Many new readers struggle with reading quickly and smoothly. Being able to improve your reading speed will lead to better reading fluency and reading comprehension. Children often get practice and guidance with improving their reading speed at school. With so many school closures across the country, many children who are struggling with reading are left without any appropriate reading instruction to help them improve.

However, you can still help your child improve their reading skills using reading apps to supplement their learning. These reading apps that help you improve your reading speed are great to use in addition to a regular reading program. 

How fast should I be reading?

Reading speed is the number of words you are able to recognize per minute and the percentage of comprehension of the material. The average reader can read 250 words per minute with 60% reading comprehension. The top readers can reach 1,000 words per minute with 85% comprehension.

Improving reading speed can help your child understand reading materials better and faster. It will help them to be able to get through school work faster and more efficiently in the future. 

How do you improve reading speed? 

Improving reading speed is relatively easy to learn, especially for young children. Children, in general, learn things quicker and better than adults, so improving your child’s reading speed can be done easily at home.

According to a speed-reading instructor, George Stancliffe, there are four key components to speed reading:

• Natural vision – being able to see more than one word at once. Natural vision means to extend just seeing three or four words when you look at a passage. You should be able to see lines of words. 
• Visualization – picturing the story in your mind as if it is a movie. 
• Relax – being relaxed when reading and visualizing. Many people read with intense concentration, but Stancliffe encourages them to focus on relaxing to get maximum visualization and concentration. 
• Daily Practice – exercising discipline and practicing speed-reading every day. Practice makes perfect!

These key factors can help your child learn not just to improve their reading speed but also to improve their reading comprehension and learn to read thoughtfully. Of course, discipline alone can make it difficult for children to be motivated to read.

Especially now, children are more distracted than ever and leaning on digital devices. If you find your child has increased their screen time, you can at least make their time on their tablets educational by downloading some reading apps that can help them improve their reading speed and skills.

What apps improve reading speed?

Improving reading speed takes practice, but using some reading apps can help with enhancing the skills needed to speed read.

1. Readability – Readability is a great app for general reading practice for your child. Most importantly, it will improve reading speed because it essentially works as a private reading tutor for your child. Through A.I. and speech-recognition, the app listens to your child read and gives them instant feedback for error correction. The app also gives you a progress report so you can see your child’s progress.
2. Sight Words – A huge part of improving reading speed is building vocabulary. Sight Words helps your child increase their vocabulary so that they are able to recognize more words quickly. The app uses word games and fun graphics to keep children engaged and having fun while they learn.
3. Chicktionary – Chicktionary is another reading app that uses games to help your child learn new words. In the game, your child must arrange the chickens to spell the words correctly. This cheeky, fun game will make your kids laugh as they learn.
4. Spreeder – Spreeder is a great app to help improve reading speed for both children and adults. You can input any text into the app and set the pace of the reader. The app will then play the text word by word as a video so you can see how quickly you are able to read each word to understand the full sentence.
5. Read Eye – This app is a similar reading speed app as Spreeder. You can input any text you like and it will play it across the screen so you can see how slow or quickly you are able to read the text.
6. Reading Trainer – This speed reading app works by first measuring your current reading speed. The app gives you a text to read and times you while you read it, then you must answer a short quiz about the reading to see how much you understand the reading. This is a great app to not only measure how quickly your child recognizes words but also their reading comprehension.

Improving your child’s reading speed during this time can be a simple way to keep them on track with their learning. Using these reading apps like Readability, they can learn to be a better reader while having fun at the same time. Reading has never been more fun and easy!

Helping kids learn how to read is a dynamic process that’s different for each child, but keeping your kids on track can be done with just a few minutes each day.

In fact, it’s easier than ever to incorporate reading into anyone’s daily routine, especially with all of the time we’re spending at home. Did you know that you can use your favorite mobile devices to enhance the lesson with cutting-edge learning tools like Interactive Voice-based Questions & Answers (IVQA™) and artificial intelligence?

Here are some tips and activities that anyone can use to improve the learning process for early-stage readers.

1. Set a Consistent Study Schedule

More than most of us, children are creatures of habit. They enjoy routine and feel comfortable with things they can expect and understand. The same can be said for activities like studying and doing homework.

