ADHD Reading Tools: What Helps You Stay With the Page

Updated 31 October 2026

Most reading advice for ADHD is about habits: read in short bursts, read what interests you, put your phone away. That advice is good, but sometimes the quickest win is simply a better tool. A strip of card, a setting buried in your phone, or a different way of putting words on the screen can make a page much easier to stay with.

This guide is about those tools: what each one does, which reading problem it helps with, and how to try it. Many of them are things you already own. If you are looking for habits and routines rather than tools, start with our guide on how to read with ADHD.

Start with the problem, not the tool

No single tool helps everyone, because "I can't read" covers several different problems. Before you try anything, notice which of these sounds most like you:

You lose your place. Your eyes skip lines, jump ahead or land back on a line you have already read.
You drift off. Your eyes keep moving, but your mind left a paragraph ago.
You cannot get started. The book sits there and the session never begins.
You forget what you read. You finish a chapter and cannot say what happened in it.

Pick the one or two that cost you the most, and choose tools for those. The sections below follow the same order.

Tools for when you lose your place

An index card, a ruler or a reading strip

The simplest reading tool there is. Lay a card or ruler under the line you are reading and slide it down as you go, so the lines below are hidden and your eyes have one obvious place to be. Reading strips do the same job with a clear or tinted window that shows one line at a time; they are sold cheaply and are easy to keep in a book as a bookmark. If you find the card slows you down too much, try covering only the text below the line you are on.

A finger or a pen as a pacer

Running a finger or the back of a pen along under each line gives your eyes something to follow and stops them wandering off the line. It is the tool children are taught to drop, but plenty of adult readers find it helps, especially with dense or small text.

Line focus and reading modes on screen

On a computer, Microsoft's Immersive Reader (built into Edge, Word and OneNote) has a line focus option that dims everything except one, three or five lines, which works like a digital reading strip. Most browsers also have a reader or reading mode that strips out adverts, sidebars and pop-ups and shows just the article. Safari's Reader view on the iPhone and Mac is one example.

Your e-reader's text settings

If you read on a Kindle, Kobo, phone or tablet, spend five minutes in the display settings. A larger font, more space between lines and wider margins put fewer words on each line and fewer lines on each page, which means less for your eyes to track. Some people also find a particular font noticeably easier to read than others. Try a few and keep whichever feels least effortful, rather than whichever looks nicest.

Tools that set the pace for you

If your problem is drifting off, the most useful tools take control of the pace away from you. When the words keep arriving at a steady rate, it is much harder to drift for a page without noticing.

Audiobooks, read along with the text

Listening while you follow the printed or ebook text gives you two ways into the same words. Library apps such as Libby let you borrow audiobooks with a library card, and some ebooks can be paired with their audiobook versions so you can switch between the two.

Text-to-speech

For anything that has no audiobook, such as articles, emails, notes or PDFs, your device can usually read it aloud:

iPhone and iPad: go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Spoken Content, and turn on Speak Selection or Speak Screen. Turning on Highlight Content as well shows each word as it is read, which makes it easier to follow along.
Android: Select to Speak, found in the Accessibility settings, reads out whatever you tap or select.
On a computer: Microsoft Edge has a Read Aloud button for web pages and PDFs, and Immersive Reader can read text aloud too.

Turn the voice speed down at first. Built-in voices often start faster than is comfortable for following along.

One-word-at-a-time reading (RSVP)

Rapid serial visual presentation, or RSVP, shows a single word at a time in the same spot on the screen, at a speed you choose. It tackles losing your place and drifting off at once: your eyes do not move, so they cannot slip to the wrong line, and the steady rhythm of words keeps you with the text. It suits reading straight through, such as novels, articles and long emails, and is less suited to anything with tables or diagrams, or where you need to flip back and forth. Start at a gentle speed, around 200 to 250 words a minute, and take short breaks. Our guide to RSVP reading explains how it works and where it falls short.

