Reading Aloud vs Reading Silently: What the Research Says

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-03

Two ways of reading

You cannot hear silent reading. So you cannot check its pace by listening.

One study compared first graders reading aloud and reading silently (Kim, Wagner and Foster, 2011). It found the two related, but not the same skill. It looked at one group of children. We could read only its summary.

What studies of reading aloud and silently found

One study looked at fourth graders (Trainin, Hiebert and Wilson, 2015). They read both aloud and silently. Overall, they understood about as much either way. Some read silently much faster than aloud, and understood little. We could read only its summary, which gives no number of children.

One study looked at students with a reading disability (Robinson, Meisinger and Joyner, 2019). They understood more of what they read aloud than of what they read silently. Younger students understood more when they read aloud. Older students understood about the same either way. The study was small, and its summary names no group without a reading disability. We could read only its summary.

One study followed students with dyslexia over one school year (Robinson and Meisinger, 2022). Skill at reading aloud predicted later skill at reading silently. It did not work the other way round. That is a link, not a cause. The study had no comparison group. We could read only its summary.

These are findings about groups of children. They are not a checklist for one child.

What a gap between them does not tell you

Your child may read better silently than aloud, or the other way round. We hold no study that makes that gap, by itself, a sign of anything.

Find which job of reading is going wrong, and work on that one. Our page on reading fluency activities has more.

Listening to both

• In our view, listen to your child read a short page aloud.
• Note the words that were hard.
• After a page read silently, ask your child to tell you about it.
• Write down what you see each way.

These steps are our own practice. We hold no study that tests the steps on this page. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that they do not work.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

If no skill has gone, start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.