books on tape

He’s fortunate to have good listening skills, and absolutely he should listen to books on tape. THis doesn’t mean he shouldn’t also be working at building his reading skills — bottom line is it’s an important skill, and taking the summer off for lots of kids means losing a big chunk of ground. Ten or fifteen minutes a day practicing reading with you could make a big difference.

Basically, get him hearing all kinds of things so he can keep learning — but don’t just chuck out reading. Usually good listeners *can* become reasonably good readers. If you broke your leg, you’d find the best way to get around as you could — but you wouldn’t just stop using your leg.

… Look at Robin Goodall’s message below. It describes a good way to read with your kid to give him good practice.

Hm. I would almost never agree that any student with a reading issue should stop reading. Their reading, like anybody else’s, can get better with practice. Certainly he could and should listen to books on tape at his comprehension level. But he should also be reading.

If you look hard, you can sometimes find books at a higher level yet that are written in larger font or with an easier vocabularly. You can also finds books on tape that have their books along with him so he could listen and read along at the same time.

www.recordedbooksontape. com is a great source to rent books on tape and any child with a diagnosed reading issue is eligible to have a tape recorder and tapes from the Recordings for the Blind organization.

Just my two cents, as a college student who has used (and still
uses) books on tape…

I second (or third?) what others have said about keeping your
child reading even during the summer and despite (and perhaps
especially because of) his decoding difficulties.

I also agree that books on tape can be very beneficial to
students who, like your son and myself, do not get as much out
of printed text as we would like.

One strategy that may have been implied - but I don’t
think explicitly stated - in other people’s replies, would be to
find books your son would *like* to read, purchase or check out
the printed text version, and then acquire the same book (make
sure it’s the same version) on tape. This way, your son can
follow along in the text as he hears the book on tape. The
auditory presentation should enhance his comprehension and sense
of enjoyment, while following along in the text may reinforce his
reading skills and perhaps help your son recognize new and
familiar words in their printed form. It will also allow your
son to feel that he has, indeed, read the book. Make sure he has
some or most of the input in the book selection process, because
he will be far more enthusiatic about reading a book he has
chosen than one that has been chosen for him. Just make sure he
doesn’t aim too low - with such excellent listening
comprehension abilities, he should not feel like he is limited
only to books with basic words that he already knows how to read
(though those could be used to reinforce his self-confidence).

I use this strategy with my academic reading as well as
pleasure reading (a concept I’ve only very recently
rediscovered), as it allows me to keep a more fluent pace in
reading and improves my comprehension. It is still a slower
process than good silent reading for most people, and I am still
actively working on remediating my own (unaided) reading
strategies, but meanwhile, it helps me get through my college
schoolwork and is kind of a motivational aid because it makes
reading seem like less of a chore.

Good sources for books on tape that I’ve found, besides a local
bookstore, are:

Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic: http://www.rfbd.org
(They should have some fun reading material.
Check with your son’s school to see if the school can arrange
the book-borrowing process and lend one of the 4-track tape
players needed to listen to RFB&D’s books. Otherwise, you will
have to arrange these things yourself.)

eBay and Half.com - www.ebay.com and www.half.com
(A more precarious way of obtaining books, but
there are often some good books available at cheaper prices than
those found at bookstores, and the commercially-made audiobooks
tend to be somewhat better in listening quality than books recorded by RFB&D volunteers.)

Again, make sure that if you get a print version of a book, the
audio version is the same (and not abridged). That will ensure
that your son is able to follow along without getting confused
by differences in the two presentations.

Good luck, and have a nice summer!

- Lisa :)

Thank you all for your responses.I have already ordered books on tape though our local library.I am getting the books along with the tapes.Our Librarian gave me a cateloge so he could pick the boks out for himself.