An At-Home Activity That Keeps Your Kids Quiet and Safe—Without You!

There is one sure fire way to keep your child safe and occupied—no matter his or her age. Audio stories and audio books are a must for your at-home survival kit. While they won’t replace the warm bonding that comes with you reading to them, audio listening experiences do provide all the other benefits of you actually reading to them. Plus, you can have a breather to get something done around the house without the kids interrupting. Or better yet, you can take a few moments to relax and listen with them!

The Advantages

1. Increase Vocabulary and Academic Abilities

Research over the past three decades consistently shows the benefits of oral stories to develop literacy and cognitive skills. When children are not exposed to the “heard word” they will lag behind in school. An important study, for instance, showed that over the 5 years before kindergarten entry, children listening to 5 books a day hear a cumulative 1.4 million more words than children who are never read to.

Having heard over a million words upon starting school puts youngsters at a huge advantage. Children and teens with a large vocabulary do better academically and are much more likely to have high scores on college admission exams. Why? Every word is a symbol for an abstract thought. Listening to stories read aloud whether by you or a children’s author like Beverly Cleary helps children acquire the abilities and the desire to read a wide variety of content. Think of this equation:

More time listening to books and stories = more words and abstract ideas = increased literacy and cognitive skills

2. Deepen Listening and Attention Skills

With audio stories and books, your child must carefully follow an unfamiliar narrative, and in doing so, is always asking questions related to the meaning. “Is this person going to do what he just said he would?” “Why did she say respond in that way?” “I wonder what’s going to happen next.” And on it goes. The cerebral cortex is continually exercised as it slowly takes in information, discerns cause and effect, and predicts outcomes. With every audio story your child grows more capacity for higher level thinking functions in other arenas—like when he reads a math problem on a test, or talks with you about the best way to take care of the new puppy.

3. Increased Reading Abilities

Kids won’t know how much they are learning from audio stories and books until they decide to read a book on their own. They may be surprised that they now can read more complex books. As a reading specialist, I saw my elementary students gain 2-4 reading levels in a year, just by helping their parents establish a daily routine of audio books and using audio books in my classroom profusely.

4. Enhance Speaking and Writing Skills

In addition to increasing reading skills, listening to audios provides an ever-increasing complex vocabulary and syntax (sentence structure). Adults cannot provide this in conversations. The words we use in adult conversations are limited. Keith Stanovitch, PhD at the University of Toronto found that classic children’s books such as The Velveteen Rabbit contained 50% more rare words and more complex sentences than the conversation of college-educated adults or the language on any television show.

5. Spur the Imagination

Listening without too many visuals or none at all requires the child to use his/or imagination. Our screen-saturated society continually bombards children and teens with visuals constructed by media goliaths. By introducing audio books as a way to “play independently” parents reinforce children and teen’s capacities to develop their own images, broadening their perspectives and growing their creativity.

6. Develop Self-Regulation

The wrong input at crucial times of development sets up the child or teen for a lifetime of struggle. The brain cannot break out of the “mold” that has been set in the formative years of development before age 25. Four to eight hours of screen time won’t allow children and teens the required experiences to fully develop self-regulation. That much cumulative time exposed to quick-changing images such as in video game play stimulates certain brain centers at the expense of under developing crucial parts of the brain that are necessary for self-regulation. Instead of the thinking cortex being the CEO of the brain's workings, the reptilian function of impetuous reactions runs the show. By reducing screen time and replacing with audio books, the cortex comes back online, enabling the learning of restraint.

Tips for Ages and Stages

Your local library has thousands of audio books for all ages. You can borrow them free with the app, Libby.

Ages 1–3

As soon as baby can sit up and play with a few large toys, she can listen to audio stories, songs, and lullabies. Look for stories that rhyme, such as Llama Llama Red Pajama, or those that have predictable patterns such as Goodnight Moon.

Ages 4–6

Listening to audio stories is not a time to teach reading. In fact, choose for stories that are above child’s ability to read. For instance, a 4 yr. old will be mesmerized by classics like Alexander and the No Good, Very Bad Day and The Borrowers even if he can’t actually read them.

Ages 4–10

While not solely audio for listening pleasure Story Online streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White, and dozens more.

Ages 7–10

Keep choosing stories/books whose content is age appropriate but will stretch your child. For instance, many of the Newberry Award winners will be suitable as audio books for this age range, but make sure you check out the appropriateness first. Grandparents can record a favorite or two and share the audio file with your kids!

Ages 11–14

During the early teens, kids may resist being read to by you, but they can still enjoy listening to gripping stories. My sons at this age were fascinated listening to the old radio shows such as The Shadow on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

Science fiction short stories were a big hit. In fact, my eldest used a Ray Bradbury story he listened to as a middle schooler for his college application essay because it had impacted him so deeply.

Ages 15–18

On the Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults page by the Young Adult Library Services Association you will find top selections each year such as An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green, where a girl finds herself thrust into unexpected fame and a moral dilemma, or Swing by Kwame Alexander where Walt and Noah, best friends, navigate their junior year of high school, trying out for baseball, and being honest with the love interests in their lives. And, of course, young adults with a “heard word” habit will open vast vistas for themselves with the audiobooks on Audible.