I chose two literacy apps to introduce to my child and observe how she used them. I wanted to find out if she enjoyed them and how they interacted with her learning process. My child attends a Montessori program through the regular Canadian school system so she is used to tactile and sensory ways of learning letters, letter sounds, and reading words. I wondered how an app on a screen measured up to learning from a teacher and self-directed language activities. I also wondered how my child would react to the apps when she got the questions wrong, she is neurodivergent and has big feelings when she thinks she is failing. There was some resistance to trying the literacy apps as they are “learning” and not game-based like the math app she likes Prodigy but we persisted and gave them a try.
The first app we tried was Learn to Read: Sight Words by RV AppStudios. It is a simple design with cartoon-like characters that are present when playing games. It has eight choices of word games on the home screen for children to pick from. We tried out 4 of the games but none of them held my child’s attention for too long and she quickly got bored after a few minutes in each game. The tiger cartoon “Lucus” makes a sound when you get an answer wrong, to my surprise my child laughed at the sound and was not triggered by the “wrong” answer she gave. In some of the games it gave hints when you got the answer wrong a couple of time and others there were no hints. The overall theme reminds me of the toddler program Cocomelon and the theme may be a little too young for my 6-and-a-half-year-old.
The second literacy app we tried was Duolingo (Duo) ABC which has a much better learning progression program. There are different levels and different digital “reading books” that are then used to explore words, sounds, letters and sentence structure as the level progresses. This app is more advanced in supporting a child to learn literacy. My child could operate it without me as it reads out loud any instructions which she was able to follow easily and have success in the activities. She asked to play this one again several times and does not seem to get bored of the different stories and activities.
While I am still skeptical about children learning from literacy apps they can be useful as a tool to support overall learning. My child refuses to do any homework or practice spelling since she is very anxious about getting things wrong. The Duo ABC app provided a practice space that was away from any intentions set by an adult and she could have success in practicing literacy skills in a fun way. Further investigating would be needed to assess if the app could support learning new literacy skills instead of having lessons with a teacher but a good resource to have if a child refuses intentional lessons from an adult.