Reading can be difficult to teach because it involves several different skills to be used at once.

However, the coronavirus outbreak has caused many schools to close leaving thousands of children without proper reading instruction. Many parents are now taking on the responsibility of teaching their children to read and helping them when they are struggling. Luckily, There are many ways to assist parents that are teaching their children to read at home. There are a wide variety of apps out there that help with various reading skills. Apps to improve reading speed and comprehension are valuable tools parents can use during school closures. Here are a few of our favorite apps to help you with improving your child’s reading speed and comprehension:

How can I improve my child’s reading speed?

Reading speed is basically how quickly your child can recognize words and sentences. The key to increasing reading speed is to increase your child’s phonemic awareness and vocabulary. Phonemic awareness allows your child to quickly associate letters with sounds and to be able to quickly put those sounds into words.

By increasing your child’s vocabulary, you are increasing their ability to recognize words and associate those words with meaning. Here are some apps to help increase phonemic awareness and build their vocabulary:

• Hooked on Phonics – This classic program has been a staple of reading instruction for years. Now, it is available as an app so your child can get phonemic help whenever they want. Hooked on phonics emphasizes learning the important relationship between sounds and word forms. Your child learns the different parts of speech as well as suffixes and prefixes that help them identify words.
• Sight Words – Sight words are the most commonly used words in a language. The Sight Words app helps your child build their sight word vocabulary in a fun and interactive way. The app is filled with word games that help improve vocabulary.
• Reading Trainer – Reading Trainer is a great app that targets improving reading speed. Reading Trainer provides fun games and eye exercises to help train your child to quickly recognize words. The app also keeps a record of your progress which is a great way for you to track your child’s improvements.

How can I improve my child’s reading comprehension?

Reading speed and comprehension go hand in hand. If your child is able to quickly recognize words and connect them to meaning, they are able to understand and comprehend what is being said in a text. Improving reading comprehension is key because it is the basis for reading success. Here are some apps to help improve your child’s reading comprehension:

• Bookopolis – In order to best help our kids, we need to use platforms they are already on and familiar with such as social media. Bookopolis marries social media with reading by creating an online community based on reading. Bookopolis allows users to share what they are reading and create book reviews to share with others. This can help your child share what they have learned from their books and discuss with others what they comprehend and think about the texts.
• Readability – Reading comprehension sometimes takes help and guidance. Readability is a great way for your child to have help and guidance whenever they need it. The app acts as a private tutor for your child by using speech-recognition technology to listen to your child reading out loud and gives them instant feedback to help them improve. Readability also has the option to have it read to your child so they can listen and follow along while they read the texts. This gives your child an extra model for reading when you are unavailable.
• Rewordify – For more advanced readers, sometimes the challenge comes from the advanced vocabulary. Rewordify identifies difficult vocabulary words in a text then simplifies it to make the passage more understandable. This can help your child understand texts easily and also helps build their vocabulary.

Improving reading speed and comprehension can help make sure your child is still staying on track even among the school closures during the coronavirus outbreak. Apps such as Readability can help parents with no teaching experience to still give their children the quality education they desperately need. With Readability, you can ensure that your child will return to school with better reading skills.