Tape Assisted Reading Programmes (TARPs), and more recently, other forms of audio recorded stories, have been used in New Zealand schools to help students with reading difficulties. Many claims are made about the positive effects of such programmes on general reading ability and progress. However, this paper, informed by research, states that such programmes may also have particular limitations for students with severe decoding problems because merely listening to audio-recordings offers limited opportunities or incentives to develop specific word identification strategies. Some of these limitations are discussed and an activity that encourages the development of word knowledge and decoding strategies within such programmes is presented.