Do audiobooks count as reading?

According to an NPR poll, 40% of Americans say that listening to audiobooks doesn’t count as reading.

But here's what the science says:

“The theory of learning styles has been debunked,” said Nadine Gaab, the Professor in Learning Differences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “It’s not the case that someone learns better by listening or by reading. You may have a preference, but learning is sort of the same regardless of the modality. ”

The neural networks that process written and oral language are deeply intertwined and largely overlap when reading print books or listening to audiobooks.

“There isn’t much of a difference between the brain network for reading and the brain network for language comprehension,” said Gaab.

“If you’re a good reader as an adult, it does not matter whether you read it or you listen to an audiobook,” said Gaab. “We all start as listeners to audiobooks. As children, we were sitting in our parents’ laps while they read books to us. So, we all have been audiobook lovers at some point in our lives.”

What are your thoughts on audiobooks? 💬