Duolingo releases a free iPhone and iPad app to help kids learn to read
- mar
- 26
What you need to know
- A new Duolingo app helps kids learn to read.
- It's aimed at ages 3 through 6.
- Duolingo ABC includes over 300 lessons.
Plonk your kid down and treat yourself to some gin. You earned it.
If you're dealing with homeschooling your kids right now you're probably on the lookout for all the help you can get. That's why Duolingo has released its ABC app ahead of schedule. It was set to be released at some point in the future, bug given the coronavirus situation, the company decided to do parents a solid and get it out now.
And boy are we glad that decision was made!
We decided to release this app early (this week) in order to help meet the needs of the many parents who are now homeschooling their kids in light of COVID-19. Duolingo ABC includes over 300 fun, bite-sized lessons teaching the alphabet, phonics, and sight words.
Duolingo ABC is aimed at kids from three through six years old and hopes to help teach them to read via 300 different lessons. And there's a ton going on in this free app, although you need to be in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or Ireland to get your hands on it.
Duolingo outlines its methodology so:
Phonemic Awareness The ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.
Phonics Systematic knowledge of the relationships between written symbols and spoken sounds.
Comprehension The ability to engage with text to unlock the meanings of words, sentences, and longer passages.
Fluency The ability to read text quickly and accurately.
You probably can't sit your kid down with an iPad and Duolingo ABC and expect them to teach themselves, but there's plenty on offer here – especially when you remember that the whole thing doesn't cost a penny!
Children can learn independently The app is child-friendly and designed specifically for younger users. There are no ads or in-app purchases of any kind.
Guided handwriting lessons Letter writing activities teach each lowercase and capital letter. Personalized lessons teach children how to write their own name.
Assisted Reading The course includes dozens of fully illustrated short stories. Speech recognition gives children real-time feedback while they read aloud.
Decoding and Sight Words The app teaches how to blend sounds together to "decode" simple words. Children learn high-frequency sight words through repeated exposure.
You can download Duolingo ABC for free from the App Store now.