Poolside problems: summer reads when you’ve got dyslexia

Picking up a book at the airport or train station is a holiday rite of passage: 4 out of 5 of us think that it’s not even a proper holiday without a book to read .

…which sucks when you’ve got dyslexia, and reading might feel more like work than it does a relaxing activity for lazy days by the pool. Are there any ways to get back to books over summer without putting your holiday chill on the line?

We think so. Let’s check some out!

High/Low Books and Quick Reads

A High/Low book is a version of a mainstream book tailored for someone whose reading age is lower than their actual age. The great thing about High/Low books is that they don’t restrict people who need simpler writing styles to books that they’ve aged out of.

Unfortunately, the titles aren’t always very current: if you’re after a kids book or a classic, you’re going to find what you need, but if you’re after the latest BookTok summer bestseller you may not strike it lucky. If you’re a more confident reader, you might try The Reading Agency’s Quick Reads — which are either abridged versions of longer reads or purpose-written short titles, but are all contemporary fiction, written accessibly.

?

Audiobooks count as reading too!

The good news: it’s way easier to find an audiobook of a contemporary title than it is a High/Low one. And audiobooks count as reading too!

The bad news: not all books are audiobooks, and not all audiobooks are created equal. Again, if you’re looking for a popular title, you’re likely to find a celebrity-voiced one on a standard content streaming service like Audible or Spotify. Want something a little more off the beaten track, however, and you might struggle to find it in audio format, or have to put up with an AI-voiced recording, which makes everyone sound just a little bit like a robot.

?

Portable text-to-speech scanners?

If the bookshop still feels like a locked door to you, allow us to present the key: a reading pen is a small, pen-shaped scanning device that boosts access to books by transforming the words on the page into audio that you can listen to.

They come with headphones to keep things discreet, too— to the rest of the world, it just looks like you’re listening to some tunes as you read your book. Some fancy ones also connect to Wi-Fi and allow users to translate between languages too.

Reading with your kids over summer…

…is another great way of getting back to books in a low-stakes way. Kids books are often a lot simpler to read, and you can employ any of the strategies above in order to help both of you access books whilst they’re out of school for the summer. It’s beneficial for them, too: over the long holidays, young learners lose up to 20% of the last school year’s reading gains, and reading on the regular can help them hold onto them.

?

?? Need a hand getting your young readers back into books for summer?? Why not take part in our pals Scanning Pens' Summer Reading Challenge : just follow the map and colour your adventure for the chance to win big! ?

Keep your eyes on the Scanning Pens LinkedIn and Insta page for more.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????