Reading for pleasure

by Irene Lumsden, Dyslexia Scotland Chair of Council and Board member

I love books. I love reading. I love escaping into another world, walking in someone else’s shoes, learning more about myself and other people. Books and stories bring me joy.
Reading for pleasure has many benefits. As well as stimulating your brain, losing yourself in a book is a great way to relieve stress. Reading increases your general knowledge, emotional intelligence and empathy. It expands your vocabulary and your imagination. However, I do realise how lucky I am to find books so accessible and enjoyable.

It is particularly important to encourage children and young people to enjoy reading. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, reading for enjoyment is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success and finding ways to engage them in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change. Regularly reading stories outside of school results in higher scores in reading assessments. Worryingly, a recent Programme for International Student Assessment survey of 15-year-olds indicated that 71.6 % of girls and 81.1 % of boys in Scotland said, “I don’t read or I read less than 30 minutes a day”. There is a real anti-reading culture for young people these days – apparently books aren’t cool, and reading is boring. So young people with dyslexia have a double whammy – not only are they facing peer pressure not to read but they may have literacy difficulties, too.

“Reading for enjoyment is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success.”

Encouraging reading

So how can we persuade our young people to read? Well, fortunately, there are many great dyslexia-friendly books available. The Scottish publishers, Barrington Stoke, have some great titles and they are all written especially for dyslexic readers. They are also fantastic stories, and the books are regularly nominated for awards. Consider manga, comics and graphic novels. Although they are often dismissed as less “worthy” than traditional format books, they are an effective way to engage reluctant and struggling readers. As Kyle Redford from the Yale Centre of Dyslexia and Creativity stated: “The brilliant thing about the graphic novel is the way they offer dyslexic readers several different cues to the story.  If a reader gets snagged on the vocabulary or storyline of a graphic novel, illustrated pages offer contextual cues to help decipher meaning.”

Audio books are a wonderful way to access stories – you can listen without worrying about reading words on a page. Many books are available in audio format and can be accessed on a myriad of devices. Research by the National Literacy Trust showed that “listening to an audiobook requires the same cognitive skills as reading in print, and supports the development of skills that children need to read including language comprehension and the ability to understand and retain information. The ‘cool factor’ of listening to stories on a digital device is also particularly appealing to reluctant readers.”

Another potential barrier to reading more books (and listening to audio books) is the cost of buying them. However, your local library should be able to help you find dyslexia-friendly books and many also offer free access to online platforms like Libby and Borrowbox where you can borrow eBooks and audio books. Dyslexia Scotland has a marvellous library available free to members. The Royal National Institute for the Blind also has an excellent ‘Bookshare’ library which people with ‘print disabilities’ (including dyslexia) can access, and the charity Calibre Audio also offers audiobooks.

I hope this article helps show that books are more accessible than you think, gives you some ideas as to how to access books for you and your family, and helps you discover the joy of books and stories.