Research-backed
Image: MomJunction Design Team
A good read with colorful optics always intrigues children. If your child loves to read and watch interesting videos on the phone, this post on reading apps for kids is for you. Giving too much screen time to children is not advised by the doctors. However, in the little time they are allowed, why not make the most of it? Reading apps help in the visual and cognitive development of children. The colorful graphics and the interesting sounds in the apps or the games also help in enhancing their hearing skills. In addition, it is also important to make sure that you keep them under constant supervision and check the kind of content that they are being exposed to. Scroll down for some fascinating ones that will engage and educate your child.
19 Best Reading Apps For Kids Age Wise
Reading Apps for Children 3 to 6
1. Green Eggs and Ham
This app is an adaptation of the children’s classic book by the same name, written by Dr. Seuss. Suitable for younger children, it is both fun and informative. Kids can enjoy this with their parents to play interactive games or even use it to learn elementary subjects. Green Eggs and Ham help kids by encouraging them to read and learn new vocabulary, spellings, and names of various objects. It is specially designed for kids who are just beginning to learn.
Price: $3.99
2. Elmo Loves 123s
This fun app is an excellent tool to introduce kids to numerical and activities related to math. Elmo Loves 123s will help the users identify numbers, trace them, count objects, and perform basic math like addition and subtraction using interactive teaching methods. The app also has number games and coloring pages.
Price: In-app purchases on Android and $3.99 on Apple devices.
3. Dexteria Dots 2 – Fine Motor Skills and Math Concepts
The game helps kids learn fundamental math concepts and also improve their visual and motor skills at the same time. Parents can choose a level of difficulty that suits the child most before giving it to the kid to play. This is an engaging, highly visual, and interactive game with lots of cool sound effects, enabling kids to learn the concepts quickly.
Price: $2.99
Download now: iOS
4. Fish School
This app basically brings the entire elementary school to your device. It can teach kids about the alphabet, letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and more. The activities on Fish School involve identifying the differences and matching similar objects, along with a lot of games, fun, and music.
Fish School has won not only many hearts but also a few awards such as the Parents’ Choice Gold Award and Parents’ Choice Foundation and Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award for Excellence in Design.
Price: Free
Do remember5. Hooked on Phonics
Image: source: https://www.hookedonphonics.com/
As the name suggests, the app focuses on phonics to teach children the relationship between sounds and letters. It has music videos for each letter that help the child to learn the sound quickly. It offers interactive lessons, games, and activities that make learning fun for children. Children are rewarded with trophies at the end of activities, encouraging them to study more.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
Reading Apps for Kids Aged 7 to 9
6. School Zone Time, Money & Fractions On-Track
This is a handy app to help kids learn about time, money, and fractions. Features include audio guidance, visual examples, and tracking of progress. School Zone Time, Money & Fractions On-Track explains coin values, counting of coins, how to tell time, setting the clock, and fractional values. The kids are encouraged by various reinforcement tools on the app while monitoring their progress through instant grading.
Price: $4.99
Download now: iOS
7. Habitat The Game (iOS)
Do you want your child to be educated about global warming and do the right things to keep the planet healthy? Then this is just the game for your kid.
Habitat the Game is a unique educational app which explains the threat to the planet in a very light way for kids to understand. The game is about saving the life of an endangered animal by adopting one. Players have to take real-world actions to keep the animal alive by making them healthy again and clearing various stages.
Price: Free
Download now: iOS
8. YouTube Kids
You probably have the YouTube app installed on your device, but not all the videos you access could be suitable for children. Enter YouTube Kids, a different version exclusively designed for the younger generation. YouTube Kids is an app that offers a lot of videos for learning and entertainment.
The app has videos about everything relevant to kids, academics, arts and crafts, cartoon shows, poems, music, dance, stories, DIYs, and so on. And the best part is that parents can control the content and watch time, too.
Price: Free
Aaron Stout, a father to a beautiful girl, appreciates YouTube Kids as it encapsulates his daughter’s world, offering a unique perspective. He says, “Many shows on YouTube Kids are in fact created by kids, and they look like it. None of the toys do anything in these shows that she can’t do herself. If a toy moves, it’s because an arm reaches in and moves it. That’s exactly what my daughter is doing every day. It truly represents her experience in the world (i).”
Quick tip9. DragonBox Algebra
Some children find algebra and mathematics quite difficult. And when it’s not fun, they tend to lose interest in the subject. DragonBox Algebra is an app designed to help these kids find their way back to loving the subject. The app features ten progressive chapters, 200 puzzles, tutorials on how to solve equations involving addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication functions.
DragonBox Algebra has won many awards such as Gold Medal at 2012 International Serious Play Awards, Best Educational Game at 2012 Fun and Serious Games Festival, Best Serious Mobile Game 20??shows detailed illustrations on plants and animals in their natural habitats across all the seasons of the year, which your child can learn about by accessing the app.
Price: $1.99
Download now: iOS
10. Winky Think Logic Puzzles
Winky Think Logic Puzzles is suitable for children of all ages as it has puzzles for different skill levels. The app features 180 challenging apps which help in improving logic, reasoning and motor abilities. The best aspect of Winky Think Logic Puzzles is the progressive game design that allows children to learn at their own pace.