While there will surely be days when your child does not want to sit for a reading session, sticking to the same schedule will get them used to reading being a part of their daily routine.

If they’re using a reading app, you can determine the best time to study by looking at their usage reports. Experiment with the time of day and duration of each lesson, then take a look at the data to see their progress.

2. Communicate Throughout the Story

As you’re reading with your children, be sure to talk about the key points in the story to keep them engaged. Discuss the characters, such as who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist.

Some other topics to talk about might include:

• What settings are discussed in the story?
• What is the main goal of the primary character?
• What is the child’s favorite part of the story?
• How does the child infer that the story will end?

3. Ask Questions

Your young reader might breeze through the books they already know, but they might get caught up on new words and characters as more stories are introduced to them. Asking them questions before, during, and after the lesson will prompt them to think about the material more deeply.

Repetition is one of the best ways to engage a child’s memory, and asking your child about the story will give them added exposure to character names, unfamiliar words, and new concepts from a different perspective.

4. Read TO Your Child

Reading aloud is an important part of any reading plan, but reading to your children can also help them sharpen their skills.

Even if your child isn’t an auditory learner, listening to you piece the words and sentences together will help them make sense of what they’re reading. It also gives them an opportunity to take in the meaning of the story since they won’t be focusing on sounding out words. 

5. Be a Good Listener

Just like listening to the story will help your kids gain a deeper understanding of the story, listening to your child read will help you to keep track of their progress.

Like anyone, your child wants to feel heard and connected with. When you’re reading together, they might be feeling nervous or vulnerable – especially in the early stages. Let them know that you’re there for them to guide them through the process by showing a sincere interest in their comments, predictions, and questions. 

6. Encourage Writing Practice for Reading

Writing is proven to improve reading skills in young children, and it’s another way to add some variety to your lessons.

Start by selecting words and small phrases for early readers, or give your more advanced readers a prompt for an essay reflection or summary. Prompting them to think actively about the story they’re reading will help them gain full immersion, which is likely to speed up the learning process.

7. Use a Reading App to Help Your Children Learn

If your family has been affected by the recent stay-at-home orders amidst COVID-19, your kids have probably been spending more time with technology than ever before. From homeschooling to entertainment, kids are even more glued to their devices. So, why not use this as an opportunity to make learning fun for them?

Reading apps are affordable, easy-to-use platforms that provide your child with a dynamic library of content that’s appropriate for their individual reading level.

Effective reading apps listen to your child’s voice in real-time and respond to their cadence and accuracy to help them identify where improvements can be made.

Not only is your child more likely to WANT to read when they’re using a reading app, but they’ll also get more out of each lesson with the added support and resources available.

8. Incorporate Your Child’s Interests

It’s no secret that children are more likely to do something that’s good for them if they like doing it, not because they know it’s beneficial. Reading is no different and is often seen as a chore like anything else.

Stories that include your kid’s favorite characters, places, or themes will have them looking forward to reading time.

9. Be Flexible

While it’s important to get your kids used to a set schedule for reading practice, it’s also important to understand that some days are going to be better than others. Children are human just like us, and sometimes won’t be as cooperative or enthusiastic about their learning plan.

Understand that your child may become frustrated, bored, or uninterested but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t learning. Go at a pace that’s comfortable for them, and remember to be patient.

Learning how to read is a process full of highs and lows with any child. Help your young reader make the most out of their experience with these helpful tips. To expedite the process, search for their favorite stories using our interactive reading app.

Many children of all ages struggle with reading and reading comprehension. The problem is often different for each child. Some children, for example, have trouble pronouncing words properly or identifying words on a page. Others struggle with understanding or answering questions about what they’ve just read.

Frustration over these and other reading problems often leads parents to scour the internet and their app stores in search of a solution. And, fortunately, Readability Tutor is that solution!

Readability is an app that can help children to develop and improve a variety of reading skills, all from the comfort of their own homes. When used consistently and correctly, it practically guarantees reading success for your child.

Real Feedback in Real-Time

The great thing about Readability is that, unlike other apps, it’s actually fully interactive and provides real instruction to your child.

