Archives for April 2020

How to Choose an App to Help your Child Read Better

April 30, 2020

So, you’ve been spending more time than usual inside with the littles. It’s only natural to be worried about things like screen time and exercise, especially with such limited access to outdoor and public spaces. But, their mobile devices can be used for more than games and videos. Did you know that you could help them learn how to read anywhere with just a tablet? Using a mobile app to help your children learn how to read is a simple, quarantine-friendly way for your kids to stay engaged while retaining key reading, spelling, and phonetics skills. Keep reading to learn how to use an apps to help your child read better.

Can I help my children learn to read faster?

It’s no secret that spending quality time with your kids can help them socially and academically as they grow. But, using reading apps as a catalyst to your child’s learning plan has been proven to improve reading speed and fluency.

When it comes to reading, consistency is key. Sticking to a schedule will get your kids into the groove, and it’ll make the initial transition easier as a whole. Just spending 20 to 30 minutes a day can help your child develop critical reading skills, from sounding out complex words to improving comprehension and context.

How can mobile apps help children with reading?

Flashcards aren’t the only way to help your kids learn how to read at home. There are a variety of different options to make the most out of your time, money, and effort. If you want the convenience and flexibility of learning at home, take advantage of technology to simplify the process.

Mobile apps work well to improve your child’s reading ability in three key areas:

Comprehension

One of the primary benefits of hiring a tutor is having the ability to ask questions and work through problems with assistance. Fortunately, technology provides us with an easy solution to this important problem.

An effective reading application should have interactive elements that allow your child to work on problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Using an AI-enabled app that includes voice recognition, your child can interact with the program just like an in-person tutor.

Receiving feedback gives the user the ability to resolve corrections on their own, strengthening their overall understanding of the material and basic concepts of the lesson. Over time, their reading comprehension will be dramatically improved.

Reading

Understanding the basics is a critical springboard for your children to succeed academically. Using a reading app is a great way to start them off on the right foot by helping them gain confidence and understanding with each exercise.

Responsive speech technology and AI are a couple of key features to look for in a reading app. These capabilities allow the child to read along with the app, and receive feedback in real-time. This can be incredibly beneficial for developing proper pronunciation and timing.

Analysis

Overseeing your child’s progress is easier than ever with a comprehensive mobile reading app. Real-time reporting gives you a snapshot of your child’s progress through reading duration, accuracy, and comprehension tracking.

Keeping track of your kids’ learning progress lets you stay in the loop every step of the way. Plus, you can help them stay accountable and focused on achieving their reading goals.

Your kids have grown up with technology at the forefront of their lives, so why not put their devices to good use by helping them learn along the way? Using electronics as a learning tool will cultivate a positive relationship between your children and their devices. Plus, you’ll benefit from knowing that your investment is being put to good use.

What is the best app to teach a child to read?

Reading is one of the most powerful tools your children will use throughout their lives, and it’s easier than ever to set them up for success. Using a reading app as a supplementary tool or stand-alone lesson can help your children sharpen their skills by working on pronunciation, comprehension, spelling, and reading confidence.

A top-performing reading app should include a full suite of features, such as:

Artificial intelligence
Natural language processing
Comprehension with interactive elements
Fun content
Real-time performance tracking
Gamification
Advanced speech recognition

Boost your child’s learning journey with a simple, cost-effective reading solution that you can use from anywhere, at any time. Sign up today to start improving your children’s reading progress with Readability.

Kids Best Reading Training App

April 29, 2020

Learning to read is a step-by-step process. Children need to begin with the basics—letter recognition and phonics—before they can move on to the task of sounding out words. Reading certain words through recognition—sight words—also is an important step towards early mastery and proficiency. A kids best reading training app should help children gain understanding and mastery of each skill at a pace that is unique to each child’s ability.

Parents who wish to guide their child through the stages of reading need to understand the process toward proficiency. While some children can read without any guidance and may be incredibly precocious in their abilities, parents also could discover that this ability is limited to decoding only. In fact, the child may not have a full understanding of textual comprehension. However, there also are many kids who may read and decode far beyond grade-level.

Other children may struggle with both phonetic and phonemic mastery as well as comprehension. Children with dyslexia may be able to fully comprehend text through auditory reading but may struggle with the ability to sound out or decode words—thus, leading to a lack of comprehension through the visual task of reading.

