Apps That Encourage Kids To Read

(This is one of a series of posts in the Parentlode Book Club. You can also find a list of books parents either love or hate, or suggestions about what books they might like based on what they already love, or any of the other Bookclub offerings about how to help your children love to read).

Did you hear about the eight year old boy who could lift an entire library with a single hand? I suppose you have, after all it is 2011 and e-readers have been on the market for a few years. As a tool for literacy learning they are invaluable. We know that the way to build our children's capacity as readers and writers is simple: they must read and write daily. Offering fingertip access to entire bookstores on a handheld device makes this incredibly easy. Even better, it removes access barriers, making it logistically possible to connect children in the most remote corners of the earth to thousands of stories.

While an e-reader dramatically increases the amount of literature that can be kept within the four walls of your home, it cannot force your child to sit down and read -- not yet at least. However, there are thousands of apps that offer creative avenues to create a reading and writing culture for children of all ages and abilities.

Here are some of the most engaging, effective and fun apps currently on the market categorized to meet the needs of children at every level of the reading and writing spectrum:

 

 

 

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Comments

[coachnelly]

02:35 PM on 12/16/2011

What about a bookshelf with real books where they have to turn the pages and get to sit in Mom or Dad's lap and enjoy a story AND a little snuggle?! When they are very young technology only serves as a babysitting device.

[vanessajubis]

09:47 AM on 12/08/2011

I can see the point behind this article and I agree with both camps (after reading some comment threads here). I believe that the 'old school' way of learning to read is ultimately the 'ideal' way. Why? Because that is how I was taught (including my parents, my grandparents, etc.) My second agreement comes from the fact that all of our children have been born into a saturated 'digital age' because social media, technological gadgets, i.e., iPads, Kindles, etc. are what is 'known' to them as curious learners and fascinated beings. I don't believe that a parent who wants to engage their child in an item like the Kindle or iPad is lazy. They are simply allowing their children to take part in what is happening in the child's generation. Whose to say that one of our spongy children are not the next 'Steve Jobs?' I believe that children will engage in whatever it is that their little minds are attracted to. Both my husband and I are voracious readers and books are a staple in our home (actual books.) Our children are growing up with books all around them but they love, enjoy and thrive on discovering and learning through an iPad or Kindle as well. I still purchase books for them and add them to their own little libraries in their rooms. They live in two literary worlds, the traditional and the digital when it comes to books. I'm okay with that.

[PhloxJeana]

08:13 PM on 12/07/2011

Do you know what I found encouraged my child to read? Reading to him and not giving him electronic games. Maybe it's just me. Or maybe his ability in second grade to read at a seventh grade level speaks volumes about the seventh graders we have now.

[jabailo]

12:53 PM on 12/04/2011

I was on a plane yesterday who was gifting a Kindle Fire to her grandson, age 2.5, for Christmas. Perfect in a way. No wires or electricity. Small enough for little hands, no mouse, just tactile. A reading, learning, video, gaming machine. And you can replace it for $200 if kid drops it in bubble bath.

[J R M]

01:04 AM on 12/04/2011

You don't need apps. You need books. Simple ones at first. And you need parents sitting with the kids reading and being read to. For hours.

You also need screens turned off so that the kids don't have that distraction. My son took to reading like a fish to water - after we limited his screen time.

[frank day]

10:31 AM on 12/04/2011

In 30 years nobody will need to read.

We will have excellent voice command and voice technology.

Reading will go the way of cursive writing.

[J R M]

11:38 AM on 12/04/2011

Text to speech is quite good now. More than adequate for handling simple stories and reports (If you are trying to go though it linearly). It isn't the same. I can skim when I am looking for something. Skimming voice is a different matter.

[WilliamL]

08:41 PM on 12/03/2011

I have found through trial that actual books are effective tools for reading. Actually putting books into childrens hands has worked well. Paper and pencils are good tools as well. These apps might be helpful but still believe books themselves work well.

[Dheffernan]

07:06 PM on 12/03/2011

I tend to disagree. We bought my daughter the original Bob's Book series, which she loves and has helped her learn to read. The App version is just a game to play, if it teaches her anything it isn't worth mentioning. I really wish parents would stop trying to take the "easy out," by giving kids computer games and ereaders so they don't have to do any work, and instead they would just read real books with their kids.

[garyd63]

11:26 PM on 12/02/2011

Sure they do. These apps will work much better than reading to your kids from an early age on, keeping books within reach around the house, making regular trips to the library with your kids, reading yourself, talking about what you're reading in front of your kids, turning off the TVs, computers, cell phones every night for at least two hours, and like that . . .