Google’s Read Along App Helps Teach Kids How to Read

Google has launched a new app designed to help teach kids how to read. Called Read Along, the app gives children both visual and verbal feedback as they read stories out loud. Helping them to develop their literacy skills independently.

Giving Kids a Lifelong Love of Reading

Helping kids to learn how to read and write is probably the most important skill a parent can teach a child. Without basic literacy skills, the world is a challenging place to navigate. And if kids take to reading when young, they’ll have a lifelong love for it.

To help improve kids’ reading skills, Google has launched an app called Read Aloud. As detailed on The Keyword, this Android-exclusive app uses Google’s text-to-speech and speech recognition technologies to ascertain how well each student is doing.

How Read Aloud Can Teach Kids How to Read

This feedback is all delivered by an in-app reading buddy named Diya. Who gives positive feedback in the same way a (good) parent or teacher would do. Diya can also help children pronounce any tricky words or phrases they may be struggling with.

To keep young learners engaged at home with reading, we’re announcing Read Along by Google, a fun & engaging speech-based app for Android to help children learn to read with the magic of their own voice: https://t.co/AQdpXEj0Kk. #DistanceLearning pic.twitter.com/t2CWywlzDU

— Google for Education (@GoogleForEdu) May 7, 2020

Read Aloud offers a range of diverse and interesting stories, with games sprinkled in to add some fun to proceedings. There’s also some gamification involved, with kids able to collect stars and badges as they learn, helping them to focus on the next goal.

Google has built Read Aloud with safety and privacy in mind, so there are no ads or in-app purchases. And apart from the initial download, Read Aloud works offline, with even the voice data analyzed on the device rather than being sent to Google’s servers.

Read Along has been available (as Bolo) in India since 2019. However, it’s now available in more than 180 countries and nine languages, including English, Spanish, and Hindi. Read Along is a free download for Android, but there’s no mention of an iOS version.

Download: Read Along for Android

Other Apps Which Can Teach Kids How to Read

Read Along isn’t the only app designed to teach kids how to read. Google also offers Rivet, a free reading app with gamification elements. And in March 2020, Duolingo launched Duolingo ABC, which is designed to teach young kids aged 3-6 how to read.

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