National Reading Day: We Recognize the Brains That Struggle to Read - and How Stationery Tools can Help
Who doesn’t love getting lost in a great story? Notice we said story, and not book? That’s because reading isn’t always the easiest or most enjoyable activity for a lot of students.
National Reading Day is celebrated across schools in the US, encouraging young people to get stuck into a fantastic book. At Cali & Caro, we recognize that, if you’re a neurodiverse individual, reading might not be your favorite thing. That doesn’t mean the activity is off limits altogether, though!
We’re taking a look at how reading with ASD, ADHD, and other neurodivergent conditions, can be made easier, and how specialized stationery can help.
Neurodivergence & Reading
Some people take to reading like a fish to water. For others, it’s more of a challenge and a chore. But, for many neurodiverse students, reading is downright unpleasant.
Processing and comprehending information is far more difficult for someone with a neurodiverse brain. This could be down to dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, ASD, and other differences in a person’s brain.
People with ASD often struggle to understand other people’s perspectives, and fail to detect inferences within text. This differing experience of social interaction compared to a neurotypical person makes understanding writing difficult.
Dyslexia is a condition that causes struggles with reading. Whilst dyslexia does not affect intelligence at all, it does prevent the proper processing, storing, and production of information. A person with dyslexia may mistake words, or find it hard to connect written information.
These are just a couple of examples of how neurodiverse students can find reading a challenge. But, that’s not to say reading is totally off the cards!
Reading with ADHD
For children with ADHD, focussing on reading can be hard. On top of this, once the text has been read, it can be difficult to process and retain that information. It’s not surprising that lots of kids with ADHD prefer to avoid reading completely.
Reading involves sitting still and being quiet for longer periods of time. This is something a child with ADHD can struggle with, since hyperactivity and inattention are common signs of ADHD.
Fortunately, there are strategies that can help improve reading for kids with ADHD. It’s important to remember that there’s no “one size fits all” approach here, as every child is different. To improve reading, a student with ADHD could try:
Reading with someone
Minimizing distractions
Reading books about their favorite topics
Underlining and highlighting keywords
Asking questions while reading
Taking notes
These techniques can help to stimulate the brain, and promote focussing on reading. Having a fun and eye-catching notebook to dedicate to reading activities can also make reading exciting for a student with ADHD.
Techniques for Reading with ASD
Autism Spectrum Disorder, as the name suggests, can vary in its seriousness. ASD affects people differently, with some brains developing more or less than others. This variation in brain development means there’s lots of scope to help a child with ASD to enjoy reading.
These techniques are similar to those for reading with ADHD. Sticking to topics the child is interested in helps massively, as well as starting at a young age and asking them questions about the text whilst reading.
Currently, the best practice for teaching a child with ASD is to focus on short, phonics-based instructional sessions. Making sure reading sessions are regular and engaging will help develop reading ability in a child with ASD - don’t forget to make it fun!
Appearances Count
They say you should never judge a book by its cover. But, if it’s plain old black and white, with tiny text on the front, you can safely say that a neurodivergent student will not enjoy reading it.
Providing reading materials with different sized text will help make reading accessible for more young brains. Just as important as text size, line spacing should also be considered. Research suggests that a line spacing of 1.2 helps neurodivergent readers stick with the text.
Colors make a huge difference too. People with dyslexia often find it difficult or uncomfortable to read black text off of white paper. Having a range of colors on offer can make all the difference in a student’s reading.
Super Stationery Can Help with Reading
We already mentioned that trendy, exciting looking notebooks can be great for improving reading within neurodiversity. Making reading fun and engaging can take it from a drag to a joy.
Taking notes whilst reading is greatly improved with cool writing tools. Highlighter pens that change color will make notes a lot more interesting to read, and can help those that identify with color over text to connect information they’ve read together.
Reading can let students into whole worlds and expand their horizons. At Cali & Caro, we want to empower students to be able to access this.
To find stationery and gifts that can support all sorts of brains in reading and learning, explore our online shop today!