Reading can be very difficult for people affected by ADHD and autism. Below you’ll find six ways to help yourself read if you have ADHD or are neurodivergent.
“Reading is the key to smart, I believe. And I don’t do it.” – Nate Bargatze
Reading with ADHD? The Struggle is Real
ADHDers and other neurodivergent people often struggle with reading. Reading requires extended attention to detail that we may find boring or useless. Reading also requires heavy use of our eyes and sense of sight. Some of us don’t have strong eyesight while others don’t process information in linear, lateral, written form very well. It’s very common to have to learn new ways to read with ADHD.
Reading is heavily valued in our society and is required in daily life. In addition to more advanced applications in education and work, reading is also required to simply drive down the freeway or buy groceries.
We frequently associate reading with intelligence, but the sensory component of reading is often why we struggle. Difficulty reading may not mean a lack of intelligence. In fact, it may be entirely due to sensory processing differences.
Neurodivergence (or neurodiversity) is a broad umbrella term that refers to ADHD and Autism, but it also includes dyslexia (difficulty reading), dysgraphia (difficulty writing), dyscalculia (difficulty with numbers), and many other neurological differences. While I’m not an expert on learning disorders, I know that I’ve not met many ADHDers who enjoyed reading long-form literature. There’s a large area of overlap between neurodivergent people and people who have difficulty reading!
“Guys! Guys! I Think I Might Know How to Read!”
I love a good stand-up comedy routine. A growing number of comics are now opening up about being neurodivergent. A common topic of discussion is learning to read with ADHD.
Comedian Ruby Setnik tells the NSFW story of learning that she has ADHD. (This one’s a little risqué.) It makes so much sense that using a stimulant in college helped her focus! Medications for ADHD are generally low-dose, well regulated, highly governed stimulants that safely manage focus and emotional intensity. Here’s a comical story related to how they work:
On Nate Bargatze, Reading, and ADHD
On a much more family-friendly note, I love listening to Nate Bargatze’s stand-up comedy. His timing and delivery are superb, and I can relate to his low-brow, country way of saying things. I could probably even recite a few of his routines word for word. He’s hilarious. Here he is discussing reading:
Bargatze is pretty open about possibly having dyslexia or a similar condition. He’s even publicly taken assessments for dyslexia on his Nateland podcast. The results indicated difficulties with reading speed, comprehension, and pronouncing complex multi-syllable words.
The comedian is also color-blind. In fact, during his epic 2-episodes of Saturday Night Live, he is rumored to have been unable to tell his color-coded lines from the next person’s lines! Imagine being at the apex of your career, known across the nation, and openly acknowledging your learning disability to the SNL production crew to get through practice.
I think it’s safe to assume that Nate is neurodivergent. He has acknowledged that he has had several concussions and that he injured his head as a child. (Neurodivergence can be the product of brain injury.)
That’s the most impressive thing about Nate Bargatze to me – he’s learned to “lean in” to his weakness. He remains genuine and honest about his limitations in a manner that translates as humility and self-acceptance. He’s a “big dummy,” but also a genius! He makes it perfectly acceptable to not immediately know how to read with ADHD.
Bargatze and Bionic Reading
Nate has also endorsed Bionic Reading, a type of font or print in which the first few letters of words are in bold.
This sentence is in bionic reading font.
#1. Bionic Reading and ADHD
Bionic Reading offers a way for people with ADHD or other difficulties with reading to scan text more rapidly and easily. Outcome studies have found it to be fairly effective with improving reading speed and comprehension for people with ADHD. Some people with dyslexia report it is helpful while others report that it simply creates a different problem while trying to solve the original problem.
Try it for yourself here. Or ask your favorite AI tool to convert a passage to Bionic Reading format for free!
Bionic Reading isn’t the only way to help yourself read if you are neurodivergent. It often helps to stimulate one or some of your senses to help your brain read. Here’s how to do that:
Sensory Stimulation Methods That Help You Read with ADHD
A common way to help yourself read with ADHD is to stimulate or engage a sense that will help you focus on the content. Doing so may allow your brain to feel stimulated enough to not be bored while you read.
Most people think of sensation as occurring in 5 main ways: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Touch. However, we now know that there are multiple other senses, such as balance, movement, internal health, and the body’s position in space.
#2. ADHD Reading Help: Balance
When I was a child, I would climb up and sit on top of an eight-foot stepladder to read. Somehow I figured out that sitting up there helped me focus. Today, I can appreciate that I was stimulating my cerebellum by challenging my sense of balance, regulating my emotions, lowering my boredom, and helping me focus.
I’ve seen clients develop successful study routines by reading on trampolines, treadmills, or stationary bikes. It works! Reading can also make these activities less boring at the gym, improving our likelihood of getting enough exercise.
#3. ADHD Reading Help: Hearing
Many of my clients use lo-fi hip hop music to stimulate their mental activity and lower their emotional energy enough to read with ADHD. Lo-fi music typically doesn’t have words and the music is less dynamic, resulting in constant, low-level stimulation and improved executive function. Check out these lo-fi creators for free on YouTube:
Readers with high quality sound systems might also find it helpful to use white noise, pink noise, brown noise, or even monotone sounds in the 50-65 hertz range. WARNING: If you are autistic and find that you are hypersensitive to certain frequencies, you might find the latter to be very triggering and counterproductive to the goal of improving reading.
#4. ADHD Reading Help: Touch
Wrapping up tightly in a blanket or using a weighted blanket can stimulate our sense of touch in a way that promotes the concentration required for reading comprehension. Holding a textured piece of cloth that matches your sensory stimulation patterns can also help. I know neurodivergent people who use heavy coats when they read, just for the sensation of being surrounded in a pleasant way.
#5. ADHD Reading Help: Location, Location, Location
In my first year of college at South Georgia State University (formerly Waycross College), I would drive 45 minutes to Jekyll Island to study on the beach. The breeze and the sand appealed to my sense of touch, the temperature was pleasant with the sun on my skin, the ocean provided the perfect visual and audio sensations, and I could read quickly and easily there. (Also, studying in the same room in which the test will be administered has been found to increase your grade by roughly 5%!)
Years later, while attending UGA, I learned to study in the top floor stairwell of my 10-story dorm. It was quieter there with lighting, temperature, and air pressure that were constant and pleasant enough to promote focused reading 24/7.
#6. INCUP and Reading with ADHD
As discussed in several previous posts, ADHDers need something to be Interesting, New/Novel, Competitive, Urgent, or something we are Passionate about if we are going to easily focus on it. If you get to choose your topic to read about, choose one of these! OR, if it’s a boring reading assignment, you might feel more motivated to read once it becomes Urgent. There’s no shame in understanding your learning style and using it to promote your attention. (Tune in for my next post: ADHD and Self-Discipline – the Unstoppable Combo)
If you stay patient and committed to the process, you can find a way to help yourself read.
Your ADHD Therapist
I work with creative professionals across Georgia who deal with Anxiety, ADHD, or Autism (Level 1). If you’d like help with these or related issues, give me a call at 770-615-6300.
You can also schedule a session here. We offer both telehealth and in-person sessions, and I’m in-network with Aetna and United Healthcare insurances and Lyra EAP. We provide paperwork if you want to file with your out-of-network insurance.