Free read-aloud tools for dyslexia, compared

If your child understands a story when you read it to them and loses the thread when they read it themselves, a read-aloud tool is one of the most useful things you can set up tonight. You probably do not need to buy one. Every major phone, tablet and browser already has one built in, and they are better than most people realise.

Does listening while reading actually help?

Reading asks a child to do two things at once: work out the words, and understand them. For a child with dyslexia the first job can take so much effort that there is little left for the second, which is why the same child can follow a chapter read aloud and lose a paragraph read silently.

A read-aloud tool takes some of the first job away. A meta-analysis of studies on students with reading difficulties found that text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools improved reading comprehension, with an average effect size of 0.35 (Wood, Moxley, Tighe & Wagner, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2018). That is a modest, real effect, and the authors are clear that more research is needed on who it helps most. It is not a replacement for being taught to read. It is a way to keep up with the class while reading skills catch up.

The quick comparison

All of these are free and already on the device. None needs a new account beyond the one the device already has.

• Chrome reading mode (computer): best for web pages and school portals. Open reading mode from the right-click menu or the address bar, press play, and it reads the page with word or sentence highlighting and a speed control.
• Microsoft Edge Reading mode and Read aloud: best on Windows laptops. Reading mode strips the page back; Read aloud reads it with a choice of voices and speeds, and you can change fonts, text size, column width and page theme.
• iPhone and iPad Spoken Content: best for anything on an Apple device. Turn it on in Settings, Accessibility, Spoken Content. Speak Selection reads what you select; Speak Screen reads the whole screen when you swipe down with two fingers from the top; Highlight Content lights up words, sentences or both as they are spoken.
• Android Select to Speak: best on Android phones and tablets. Turn it on in Settings, Accessibility, Select to Speak, then tap or drag across what you want read.
• Versed Read aloud: best for a worksheet or a block of text you can copy. Paste the text, press play, and each word lights up as it is read. It runs in any browser, needs no account, and nothing you paste is sent anywhere.

Which one should you set up first?

Start with the device your child already does homework on. The best tool is the one that is one tap away when they are stuck, not the one with the nicest voice. If they do homework on a school laptop, try the browser's own reading mode first; on a phone or tablet, turn on the built-in speech setting and show them the gesture once.

Then check three things together:

• Highlighting. Following a highlighted word keeps their eyes on the text, so the listening and the reading happen together. Most of the tools above can do it; switch it on.
• Speed. Default speeds are often too fast for a new listener. Slow it down, then let them speed it up as they get used to it.
• Voice. Let them pick. A voice they find annoying will not get used.

How to use it without it becoming a crutch

The worry most parents have is that listening will replace reading. Used well, it does the opposite: it lets a child meet more words, more often, at the level they can think at.

• Listen first, then answer. For a long worksheet, play it once while they follow along with a finger, then let them answer the questions. See whether the answers change.
• Keep reading practice separate. Their reading lessons and reading-aloud practice still happen, at their level, on text chosen for it. The read-aloud tool is for the other subjects, where the reading is a barrier to the actual work.
• Tell the school. If read-aloud helps at home, it is worth asking whether it can be used for classwork and whether it counts as an access arrangement for exams where you live.

What else helps on the same page

Listening is one half. The page itself matters too: crowded, tightly spaced text is harder for many dyslexic readers, and there is good evidence that extra letter spacing helps. We wrote about that in does letter spacing help dyslexia?, and about fonts in does the OpenDyslexic font really help?. If you are still working out whether dyslexia is the right word for what you are seeing, start with the signs of dyslexia.

For secondary students doing their own revision, the same tools are on the Versed Tools read-aloud page alongside an easy reader that spaces out any text.

References

• Wood, S. G., Moxley, J. H., Tighe, E. L., & Wagner, R. K. (2018). Does use of text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools improve reading comprehension for students with reading disabilities? A meta-analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51(1), 73–84.
• Zorzi, M., Barbiero, C., Facoetti, A., et al. (2012). Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia. PNAS, 109(28), 11455–11459.