The Steps to Early Reading

For early and emerging readers, let’s focus on the most basic steps of reading and how an app can help these young readers gain reading proficiency.

A to Z: The Basic Code of Reading

Before a child can learn to sound out a word or even learn a word by sight, the child must learn the basic code of language: the alphabet. Learning the alphabet, being able to identify each letter independently and understanding (or even mimicking) the sound of each letter, is the first step of both phonetic and phonemic fluency.

If a child doesn’t understand the sounds of each letter and/or has difficulty identifying a letter, this could affect how a child learns to sound out a word.

Sound Out!

Once a child masters the alphabet, learns to identify letters on sight and can mimic the sound of each letter, they can begin to learn to decode small words. This is an early and important step in the reading process.

Young children can sound out small words like cat, dog, hot, am, spot, etc. For children in kindergarten, the understanding of more complex sound rules may be a bit beyond their understanding—although this depends on the child. More complex patterns may include mixed vowel sounds (ea, ou, etc.).

Learn Words by Sight

Certain words are considered so common (and simplistic) that children are expected to learn them by sight. Thus, the term ‘sight words.’ The most common sight words for kindergarteners include: all, am, are, black, but, did, and do (but there are many , many more…including some colors).

The best way for kids to learn sight words is through memorization. Make flashcards with each word to help children identify these words quickly. When reading together, encourage children to find these words in the text.

Put Words Together for Sentences

Young readers can begin to read small sentences and stories. Again, though, these should include words that are easy for the child to decode with the skills they have learned in school. Grade-level teachers should provide parents with a child’s reading Lexile so that parents can choose books that are at the appropriate level of difficulty.

When a child is able to read small sentences, they also should be able to comprehend the meaning of that sentence and of the text as a whole. Again, though, all stories should be within the appropriate level for the child.

How to Use Reading Training Software for Each Step

Readability provides all the tools that emerging readers need to gain early proficiency and to master each step of the reading journey. Guided and responsive recognition technology allows children to understand when they might have made an error in pronunciation and can help correct these small mistakes. This virtual tutor provides feedback to ensure that children feel reassurance during the process.

Children who struggle to read may feel self-conscious about pronunciation or reading errors and this could impact self-esteem. It’s extremely important for parents to choose a program that provides positive feedback to ensure that children feel confident…and never shamed.

Readability also provides leveled content for all lessons. The program grows with a child’s ability, and lessons will never be too easy or too difficult. As a child advances, the stories become more complex. However, no matter what a child’s reading level, the stories on Readability will always be engaging and immersive. Reading should be exciting and should take young minds on a journey. Children who struggle to read should not feel that their stories are any less interesting because they are reading at a different level.

How Apps Can Improve Comprehension

The final step of reading is all about comprehension. After a child masters phonetics and phonemics and can read the text fluently, they must understand what it all means as a whole. Comprehension involves all the “wh” questions of a story, but, as the levels become more difficult, comprehension also requires children to infer meaning and predict future outcomes.

Children who are emerging readers may simply need to be able to understand what they read—that is, they aren’t expected to be making predictions quite yet. Readability can help emerging readers through its Interactive Voice-based Questions & Answers (IVQA™) technology. This unique feature is a bit like a virtual teacher—it engages kids and asks them questions about the story. IVQA helps children gain a deeper understanding of the story and provides support for readers who struggle to answer the ‘wh’ questions of a story.

Ready to test-drive the kids’ best reading training app! Try Readability for free to see how the app can help your child.

App To Help You Learn How To Read Better

April 28, 2020

If you are looking for a fun app to help you learn how to read better, this is the place for you.

Here we look at a new version of the ReadabilityTutor app, and this one has some pretty amazing features to help every child not only to read better but also to fully understand what they are reading.

It is hard for a child to grasp reading. It is a skill that takes time and practice to develop, even with lots of support from teachers and parents.

Many parents also don’t have time to spend practicing with their kids, as they need to work and pay for everything the family needs. It certainly isn’t that parents don’t want to spend time with their kids, it is simply just that most don’t have much free time at all.

This is why we have worked so hard on this project. Reading is a skill that opens doors, providing new opportunities and makes studying easier (once mastered).

Because it is time-intensive, our app has been created using AI technology to provide a more ‘natural’ feeling learning experience. It is more like having a private tutor 24/7 than being simply a reading app.

