How to Help a Dyslexic Child Discover the Joy of Reading

Rethinking “Pleasure Reading” for a Dyslexic Child

If your child has dyslexia, reading may not feel like a joyful hobby—it may feel more like a daily frustration. As a parent, it’s heartbreaking. You know the magic books can hold, but for your child, books can become sources of anxiety, self-doubt, or even shame. So how do we bridge the gap between difficulty and delight? How do we introduce pleasure into reading when decoding words is already exhausting?

First, it's important to release the pressure. Reading for pleasure doesn’t need to look like quietly curling up with a novel. For many dyslexic children, it begins with listening, discovering stories on their own terms, and building confidence slowly.

Start with Connection, Not Correction

Instead of focusing on what your child can't do yet, try to spark curiosity around stories. Dyslexia affects reading, but it doesn’t diminish imagination or the desire to learn. Sometimes, emotional barriers—like fear of failure or feeling "behind"—can block a child long before the text does. Creating a safe, pressure-free space for storytelling can make a big difference.

Try reading aloud together, not as a lesson but as a shared ritual, even if just for a few minutes before bed. You can also explore how reading together as a family can relieve the stress associated with reading independently. When children feel seen, heard, and unjudged, their enthusiasm tends to return, slowly but steadily.

Think Beyond the Page

For many kids with dyslexia, traditional print texts can feel like a wall. But literature doesn't live only in books. Audiobooks, dramatized stories, visual storytelling, and multi-sensory formats can welcome children into a universe of narrative without the stress of decoding every word.

This is where tools like LISN Kids come into play. This app offers a rich library of original audiobooks and audio series for children aged 3 to 12. Available on iOS and Android, it's designed to keep kids engaged through immersive storytelling that can easily fit into daily routines—during commutes, before bedtime, or even while drawing. Listening can help children access narratives in an enjoyable way while building vocabulary, comprehension, and verbal fluency.

Redefining What “Reading” Means

One of the hardest things for parents—and sometimes teachers—to accept is that reading doesn’t always have to involve a paper book. Listening to stories is not “cheating.” It’s reading with your ears. For children with dyslexia, auditory storytelling offers a crucial bridge between language and understanding. Listening to stories can also boost auditory memory, an important cognitive skill often impacted by dyslexia.

Let your child know that it's perfectly valid to explore books in all forms—graphic novels, comics, picture books, audio dramas, or even following along in print while listening. The goal isn’t to meet a benchmark, but to fall in love with stories.

Let Your Child Choose

Choice is deeply empowering. Children are more likely to enjoy books they’ve picked themselves—even if it’s a book you wouldn’t necessarily choose. Let your child browse without judgment, whether on a library app, bookstore shelf, or audiobook platform.

If you're not sure which formats to start with, this guide to choosing accessible formats for kids with dyslexia is a helpful starting point.

Look for stories with humor, relatable characters, or short chapters that feel manageable. Audiobooks with expressive narration can also give life to the story in ways that visual text sometimes can’t.

Follow Their Pace, Not the Curriculum’s

Academic pressure can be one of the biggest obstacles to nurturing a love of reading in dyslexic children. When books are associated with tests, red marks, or falling behind, they become symbols of struggle. But outside the classroom, stories can be fun again—especially when no one is being graded.

Be patient. Celebrate tiny wins. If your child chooses to listen to the same audiobook three times in a row, that’s wonderful. Familiarity builds confidence. If they finally sound out a sentence they were avoiding, acknowledge the effort, not just the accuracy.

You might find helpful insights in this reflection on how a dyslexic child can grow to love books despite their barriers.

Emotion First, Progress Later

Dyslexia isn’t just about struggling with letters—it stirs up deep emotional responses. Frustration, anxiety, even avoidance. Before real progress can appear, it's vital to understand the emotional landscape around reading. Children may need time to feel safe before they can feel successful.

This powerful article, Understanding the Emotions Behind Reading for Children With Dyslexia, is worth reading if you haven’t already. It underscores how emotional safety must come before academic recovery.

As you walk this journey with your child, remind yourself: reading doesn’t need to happen in a straight line. It's okay to pause, to pivot, to choose a path that’s less conventional but more joyful. In the end, the goal is not to force reading—but to rediscover its delight, in all its diverse, creative, inclusive forms.