The importance of strong reading skills cannot be overstated. Reading skills are not just crucial for a child’s academic success, but also for their personal development and professional success throughout their lives.

Sadly, many children struggle to develop strong reading skills in elementary school. In the past, parents often found it difficult to get their children additional reading help outside of the classroom. But this is no longer an issue today due to the influx of reading apps available for smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Why Should Your Child Use Reading Apps?

Help for struggling readers is available at your fingertips thanks to the emergence of reading apps. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not your child should use reading apps, here are 20 reasons why you should take advantage of these powerful tools:

Convenience

Using a reading app is a convenient way for your child to work on their reading skills. There’s no need to carry heavy textbooks or notebooks or meet one-on-one with a private tutor. With a reading app, your child can start working on their reading skills with the push of a button.

Accessibility

Reading apps are compatible with smartphones, tablets, and other devices, which makes them incredibly accessible to children. It doesn’t matter whether your child is at home, at school, in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, or in the car on a family road trip. These apps can be accessed at any time from any location, so your child can work on their reading skills as much as possible.

Inexpensive

Hiring a private reading tutor is expensive. Tutors typically charge between $30 to $40 per hour, which can add up quickly over time.

Families who cannot afford to pay for multiple tutoring sessions per week can turn to reading apps, which are far less expensive.

Some apps charge one-time fees when the app is initially downloaded, whereas others charge monthly subscription fees. Either way, a reading app will cost much less than a private reading tutor.

User-Friendly

Reading apps are designed with kids in mind. The developers design these apps to be as user-friendly as possible to cater to elementary-aged children. This means your child will be able to use a reading app on their own, so they won’t need you to hover over their shoulder and explain what to do.

Being able to access, navigate, and use a reading app will allow your child to work on their reading skills in their free time regardless of whether or not you are available to help.

Fun Experience

Most kids beg their parents for permission to spend more time on their smartphones, tablets, or computers. Kids are naturally drawn to these technological devices, which is why they typically enjoy the experience of using reading apps.

Your child will love that they finally get to use a smartphone or tablet on their own. Because reading apps are so much fun for kids, they will be motivated to keep using them on a regular basis.

Endless Content

If you download a reading app, you won’t need to take countless trips to the library or bookstore in order to provide your child with new reading material.

Reading apps will provide your child with access to a vast library of age-appropriate content that is constantly updated with new and exciting stories. Your child will never run out of things to read or get bored with the content since there’s so much to choose from.

Multi-Sensory Experience

Multi-sensory teaching techniques are those that engage more than one sense at a time. Research shows that using these teaching techniques can help struggling readers connect with the material and improve their reading skills.

Multi-sensory techniques are not used in many classrooms, but they are used on reading apps. A reading app will engage your child’s sight, hearing, and touch to create a unique multi-sensory learning experience. This approach ensures that the app keeps your child’s attention and interest so they are motivated to continue learning.

Improves Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is one of the most difficult reading skills to master. Fortunately, there are apps that can help your child drastically improve their reading comprehension skills.

The Readability app, for example, will ask your child questions about the content they are reading. The app will then listen to your child’s answers to measure how well they understood the story. It’s just like talking to a teacher, but it’s in the palm of your child’s hand.

Helps With Fluency

Reading apps can improve your child’s fluency skills, too. The Readability app will read the text aloud to your child before instructing your child to read the same text aloud on their own. This process, which is known as modeling, has been proven to help children become more fluent readers.

Addresses Decoding Issues

Decoding is the process of sounding out words using your knowledge of letter-sound relationships. This skill is the foundation of reading. Without it, kids cannot become strong readers.

Many reading apps, including Readability, are designed to help kids who are struggling to develop decoding skills. The Readability app will listen for pronunciation errors as your child reads aloud. If your child makes a mistake, the app will provide immediate feedback so your child can learn from their errors.

Broadens Vocabulary

Your child will be exposed to new words every time they read independently on a reading app. If they encounter a new word, the reading app will help them learn how to pronounce it. But they must use context clues from the story to determine what it means.

Hearing the word—and figuring out what it means—will help your child commit it to their memory. The more your child reads on a reading app, the more words they will encounter and the wider their vocabulary will grow.

Builds Confidence

Struggling to read can negatively impact a child’s confidence. They may think that they aren’t as smart or capable as their peers, which can leave them unhappy and unmotivated to improve.

But using a reading app can help struggling readers overcome their challenges and become strong, capable readers. Mastering these skills will give your child a massive confidence boost and help them realize that they are just as intelligent and capable as their classmates.