Price: $0.99
Download now: iOS
Reading Apps for Kids Aged 10 to 12
11. Stack The States
Learn everything about all the fifty states of the United States of America by installing this app. Stack the States offers the names of the capitals, state shapes, abbreviations, bordering states, location on the map, nicknames, flags and more for each state. The app features hundreds of unique questions, fun sound effects, bonus games, and music to make that make it entertaining and interactive.
Price: $2.99
12. ShipAntics: The Legend of The Kiki Beast
This is an app filled with crazy adventures of cartoon characters. Players have to move from one level to another while solving puzzles and mysteries. The challenge is to keep the ship afloat and investigate each room to finish the game.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
13. Puzzlerama – Lines, Dots, Blocks, Pipes & more
Puzzlerama has a collection of amazing puzzles that aid in the development of the child’s logical and thinking abilities. The games have over 3000 levels to keep their mind active. The game has consist of easy, medium, advanced, hard, and expert levels in each game. The games are not just challenging, but fun too.
Get this app to exercise your child’s brain, enhance their creativity, or to let them kill time when bored.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
14. Science360 Radio
Science360 Radio is an app featuring more than 100 radio shows and podcasts from all over the world. It delivers the latest news and other information about science and technology. This app can be integrated with classroom teaching or kids can use it alone in their spare time to improve their knowledge of science.
Price: Free
Download now: Android and iOS
15. Rocket Science 101
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) brings the Space to your mobile devices. Users can choose their favorite NASA mission, build a rocket, and launch it into space. All this and more, without any knowledge of rocket science. Sounds fun, right? Kids who are fascinated by space and want to create a career in astronomy would really enjoy using this app.
Price: Free
Download now: Android and iOS
16. Sky View
Does your kid enjoy looking at the stars and guessing the shapes that form in the night sky? Then this app may enhance their interest and knowledge about the stars and constellations. The users just have to point their device to the sky to identify celestial objects in the sky.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
17. Duolingo
Learning a foreign language has never been this easy! Duolingo is an app which has lessons in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hungarian, German, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Esperanto, Polish, Hebrew, Greek, Norwegian, Welsh, Russian, and English. The users can learn to speak, read, write, and understand a foreign language. Duolingo has also won Google Play’s Editor’s Choice and “Best of the Best” of 2013 and 2014 award.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
18. ClassDojo
ClassDojo is an app for students, their parents, and teachers too. Students can add their classwork to their digital portfolios, teachers can encourage students and share the progress of the students with their parents. This app aims to integrate every aspect of learning into one system.
Price: Free and offers in-app purchases
19. Starfall Learn to Read
Starfall Learn to Read is a useful app that helps improve your child’s reading skills through interactive activities, songs, and stories. It offers 15 mini books designed to focus on the vowels and help children learn how to pronounce them correctly. The app teaches new words in a fun and engaging manner.
Price: Free
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why are reading apps important?
Reading apps provide a plethora of fun-filled and interesting content to read and explore. It engages a child’s sight, hearing, and touch while offering a multi-sensory experience. Children can access quality reading material at the convenience of their homes or school. Reading apps may help children develop an interest in reading and inculcate it as a habit.
2. How do apps improve reading skills?
Apps can improve reading skills by providing interactive and engaging learning experiences for children and adults. Some reading apps offer games related to education and activities that help develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. Other apps provide access to a vast library of books and reading materials, which can increase exposure to different genres and writing styles, improving overall reading ability (1).
3. What is the first step in teaching a child to read?
The first step in teaching a child to read is to build their phonemic awareness, which is the understanding that words are made up of sounds. This can be achieved through engaging activities such as reading rhymes, blending sounds, identifying rhyming words, and recognizing the beginning and ending sounds in words. Developing phonemic awareness lays the foundation for recognizing letters and their corresponding sounds, which is crucial for learning to read.
Reading is a beneficial habit that helps sharpen a child’s communication skills and boost their cognitive abilities. While reading books is often the most effective way to enhance reading skills, you can also consider using reading apps for kids. Reading apps can be paid or free. You may choose either of them or both based on different factors, such as your child’s age, interests, and reading skills. As your child grows, you can upgrade these apps and introduce them to advanced methods to refine their reading skills.
Infographic: Age-Appropriate Reading Apps For Children
Keeping children away from electronic devices in today’s digital age is challenging. However, you may utilize these tools wisely to encourage reading and learning in children. The following infographic includes reading apps you can download on your gadgets. Make sure the apps you choose are suitable for your child’s age.
Illustration: Momjunction Design Team
Key Pointers
- Reading apps can help improve your child’s language and cognitive skills.
- Do not pressure your child to use these apps, let them explore at their own pace.
- Duolingo is an excellent app for learning new languages.
Image: Stable Diffusion/MomJunction Design Team
Ignite your child’s passion for reading with this informative video highlighting 5 interactive reading apps for kids.
Personal Experience: Source
MomJunction articles include first-hand experiences to provide you with better insights through real-life narratives. Here are the sources of personal accounts referenced in this article.
i. What YouTube Kids can teach us about representation;https://medium.com/@aaronstout7/what-youtube-kids-can-teach-us-about-representation-d63bbddae4ad
References
- Seung-Hee Claire Son et al.; (2020); The Influence of Interactive Features in Storybook Apps on Children’s Reading Comprehension and Story Enjoyment;https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/707009