How ReadabilityTutor Teaches Reading in a Fun Way

The key to getting kids to learn to read is making them want to learn. By making sure our app is easy to use, interactive, and fun, we make sure that kids and parents enjoy the experience.

Here are our top features that make using ReadabilityTutor a joy for kids and parents:

Raved About By Teachers and Education Experts – Both teachers and experts have talked up how good this app is for teaching reading and being great value for money. Gone are the days of needing to pay a 1-on-1 tutor by the hour. Save your money and have a personal 24/7 reading tutor for a fraction of the cost.
Original Content That Grabs Attention – Children love the constantly growing range of stories in our library. Content is colorful, entertaining, and educational. Of course, all content also comes with custom-designed illustrations to help bring more color and interest to each story.
Level Appropriate – Our AI recommends the best stories from our extensive library, ensuring that they are level appropriate and interesting for each child. The system is so advanced that it actually creates a personalized reading journey for each individual child.
Responsive Speech Recognition – This is a key feature, and without it, ReadabilityTutor wouldn’t be anywhere near as good or as effective as it is. This unique feature is also loved by children, as typing is not required, they can simply speak and get feedback from the app for what they say. The system is so advanced that it actually corrects mispronunciation live as the story is read aloud.
Interactive Questions to Increase Story Comprehension – In the latest update, we have added a new and quite spectacular feature. We call it “Interactive Voice-based Questions & Answers (IVQA™)”. This new technology increased comprehension by asking your child questions about the story they just read. The child can also answer the questions by speaking, just like they would to a real-life parent, tutor, or teacher. This not only adds a fun ‘quiz-style’ element to reading but also helps to develop a child’s critical thinking and text scanning abilities. By asking questions, the app makes sure that they have really understood the words they just read aloud.
Guided Reading – Whether the story is being read by the learner or our app, the words are clearly tracked on the screen. This helps children to easily follow the story when it is read to them and for them to keep focused on where they are when they read the story back to the AI.
Anywhere & 24/7 – Our app allows children to explore stories and practice reading whenever they want. Using mobile devices is the perfect way to allow them to read where they enjoy reading, whether on the bench in their favorite park, or in their ‘secret’ hiding place.
See Results in the Parental Dashboard – Parents can enjoy live reports from within the parental dashboard and with the new comprehension checking feature now live, parents now get a comprehensive report for fluency, accuracy, and comprehension for each child added to the app.

Our new version takes the app from being an effective reading system to being a fully-fledged and vocally interactive tutor. So, if you aren’t already enjoying our app, give our 7-day free reading app trial a try to see how quickly your child’s reading skills can improve.

How to Choose the Best Homeschool Reading Curriculum

April 27, 2020

The vast majority of schools in the U.S. are temporarily closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Kids will be at home for the foreseeable future, so many parents have decided to take over for teachers. But homeschooling is not as easy as it may seem. For starters, parents have to find the right tools to help them teach their children. There are a lot of options out there, especially when it comes to reading curriculum, but some are better than others. Here are the factors you should consider when searching for the best homeschool reading curriculum for your child:

Your Child’s Learning Style
Your Teaching Style
Your Availability
Your Budget
Your Child’s Interests

Your Child’s Learning Style

Every child learns differently. If you want your child to learn a lot from your homeschooling efforts, make sure you choose a curriculum that matches their learning style. Some of the most common types of learning styles include:

Visual: Learns through pictures, images, and spatial understanding
Auditory: Prefers listening to lectures and lessons
Physical: Learns by getting hands-on experience rather than seeing or listening
Solitary: Prefers to learn on their own with minimal interruptions and instruction

If you aren’t sure what your child’s learning style is, don’t be afraid to talk to them about it. Make sure they understand that there’s no right or wrong answer so they tell you the truth.

Your Teaching Style

Homeschool reading curriculum won’t be effective if it doesn’t match your teaching style. That’s why it’s so crucial that you take the time to identify what type of teaching style you tend to use. Some of the most common styles include:

Authority: Teaches by lecturing
Demonstrator: Teaches by lecturing, but also includes demos, interactive activities, and multimedia presentations
Delegator: Teaches by observing and encouraging peer-to-peer interaction or hands-on experience
Facilitator: Encourages students to openly discuss topics and ask questions

Identifying your teaching style plays an important role in choosing the right curriculum. For example, if you are a facilitator, you may not be an effective teacher if you choose a curriculum that requires you to take on the authority teaching style.

