Tracing Images and Heeding Voices to Learn the Basics of Reading

By KIT EATON

Published: May 29, 2013

Whatever magical addictive power was infused into my iPad in the factory, it seems to have the strongest effect on my children, who are 2 and 4 years old. They don’t use the tablet just for silly games. They also love the applications that mix together education and play.

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In the Word Magic app, a child fills in a missing letter based on clues.

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The abc PocketPhonics app helps children learn letters, sounds and words.

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The Tracing ABC Letter Worksheets app.

In particular, they enjoy apps aimed at helping them learn to read. There are many smartphone and tablet apps that offer a new, dynamic and interactive way to learn to read, starting from the basics of letter shapes and sounds.

One of my children’s favorite early reading apps is abc PocketPhonics, $2.99 on iOS. The lessons in PocketPhonics begin with single letters appearing on the screen, accompanied by a voice reading their sounds. Children are expected to copy the letter shape by drawing with their finger, while an arrow guides the way.

When several letters have been learned, there is a quiz section where the child has to tap on the right letter when its sound is spoken aloud. Then these letters are used to form words that are spoken aloud and accompanied with a cute graphic.

When the child is doing well, the app offers spoken praise, and two penlike cartoon characters keep it feeling light and fun. But if letters aren’t drawn well, the app won’t progress to the next level.

As the child’s learning advances, the complexity of the letters increases, and the letters are used to form longer and more complicated words. So it starts with words like “it” and ends with words like “each.”

This app is attractive for its simplicity, but probably works best if you sit with your children to guide them through its lessons. The British accent used on the app may bother you, and don’t expect too many hours of continuous use from PocketPhonics. It really teaches only basic words.

A similar Android app is Tracing ABC Letter Worksheets, costing $1.99, though there is a free version with fewer features. This app teaches children how to write letters, and is great for younger children but also includes complex words to challenge 11- or 12-year-olds. As its title suggests, the app is all about tracing letter shapes on the screen: The child’s fingertip movements are guided by some flickering stars, and the right moves are rewarded with amusing sound effects.

In a separate part of this app, children trace the different letters of a word on the screen, and when they’re done the app speaks the word aloud and congratulates them. For maximum educational value, it’s probably best if younger children are supervised in this section because the app sounds out each letter and explains how the sounds add up to a word. You’ll also need to control the app’s interface to select which words are presented and to choose the appropriate age settings.

Kids ABC Phonics is a slightly more advanced Android app that uses different games to help children learn their letters and form basic words. It costs $3.99. The app’s main game employs a neat graphics trick: It centers on an interactive 3-D cube.

The idea is to drag the images and letters the app is seeking to this cube. Then you can spin the cube to see what’s been added. Users may build a cube, for instance, that is covered with images like an apple, an alligator and so on to build an “A” cube. But the complexity of interacting with the cube and also of adhering to the app’s spoken instructions during the cube game, and the app’s other games, means younger children will almost surely need supervision when using this app.

On iOS, the 99-cent app Word Magic would be useful for children with basic reading skill but still needing to practice their letters and expand their vocabulary. It’s essentially a simple quiz where a word is shown beneath a corresponding picture, but the word is missing a letter.

After the word is read aloud, the child has to choose the missing letter from a list. The app keeps score, providing a competitive element. Parents may also appreciate the fact that the words are read out by children with many different accents, which should help with your child’s listening skills. You may need to help your child understand the more unusual accents from time to time.

Many aspects of this quiz can be controlled — from the maximum word length to the difficulty level. One annoyance in Word Magic is that it’s easy for a child to accidentally press on the little clock icon at the top, which will reset the score; some tears may follow.

These apps are all about the basic skills of reading. But once a child has mastered “the cat sat on the mat,” it shouldn’t be too long before the youngster will be reading himself to sleep — if a parent is willing to give up that task.

Quick Calls

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