Fosters A Love for Reading

Using a reading app is a fun experience for kids. Because of this, reading apps can actually help your child discover their passion for reading. As they become stronger readers, they may find themselves reading in their spare time for fun.

This love for reading will continue to bring them joy—and help them achieve success—for the rest of their lives.

Promotes Brain Development

Many people have always thought that reading can make you smarter, but now there is scientific evidence to prove it.

A study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that reading activates certain regions of a child’s brain that are associated with memory and information processing. This means if you encourage your child to read on a reading app, you are promoting their brain development.

Helps Children Better Understand the World

Research suggests that reading can help children broaden their minds and gain a better understanding of the world around them. It can introduce them to various cultures and teach them about the beauty in diversity. Because they can carry these skills with them for the rest of their lives, reading can help them grow into well-rounded adults.

Sets Children Up For Academic Success

Using a reading app for 20 minutes per day can set your child up for academic success. Studies show that children who read for at least 20 minutes per day score higher on standardized tests than 90% of their peers.

Scoring high on these tests can help your child gain admittance into advanced learning programs, win academic awards, and get accepted into top tier universities and colleges.

Sparks Creativity

Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It turns out, Einstein was right. Experts believe that children who use their imagination when playing are developing vital social, cognitive, psychological, and emotional skills.

But children may need help stimulating their imagination, which is why it’s so important to encourage them to read on a regular basis using a reading app. Research shows that reading improves a child’s imagination just like exercising strengthens the muscles in your body. The more your child reads, the more imaginative they will become.

Increases Tech-Savviness

The older your child gets, the more they will rely on smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices. They will need to know how to use these devices to communicate with friends, complete schoolwork, conduct research, and apply for colleges.

Kids need to feel comfortable using technological devices, and allowing them to use a reading app is one of the best ways to introduce them to the tech world.

Using a reading app will set your child up for a lifetime of tech-savviness.

Easy to Track Progress

Many apps are designed with progress reports and performance dashboards that allow parents to monitor their child’s performance. If you choose one of these apps, it will be easy for you to track your child’s progress and see how much they have improved. This way, you will know you are not wasting your child’s time on an ineffective reading tool.

Addresses Skill Deficits Early

For years, experts believed that children who struggled to read were “late bloomers,” meaning they would eventually learn to read and catch up with their peers. But the late bloomer theory has been put to rest.

Now, experts know that reading difficulties will not simply fade away over time without early and urgent intervention. In other words, the longer you wait to get your struggling reader the help they need, the harder it will be for them to catch up with their peers.

Using a reading app is an effective way to provide your child with the help they need to develop crucial reading skills and stay on track academically. These apps can help you address your child’s skill deficits before they negatively impact their academic career.

What to Look For When Choosing Reading Apps

Now that you know the many benefits of using a reading app, it’s important to learn how to choose the right app for your child. Don’t simply choose the first app that appears in your search results. Take the time to look for an app with these features:

• Grade-level appropriate content: Be sure to choose an app that contains content for readers at your child’s grade level. If the content is solely aimed at younger or older readers, the app will not help your child improve their reading skills.
• Affordable price: There are countless affordable reading apps available, so there’s no need to break your budget on getting your child the help they need to succeed.
• Measurable results: It’s best to find an app that allows you to track your child’s reading progress. If you can’t track your child’s performance, there’s no way to determine whether or not the reading app is effective.
• Methods backed by research: Look into how each app works before choosing one for your child. The strategies that the app uses to teach your child should be backed by research. In other words, look for an app that uses strategies that have been proven to help kids become better readers. If an app is not using methods backed by research, chances are that it will not help your child achieve their reading goals.
• Addresses your child’s unique needs: Every child is different. Some children struggle with fluency or decoding, whereas others struggle with reading comprehension. Many children experience reading difficulties due to learning disabilities, but others struggle due to inadequate instruction. Figure out what your child is struggling with—and more importantly, why—to ensure you find an app that meets their unique needs.

Remember, what works for one child may not work for another. Don’t be afraid to try different apps until you find one that is perfect for your child.

What is the Best Reading App For Struggling Readers?

Your search for the best reading app for your child is over. Readability is the only smart reading and comprehension learning app that kids can use anytime, anywhere. Created by reading specialists and child education experts, it is designed with all of the important features and qualities mentioned above.

This innovative app uses advanced technology to help kids improve their decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension skills. The app also allows parents to track their child’s progress through the user-friendly dashboard.

Don’t wait to get your child the reading help they need—download the Readability app to start your free 7-day trial today.