It reads a grade-level appropriate passage (there are many to choose from) to your child. Then, the app prompts your child to read the same passage out loud. The smart AI technology listens and provides real instructions, corrections, and feedback as your child reads.

Readability is just as good as having a real, live reading tutor in the room – without the high price tag!

Help with Reading Comprehension

You might not think an app could help with reading comprehension, but Readability can! In fact, this feature sets it apart from any other reading app out there.

Using highly advanced voice technology, the app actually asks your child real questions about the passage they’ve just read. The child can then answer, receive praise for correct responses, and get instruction and help when they struggle. No other reading app offers that kind of real-life experience and help.

Stay in the Loop

As a parent, you no doubt want to stay informed about your child’s reading progress, and Readability allows you to do that.

Using the unique “Parent Dashboard,” you can see how much time your child has spent reading, how accurate they were, and even how they’re doing with comprehending the material. You’ll be able to see your child grow and progress, which serves as proof that the app is working its magic!

Tips for Maximum Success

While Readability is great all on its own, there are things you can do, as a parent, to stay involved and to help your child have even more reading success:

Set Realistic Goals

To start with, work with your child to set specific, realistic goals. These goals can be small things, like that your child will read for at least thirty minutes a day for a week. When your child reaches this goal, offer a reward, like a small toy or a favorite dinner. This pattern of goal-setting and rewarding reached goals will not only encourage your child to read more, but it will also teach them about hard work and personal responsibility.

Read with your child

Whenever possible, read together even when you’re not using the app. Any extra time spent reading together is just additional practice, and you can never have too much of that! This is also an easy way to help your child develop a love for reading and to discover what kinds of books they like and enjoy reading.

Make it a point to go to the library or local bookstore together, to browse and talk about different books, and to allow your child some degree of choice in what books they read. If you make reading into a big, fun activity, your child is more likely to do it and even to look forward to it.

Be Consistent

Finally, remember to be consistent. Have your child use the app daily or at least a certain number of agreed-upon times per week. Or, you could set a time goal instead and allow your child to complete it within a given timeframe. No matter how you accomplish the goal, the more your child uses the app and the more you reinforce the joys of reading at home, the better the results!

Download the Readability App Today!

Are you ready to experience all that Readability has to offer and to put these tips to good use? If so, then download the Readability app today, and grow a lifelong reader.

Some kids are born to be bookworms—they quickly learn how to read and begin devouring every book, magazine, and newspaper in sight. But unfortunately, learning to read is not easy for every child. Many children struggle to keep up with their classmates in reading, which can lead to significant setbacks.

If your child is struggling to read, it’s important to provide them with the tools that they need to blossom into a better reader. Thanks to technology, parents can help their children develop crucial reading skills using smartphone and tablet apps.

Here’s what you should know about the best apps out there to help your child to read:

What Age Should A Child Be Able to Read?

Some children begin reading at the age of four or five, but in general, most children do not learn how to read until they are six or seven years old. But this doesn’t mean that your child will pick up a book on their sixth or seventh birthday and start reading fluently. Kids will first need to reach a number of reading milestones along the way.

Some of the basic reading skills that your child should develop at every age include:

• Age 1-2
  • Point to familiar objects
  • Scribble on paper
  • Turn the pages of board books
  • Identify objects when asked
• Age 3
  • Listen to books being read aloud
  • Recognize the letters in their name
• Age 4
  • Learn how to rhyme
  • Write their names
  • Recite most of the letters of the alphabet
  • Begin matching familiar letters with their sounds
• Age 5
  • Pair written and spoken words
  • Write familiar letters, words, and numbers
  • Read simple, familiar words

If your child is not meeting these milestones—or is not reading at grade level—reading apps can help.

What is the Best App to Teach A Child to Read?

There are countless reading apps out there. Some are designed solely to help kids build their vocabulary or improve their reading comprehension, whereas others aim to help children with phonemic awareness. However, Readability is the only app that helps children develop all of these crucial reading skills.

