following Grandfather

Following Grandfather

Author: Rosemary Wells

The Diary of A Young Girl

The Diary of A Young Girl

Author: Anne Frank

Looking After Your Mental Health

Looking After Your Mental Health

Author: Alice James, Louie Stowell