Technology makes learning more intuitive and accessible for everyone. With the right apps, learning can become more exciting and entertaining for a child. Not only that, but since mobile apps allow learning to happen anywhere, they are great tools for families who have busy schedules.
Reading and writing are essential skills for every child to learn, so a lot of thought and care goes into creating apps for efficiently imparting these skills. Let's take a look at some of the best Android and iPhone apps that can help you teach kids how to read and write.
1. LetterSchool
LetterSchool is a tracing and handwriting app that uses colorful animations and sounds to teach children how to write. The app teaches how to write letters in both uppercase and lowercase, as well as sgiwubg numbers from 1 to 10. The app trains the child's fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination so they get used to writing.
Using a wide variety of cartoon animations to animate the letter once the child is finished writing ensures the child is always entertained while learning. It's a fun and entertaining app that you can use both as a game and learning tool for your child.
Download: LetterSchool for Android | iOS (Free)
2. Writing Wizard/Cursive Writing Wizard
Writing Wizard is an award-winning educational app that helps your child learn how to write the alphabet, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to keep them happy and motivated. It provides animated stickers and interactive games at the end of learning activities for positive engagement.
For parents and teachers, the app will generate detailed learning reports for you to assess. It also comes with modifiable parameters to customize the app according to a child’s education level. Writing Wizard has the functionality for you to add your own words to customize your kid's learning experience, and you can create worksheets through the app to help your learner write on paper.
Writing Wizard's developers offer a similar app called Cursive Writing Wizard. As the name suggests, this version of the app focuses on teaching kids how to write in cursive. By providing a variety of tracing exercises and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing, the app is designed to develop the motor skills required to write cursive flawlessly.
Download: Writing Wizard for Android (Free, in-app purchases available) | iOS ($4.99)
Download: Cursive Writing Wizard for Android (Free, in-app purchases available) | iOS ($4.99)
3. ABCMouse
Teaching a child to read and write can become boring if they don't enjoy it. ABCMouse is an interactive adventure series that teach kids how to read, along with covering various other subjects like art and math. It creates a fun narrative that kids can enjoy and play along with, all the while learning important information.
Related: Educational and Fun Ways for Parents to Entertain Children
The reading and writing portion focuses on the basics required in early reading. This includes learning the names of each letter and the sounds they represent. Later, it moves onto basic book reading, starting with a few words on a page and gradually advancing to paragraphs.
The app provides more than 450 books for beginner readers. For writing, ABCMouse focuses on beginner-level writing and language skills such as sentence structure and punctuation, parts of speech, and practice with writing genres.
Download: ABCMouse for Android | iOS (Free trial, subscription required)
4. HOMER
HOMER is an early learning program for kids. It is expert-designed and uses a proprietary framework that's research-backed and kid-tested to build critical skills for school and life. The app provides teaching for your child through personalized content including interactive lessons, stories, and activities based on skill level, age, and interests.
HOMER also comes with additional resources for parents such as printables, videos, activities, and expert learning tips. The app is designed to offer kid-friendly navigation, so you don't have to supervise your child when using the app. HOMER focuses on not only developing reading comprehension skills, but also social-emotional learning, creativity, and thinking skills.
It creates a personalized reading pathway that grows with your child while teaching them to read, and includes hundreds of stories and characters. HOMER has stated that its methodology increased early reading scores in kids by 74 percent.
Download: HOMER for Android | iOS (Free trial, subscription required)
5. Hooked on Phonics
If you're looking for an app that utilizes the latest technologies for learning, then look to Hooked on Phonics. It's an app designed to effectively teach early reading skills to kids through the use of machine-learning algorithms. Tgese monitor and evaluate your child's progress and teach them accordingly to their level.
Hooked on Phonics' Learn & Read contains 36 progressive lessons that cover key building blocks of reading such as short vowels, simple plurals, and simple compound words. The lessons each conclude with a story specially written with the words just learned. The app features over 250 songs and an ebook library with over 100 stories to complement every lesson.
Download: Hooked on Phonics for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
6. Epic: Kids' Books & Educational Reading Library
Epic is a digital reading app for kids that offers access to over 40,000 high-quality books aimed at children, including books from leading publishers such as HarperCollins, Macmillan, Smithsonian, and National Geographic. There are also learning videos and reading quizzes.
The app is a limitless library of stories and entertainment for your child and provides stories for all levels of reading. You're guaranteed to find books that all children will love.
The app also has an educator mode which allows you to create personalized student profiles and generate recommendations based on students’ reading levels and interests. It comes with a reading log to track progress, allowing you to understand your child better and plan accordingly.
Download: Epic for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
7. Lingokids
Lingokids is an app made in collaboration with Oxford University Press that uses animations to teach kids new words and topics. The app works in interactive activities and cartoons to help them learn and develop critical learning skills.
The app is designed to naturally expand your child's vocabulary. It has a library consisting of thousands of words for kids to learn and contains a wide variety of topics like foods, colors, animals, and many more.
Download: Lingokids for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Everything You Need to Learn Words on the Go
Education is important, but it can be difficult to know where to start or which path to choose. These apps help serve as a basic introduction for your child to the world of words.
Using analytics and learning psychology, these apps are designed to be effective and efficient and teaching your children how to learn and write.