Sooner or later, someone in the family says it. If she listens to her books at college, she will never learn to read. Maybe you have wondered the same thing late at night. That is a loving worry, and you are not alone in it. But “crutch” aims at the wrong target, and the real risk is quieter.
Common questions from parents
Is text-to-speech cheating at college?
Will using assistive tech stop my child’s reading from growing?
Is using AI to write an essay the same as assistive tech?
Where do we start before college?
Is the free dyslexia screener a diagnosis?
Is assistive tech a crutch at college? Wrong worry. Ask which part of the work the tool takes over, and whether anyone taught your child to use it.
Does assistive tech make a student depend on it?
Assistive tech takes over a hard, mechanical part of the work. Text-to-speech reads the page out loud. Dictation turns spoken words into typed ones. Note tools record a lecture so nothing gets lost. The fear is that leaning on them stops a skill from ever growing.
In the studies we read for this piece, that fear did not hold up. Dependence did not show up as a result. What did show up was shame. Some students skipped the tools because using them felt like cheating. The International Dyslexia Association draws a clean line here. Instructional tech practices a skill that was taught. Assistive tech lets a student work on their own. That is not the last word on tools. It does mean the crutch is the wrong place to look.
Take text-to-speech. A 2023 study in Annals of Dyslexia found it raised understanding over silent reading. A 2026 eye-tracking study found a smaller gain for its dyslexia group. Reading took less time and less effort, but understanding did not rise. So here is the honest summary. It helps many readers, it lightens the load, and the results vary. Reading Rockets explains how it helps. The tool does the sounding out, so attention goes to meaning. Your child isn’t broken. Their brain is learning differently. The tool gets the ideas to them another way. It gives your child the content. Reading lessons are what build the reading.
Same kind of tool, opposite answers, which is why a blanket rule fails.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
How do you tell a helpful tool from one doing the thinking?
The question was never accommodation, yes or no. Ask a better one. Is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation it gets built? For a college student, that turns into one plain question. Which part of the work does this tool take over?
Start with what the class is asking for. A history class wants your child to weigh evidence and make an argument. Sounding out the chapter is not the point. Text-to-speech takes that part, and your child does the arguing. Dictation works the same way. Your child plans the essay and says it out loud. Now take an AI tool that writes the essay. The arguing is the point, and the tool did it. That is the one we would watch.
Same kind of tool, opposite answers. That is why a blanket rule fails. A parent we wrote about asked the school to stop reading his tests aloud. That was a reading test. The read-aloud did the exact skill being tested. A college chapter is different. The reading is how your child gets to the ideas. The ideas are what get graded. Berger and Lewandowski (2013) found a similar lesson with word processing. Both groups of older students wrote more on a keyboard. The gain was not special to the students who needed support. So the case for a tool rests on what the task is for.
- What is this assignment asking my child to show?
- Which part does the tool take over?
- Is that part the graded skill, or a step on the way to it?
Key takeaways
- The crutch fear points the wrong way: In the studies we read, dependence did not show up as a result.
- Ask what the task is for: A tool is fine when it takes over a step, not the skill being graded.
- Training is the missing piece: A tool handed over with no teaching tends to sit unused.
What goes wrong when a tool arrives with no training?
Here is the real risk, and it is not the crutch. It is a tool handed over with no teaching. A five-year follow-up study found a clear pattern. Students unsure how and why to use their tools built fewer strategies. The National Assistive Technology Research Institute found a matching gap in schools. Schools talk about assistive tech at IEP meetings. Few follow through on choosing it, setting it up and checking it.
That is a gap in the system. It is not your child’s fault, and it is not yours. College is where the gap tends to show. The move there also changes who asks for support. Before the first term, close the gap together.
- Practice on real coursework. Try each tool on the kind of reading and writing college will ask for.
- Ask your child the why. They should say what each tool takes over, and what stays with them.
- Go to the disability or accessibility office. Ask which tools they support and who teaches students to use them.
- Keep building the skill too. A tool and reading practice are not a trade. Your child does both.
Want a tour of the tools themselves? Read how assistive tech runs on three functions, not apps. A tool with no teaching is a box ticked. A tool your child understands is theirs to keep.
The real risk is not the crutch; it is a tool handed over with no teaching.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to leave for college ready to do hard things alone. A system that skips the teaching stands in the way, not the tool. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will. Start with the free dyslexia screener to see where reading takes the most work. It does not diagnose; only a professional evaluation opens an IEP or 504 plan. Take the free dyslexia screener.
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