Your Availability

Another factor to take into consideration is your availability. Parents who aren’t working may have a lot of time to dedicate to homeschooling, whereas parents who are working from home may not.

If you don’t have much time, it’s important to choose a homeschooling program that encourages your child to work independently. Hands-on homeschooling programs that require a lot of instruction will not suit parents who don’t have much time to spare.

Your Budget

The cost of homeschooling curriculum can vary widely. A reasonable estimate for curriculum is between $300 to $600 per child, but some intensive programs can cost upwards of $1,500 per child.

Since this is a temporary arrangement for parents who are homeschooling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s important to calculate how much you are willing to spend so you don’t go over budget. If you want to keep costs low, it’s best to look for apps or inexpensive books that can provide you with enough material to make it through this trying time.

Your Child’s Interests

Make sure you also think about your child’s interests when picking the right homeschool reading curriculum. Kids who are just starting—or who are struggling— to read will not be motivated unless they are interested in what they are reading.

If your child loves nature and space, for example, look for a program with a wide variety of science-related reading materials. This is a great way to get your child excited about becoming a better reader.

Keep these factors in mind as you research different homeschooling curriculum choices. By considering each of these factors, you should be able to quickly narrow down your options and find the right curriculum that meets your family’s needs.

Which Homeschool Reading Program is Best?

There are a number of different programs out there to choose from, but the best homeschool reading curriculum can be found on the Readability app. Using artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology, the app will listen to your child read and provide instant feedback and pronunciation correction.

The app also tests your child’s comprehension and keeps them engaged by asking questions about the text they’re reading. These features allow the Readability app to serve as a digital reading tutor for your child.

If you’re ready to help your child improve their reading skills, download the Readability app and start your free 7-day trial today.

Best Online Reading Help App for Kids

April 24, 2020

Is your child struggling to keep up with their reading skills while schools are closed due to Coronavirus? This is where the best online reading help app for kids can help give parents some peace.

Instead of having children whinging and whining about how bored they are and how much they hate being at home, why not improve their reading skills while at the same time sending them off on ‘literary adventures’ from the safety of their home?

How ReadabilityTutor Can Help To Restore Peace at Home

One of the main reasons kids are driving parents up the wall is because they’re bored and can’t think of what to do with all this time at home. They need entertainment and expect the adults in the room to provide it.

However, in this self-isolation and the locked-down world we are currently living in, reading can be the perfect hobby to encourage, and ReadabilityTutor makes reading fun, supports their development, and can even read to them. Here are some of the features:

Listen to Stories

When your child is tired, or feeling a bit lazy, listening to a good story can be just as good as reading one. The app is full of different stories that are level and age-appropriate.

Huge Library

Our library is huge and continually expanding. All books are full of funny and colorful illustrations to help bring the stories to life. The AI helps to recommend books to read next, based on each child’s interests and reading ability. This allows kids to explore our huge library safely, while parents don’t need to worry about paying for each book read.

Listen and Repeat

The built-in AI can first read the story, then allow the child to read it after … all while providing live feedback as they read. The screen also highlights the words being read by the AI, helping them to track the words easier. Responsive speech recognition technology allows the app to actually provide real-time correction to incorrect pronunciation as they read the story back to the app.

Interactive

The app is fully interactive, from following texts as the child reads aloud, to asking questions about the story. Parents can also encourage its use and set targets for prizes, turning reading challenges into an indoor game with rewards.

Comprehension Quizzes

Learning to read words out loud is just one part of the process. Truly understanding a story takes more focus and practice. This is why a new feature of comprehension checking was introduced. This amazing feature isn’t just some boring text quiz, but instead is a full “Interactive Voice-based Questions & Answers (IVQA™)”, which means that for the child it is just like a teacher or parent asking the questions and they verbally answer the question.

Dashboard and Feedback

Parents and learners get reports on how they are doing so that they can see clear improvements. Learners get feedback about their accuracy, comprehension, and fluency. Parents get live reports and easy to view history, allowing them to track the improvements of every student.

All of the above features come together to help make parents’ lives easier. Teaching at home is difficult, but this app makes teaching and improving reading skills a breeze. As far as the kids are concerned, it’s fun … almost as much fun as playing games on their tablet.

We all know how much children love to play on mobile devices, this is why we developed the best online reading help app to work on all mainstream mobile devices. This way it is available wherever and whenever they want to use it. Even if they can’t go far, they can sit outside, in their room, or even in a blanket-fort.