This app will read a passage aloud to your child, then use responsive speech recognition technology to listen as your child reads it aloud on their own. If your child makes a mistake while reading the passage, the app will instantly provide feedback so they can learn as they go.

The app also features Interactive Voice-Based Questions and Answers (IVQA) to keep your child engaged as they read. The app will ask your child questions related to the passage they are reading and listen as they respond to evaluate their reading comprehension.

Kids can use the app independently, but parents won’t be left in the dark regarding their progress. Parents can log in to their dashboard to see an overview of their child’s reading progress, including their accuracy and comprehension scores.

Together, these features provide your child with a unique experience that is similar to working one-on-one with a reading tutor.

What Are the Benefits of Using A Learn-to-Read App?

There are a number of different benefits to using a learn-to-read app to help your child improve their reading skills, including:

• Accessibility: Apps are accessible on smartphones and tablets, so your child can use them whenever and wherever you go. This makes learn-to-read apps much more accessible than private reading tutors.
• A diverse selection of reading materials: Kids often lack the motivation to read because they aren’t reading anything that interests them. But fortunately, learn-to-read apps allow kids to choose from a wide variety of reading materials.
• Kid-friendly: Your child won’t have any trouble figuring out how to use these apps—even if they aren’t quite tech-savvy yet. The apps are designed with kids in mind, so they can use them without their parents’ help.
• Results: Learn-to-read apps can help your child improve upon their reading skills so they can keep up—or speed past—their classmates.

These are some of the many benefits to allowing your child to use learn-to-read apps at home.

Give Your Kids the Tools They Need to Succeed

If you’re ready to unlock your child’s reading potential, download the Readability app on your smartphone or tablet today. Take advantage of the free 7-day trial now so you can put your child on the path to becoming a strong reader.

Many children find the act of reading so challenging that they miss what the story was about. They focus entirely on being able to sound out the words. This is why it is vital to include a level or reading comprehension practice with almost everything they read.

The problem is that a child can read a page perfectly, pronouncing each word perfectly, but not have understood anything that they have just read aloud.

So much focus is put on pronunciation that comprehension can sometimes be overlooked until it becomes a problem or they start to struggle in school.

By starting reading comprehension practice as soon as they start to master basic reading, you can not only help them to understand what they have read but to encourage critical thinking and help them to relate what they read to real life.

How Do You Practice Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension practice is only achievable through lots of reading followed by questions. By needing to answer questions, the learner is forced more to think about the words that they are reading.

However, it goes beyond simply understanding individual words. As their ability increases, as should the types of questions asked.

Initially, reading comprehension practice could involve simply asking the learner to explain individual words or sentences. In the beginning, they are developing their skills and so the questions should be to encourage thought without being too difficult.

As they progress and their reading ability increases, the questions asked should become equally more complex. This could be from understanding a paragraph to explaining the main points and why they were made.

Comprehension checking is basically there to not only check they understood a section or a story, but to also make them think about the story and the less obvious meanings, intent, or reasoning.

For this reason, another effective exercise is the retelling of a story and explaining what happened. By using their own words, it forces them to first understand the story, the sequence of events, and then retell it in a simplified way. Following this activity with a session of explanation can be a nice way for them to demonstrate their skills to a carer or parent and show that they understood the meaning of the story.

Why is reading comprehension important?

People are able to read words or entire stories, without really understanding what it was all about. Reading comprehension practice develops important life skills such as critical thinking and analysis.

Not being able to understand what is read can prevent successful education and increase the likelihood of criminal activities later in life due to having fewer options.

It is estimated that almost “2/3 of students who reach the fourth grade without proficient reading skills end up on welfare or in prison.”

What Are Reading Comprehension Questions?

Reading comprehension questions can range from “what was the dog’s name?” to “what was the author trying to make you think happened?”. However, in general, there are certain types of questions asked to determine if a learner has fully understood different aspects of the story.

These questions should be checking that the reader:

• Understood the words or specific sentences
• Understood a paragraph or the entire story
• Can find or recall information from the story
• Can give an overview/summary of a paragraph or the story
• Understands what is ‘hinted at’ or the morale of the story
• Can relate to the characters and experiences in the story
• Understands the sequence of events

Although there are more advanced questions that can be used later, for beginners learning to read, these are often complicated enough. These types of questions force thought about what is read.

