If you’ve never heard about Read Along, let us enlighten you. It is a free Android app, helps children over the age of five to improve their reading skills in a fun, engaging way through the help of an in-app reading buddy. The very successful and useful app is dropping a major announcement for Arabic speaking families around the world; as Read Along will now be available in the Arabic Language.
Families of the Arab World are always looking for ways to help their children improve their Arabic reading skills, so much so, that Arabic became one of the most requested languages on the app.
The app works without the internet after the initial download; it uses Google’s speech recognition technology to give young readers visual and verbal feedback as they practice reading books from around the world.
Since launching the app in other languages earlier this year, the team saw a positive impact on children’s reading abilities with those who read at a speed of less than 45 correct words per minute seeing an improvement of anywhere from 35 percent to 85 percent in their oral reading fluency after using the app for 100 minutes over the course of 2-3 weeks.
To nurture the love of reading, Diya, an in-app reading buddy helps children by listening and encouraging them in real-time. She gives them positive and reinforcing feedback along the way just as a parent or teacher would. Children can also tap Diya at any time to help them pronounce a word or sentence.
Moreover, the app makes sure it safeguards the children’s safety and privacy as they practice reading in Arabic is at the heart of Read Along’s design. The ability to work offline without Wifi or data helps prevent unsupervised access to the Internet. It also has no ads or in-app purchases and doesn’t require sign-in. Even the voice data is analyzed in real-time on the device.