Books on tape and CDs are a wonderful way to expose students with learning disabilities to literature appropriate to their age and interests. They also are excellent ways to help students prepare research papers and augment content area learning. While books on tape and CDs have been shown to increase reading rates and word attack skills, they are not a substitute for direct instruction in how language works for either decoding or meaning.

Teaching systematic phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies should be explicit and individualized for youngsters with reading disabilities. Accommodations for books on tape and CDs should be accompanied by instruction in active listening strategies and include participation by regular and special educators.

Great strides in supporting children with reading disabilities have been made over the past twenty years. We now know effective, proven instructional practices increase reading success. We also have options to help students access fine literature and advanced learning with books on tape, CDs and specialized software. What we need to assure is that all alternatives are available to our students.

To order books on tape, contact Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in Princeton, NJ at 800-221-4792 (www.rfbd.org), or the MD State Library for Blind and Physically Handicapped at 410-230-2424 (www.lbph.lib.md.us).

Reading software programs that have proven effective for persons with learning disabilities include Don Johnston’s Start to Finish series for grades 4 –12; for grades pre-K to grade 2, Broderbund’s Living Books series is a good selection. Software that helps improve phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies include Broderbund’s Reading Galaxy, Forest Technologies’ Phonics Alive and SoundBlender. ®