Easier Reading Comprehension Practice

From the beginning parents loved our app and the way it supported children learning to read. The app itself had a lot of good features at that time, including AI that could give corrective feedback and support for pronunciation when reading.

However, the task of reading comprehension practice fell on caregivers. As we understand how difficult it is to raise a family and provide additional educational support, we decided to do something new and unseen before.

Readability tutor now has full comprehension checking built-in with a new feature called “Interactive Voice based Questions & Answers (IVQA™)”. This new technology is far superior to simple quizzes and written questions.

Instead of using a written questionnaire, the app actually asks questions about the story using speech. The learner can then respond to the app with their answer by speaking to it as they would with any private tutor. This makes the entire process more interesting and less tedious, while also making sure they have actually understood what they have read.

Parents will then get full reports that include speed, accuracy, and comprehension. If you would like to see how this could help your child learn to read better, try our free 7-day trial to see results for yourself.

Many families now are coping with having family, work, and school all under one roof. Homeschooling is now the new normal, but many students and families were not prepared for the transition so quickly. Luckily, technology has many tools that can help. Students can make the best of homeschooling by using app to help read and spell, so that when schools return they will not be behind.

Spelling and reading are important skills that can help your child’s academic success in the future. The two skills rely heavily on one another. If your child improves their spelling skills, they are likely to recognize words better when they are reading and come across unfamiliar vocabulary. In turn, if they are reading better, they can recognize spelling patterns easily. 

What apps can help my child spell better?

Spelling is an integral skill to master to help improve reading. Being able to spell and learn spelling patterns can help your child learn new and unfamiliar vocabulary. It can help them with guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words in a reading thus helping them with increasing their fluency. Here are some of our favorite apps to help improve spelling for different levels of readers:

Spelling Monster – Spelling can be boring for young readers to learn and practice, but Spelling Monster turns practice into fun, interactive games. Your child plays mini-games to get practice with spelling on the app, which uses fun graphics to keep them engaged.

Sight Words – By the time your child is in third grade, they should be able to recognize over 300 sight words. Sight words are the most commonly used words in a language and the more sight words your child knows, the better they are able to read. The app Sight Words helps build your child’s vocabulary and helps them to learn how to spell words that they are most likely to come across.

Chicktionary – This fun and interactive game helps your child learn to spell while having fun. The object of the game is to unscramble the chickens to make words and when you get it wrong the chickens make a squawking sound until you get the word right. Your child will get a kick out of this hilarious game while also learning spelling skills that can help them to improve their reading skills.

What apps can help my child read better?

Improved spelling can lead to being able to read better. Your child can best improve their reading skills by basically reading as much and as often as they can. Here are our favorite reading apps that make reading fun and interactive:

Storyline Online – This award-winning app has a collection of audiobooks that are narrated by actors such as Eva Longoria, James Earl Jones, and Chris Pine. Your child can enjoy classic children’s books read by their favorite actors and actresses. Each audiobook also has some activities and exercise suggestions that you can use at home.

Reading Rainbow – The classic television show beloved by generations is now in app form. The app houses over 100 books and several video “field trips” that can get your child engaged and excited about reading. Through a series of themed islands, your child can take a virtual journey through reading books and solving puzzles.

Readability – Readability is an all-around great app for improving reading. This reading app has several different features that can help your child improve their reading skills. The app essentially acts as a virtual private reading tutor for your child. It uses A.I. and speech-recognition technology to help give your child feedback about their reading and also provide you with progress reports. Your child can read through the app’s vast collection of original stories that are constantly being updated with more reading material. They have the option of having the app read the story to them as they follow along, or they can even read the stories aloud and the app listens to give them instant feedback and error recognition. This app is great for your child to use when you are not available to help them with their reading practice.

Reading and spelling are skills that go hand-in-hand. In order to improve reading your child should improve their spelling, and yet spelling improvements can help improve their reading skills. Learning these skills at home can be difficult without the proper structure and instruction from a teacher, but apps such as Readability can help bring the classroom to your home.