Mail bag: Reading apps
Reader Zac Townsend writes: “You have any suggestions on reading (apps)?”
Thanks for asking, Zac! This is a question that comes up a lot.
I’ve never seen a good reading app.
Yes, I have looked far and wide. We had a freshly minted three year old, a baby, and two full time jobs in a little month you might remember called March 2020. Our preschool closed overnight. That spring and summer we basically tried every app in the App Store, literacy and otherwise.
OK, OK, “to be sure” many apps will teach letter sounds just fine.
By “good reading app,” I mean something that goes from zero to chapter book. The following is not strictly true, but it’s true enough for these purposes: If you can’t read a chapter book, you can’t read.
If you buy one thing, let it be the $15.99 paperback Siegfried Engelmann’s Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons. It’s how we taught our eldest to read. You’re going to have to work 5-15 minutes yourself with the kid per day, for as little as a few weeks, for up to say, 6-12 months. Happy to teach any reader how to use it by phone/zoom.
One of our dearest, oldest friends (and former educator) Matt Pasternack started a modern literacy curriculum called Once. That’s how we taught our younger one to read chapter books by age 3. The mechanics are akin to Engelmann’s book above, and the same parental investment is needed. I won’t pretend to be objective, but then again, if it weren’t a world-class curriculum, I am well aware that I could always “forget” to plug it. Luckily, it IS world class and it changed our son’s life. That’s what I recommend it (I’ve been told a tad too vociferously) to everyone I meet IRL.
Is everything different now: AI edition? So, I taught my youngest (currently almost 5) to read right as the current generation of AI-powered tech was starting to be a glimmer in a parent’s eye. BUT no true “modern AI powered literacy app” was available to consumers (at least, that we could find) at the time for us to test. I am always looking for folks trying to work on this and welcome any flags from you all.
There will always be companies purporting to have the holy grail app at hand, and, if we’re lucky, some of them will. (Holy grail meaning parents don’t have to do most of the daily work alongside the app/book/curriculum themselves?) Mentava is one who is talking in ambitious terms these days; they launched this week on Product Hunt with a steep teaser discount.
But I can’t easily test Mentava or other newer apps with real toddlers :-( I am going to need my community and readers’ help since I no longer have children who need to learn to read! Please send in leads and your brief (or LONG!) reviews (thumbs up, thumbs down is a start) if you have time.
Let us know how it goes, Zac!