Tools for getting started and staying put

A timer you can see

"Read for ten minutes" is far easier to start than "read a chapter". A kitchen timer or a visual timer that shows the time running out works better than your phone's timer, because picking up your phone to start it is often where the session ends. When it goes off, you are allowed to stop.

Focus modes and app limits

Your phone can be a reading tool or the main thing pulling you away from one. On an iPhone, a Focus mode can silence notifications and hide distracting apps while you read, and Screen Time can limit the apps you tend to escape into. Android phones have similar options under Digital Wellbeing. If you read on a tablet, consider keeping it for reading only, with no social media or games installed.

Headphones and background sound

Noise-cancelling headphones or simple earplugs cut out the conversations and sounds that tend to break concentration. Some people read better with steady background sound such as brown noise, rain or instrumental music, while others need silence. Try both and see which keeps you on the page longer.

Something for your hands

If you fidget when you read, give the fidgeting somewhere to go. A fidget toy, a stress ball or a piece of putty can keep your hands busy without taking your eyes off the page. Some people read better standing at a counter or pacing slowly with an ebook or an audiobook. Sitting still is not a requirement for reading.

Tools for remembering what you read

Sticky tabs and a pencil

Instead of highlighting whole passages, keep a few sticky tabs inside the cover and use one to mark a page you want to come back to. A pencil tick in the margin does the same job. The point is to mark only the handful of things that matter, which forces you to decide what those are.

A one-line summary

Keep a notebook, a notes app or even the inside back cover for a single sentence at the end of each chapter or session: what happened, or what the main idea was. It takes thirty seconds, and it gives you an easy way back in when you return to a book after a few days away. For study reading, our guide on how to read textbooks with ADHD goes further into taking notes that stick.

A reading tracker

Logging minutes or pages, on paper or in an app, makes progress visible. Visible progress makes the next session easier to start. Track small units: a week of ten-minute sessions is worth noticing even if you have not finished a book.

Tools that work for some people

A few tools have keen fans and equally keen critics. They are worth a quick try, but do not expect them to work for everyone:

Bolded word beginnings. Some apps and browser extensions bold the first few letters of each word, with the idea that your eye can glide along the bold parts. Some readers like it; others find it distracting. Test it on a page or two before you commit.
Coloured overlays and tinted backgrounds. Some people find black text on a cream, grey or tinted background more comfortable than black on bright white. Most e-readers and many apps let you change the background colour, so it is easy to test.

If reading is hard in ways that go beyond attention, such as words that seem to move, frequent letter mix-ups, or reading aloud being much harder than it should be, a tool is not the whole answer. ADHD and dyslexia often occur together, and it is worth asking a doctor or an educational psychologist about an assessment.

Putting together a simple kit

You do not need everything on this list. Two or three tools that match your problems are plenty. A few combinations that work well together:

For novels on the commute: an audiobook with the ebook to follow along, or a one-word-at-a-time reader, plus noise-cancelling headphones.
For articles and long emails at a desk: a browser reading mode, text-to-speech or RSVP for long stretches, and a Focus mode while you read.
For a paper book on the sofa: an index card as a line guide, a visual timer, and a pencil for one-line summaries.

Try a combination for a week before you judge it. Any new tool feels a little awkward for the first few sessions.

Questions people ask

What is the best reading tool for ADHD?

There is no single best tool, because people struggle with reading in different ways. If you lose your place, start with a reading strip or line focus. If you drift off, try something that sets the pace, such as an audiobook with the text or one-word-at-a-time reading. If you cannot get started, try a visible timer.

Do I need an ADHD diagnosis to use these tools?

No. All of these tools are open to anyone, and plenty of people without ADHD use them. If they make reading easier for you, that is reason enough.

Is using text-to-speech or audiobooks cheating?

No. The goal is to take in the book or the article, and listening gets you there. If you also want to build your confidence with printed text, following along with the words while you listen gives you both.