What are you waiting for? Don’t leave it until you’re climbing the walls with madness, try our 7-day free trial to see exactly how we can help bring more peace to your lives, keeping the kids entertained and allowing parents a few moments of rest. With over 20 years of tech experience and “an army of child development professionals”, this app is truly something special and was launched long before Covid-19 issues.

The Classic 4th Grade Reading List: Homeschool Edition

April 23, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak has caused many schools to close and kids are now doing all of their learning at home. Parents might be struggling with this sudden shift to homeschooling. However, reading can easily be practiced at home simply by providing your child with lots of reading materials. With this classic 4th grade reading list homeschool can be easier for you and your child.

How can I get my child to read at home?

Reading is a great way to keep your child learning at home without them even realizing it! Getting your child to read for fun can help them reduce their screen time while they are at home. However, some children might need a little more convincing to read for fun. Here are some tips to get your kids reading at home:

Read with them – Reading with your children not only creates a stronger bond with them, but you also give them a good model of reading. Children often follow their parents’ lead and if you show an enthusiasm for reading, they will too.
Set reading goals – By creating concrete reading goals, you set your child up to want to accomplish something. You can also make these goals visual by creating a chart that shows how many books they’ve read and how many they aim to finish reading each week or month.
Family movie night – Many classic books have been turned into movies. This can be a great motivator to get your children to read. As a family, choose a classic book to read together and when you have all finished the book, you can have a family movie night to watch the movie version of the book. This is a great way to help your child’s reading comprehension and enhance their imagination.
Use books as rewards – A great way to motivate kids to read is to use books themselves as a motivator. Instead of rewarding your child with candy or more toys, you can instead let them choose a book to get as a reward for good behavior or good grades. When you put a value on books, your children will as well.
Use a reading app– In order to get your kids reading, you should use a platform they are already familiar with like apps. Reading apps like Readability make reading fun and interactive for kids. Readability specifically creates original content and provides stories at different reading levels.

What can my fourth-grader read?

By fourth grade, your child should be able to read independently. They are now starting to transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. They are using their reading skills to learn about new things. Most children by now have an expansive sight word knowledge, so the focus on vocabulary is mostly on spelling. Your child is able to read longer and more complex texts such as chapter books. They should also be able to:

Context within a text to be able to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Use specific examples from a text to explain a character’s actions, thoughts, or motivation.
Understands and is able to explain different genres such as poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
Make connections between the reading material and prior knowledge.
Identify, compare, and contrast ideas and perspectives in a text.
Read with accurate expression, pacing, and comprehension.

What are the classic 4th-grade books?

Fourth grade is a great time to be reading with your child. They are now able to read more complex and interesting texts. Here are some classic books to read with your fourth grader:

Charlotte’s Web – This classic children’s book is the perfect introduction to chapter books. The story of a girl and her beloved pet pig is great for those looking to share a childhood favorite with their children.
Judy Blume– Judy Blume’s books are all classics for young readers. You likely grew up reading her books, so sharing her stories with your children can help with discussing the stories together. Blume even has a story about a fourth-grader. The Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing is a great story for your fourth grader to read.
Diary of A Wimpy Kid – This relatively new classic shows your child how reading can not only be interesting but funny as well.
The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe – The first novel in the classic Chronicles of Narnia series is a great intro to getting your child to read a series. This book is also a great way to enhance your child’s imagination and get them thinking about fantasy worlds filled with creativity.
A Wrinkle in Time – Another fantasy classic, A Wrinkle in Time can transport your child to a new world that can help enhance their own creativity.
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – This fun classic incorporates moral lessons with fun and fantasy. You can incorporate your child’s love of candy with reading.
Harry Potter Series – Once your child has tackled these other classics, you can get them to start reading the Harry Potter series. While this series is recommended for those in 5th or 6th grade, it could be a good challenge for your 4th grade to try something more advanced.

These classics are must-reads for every 4th grader and now is a perfect time to read them. If you want to provide even more reading materials for your 4th grader, using an app like Readability is a great way to give them never-ending reading material for them to work with.

Readability has a large library of original content at various reading levels and is constantly updating its library with more stories. Being at home for months is likely having an effect on your child’s learning. Giving them different opportunities to learn and have fun at the same time is essential to get them through this difficult and stressful time. Start your free trial today!