This Google app will help your kids with reading
What's the story
Last year, Google launched 'Bolo' to help kids in India improve their English/Hindi reading skills. Now, the free app has been launched globally as 'Read Along' to serve the same purpose for all the students who are stuck at home due to school closures in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Here's all about it.
Details
Guidance to get better at reading
Available in 180 countries, Read Along offers a series of stories and chapters on different themes to help your kid get better at reading. The content of the story is displayed through visual cues, but if the kid is stuck somewhere, they can call Diya, a virtual reading buddy from the bottom right corner. Diya then reads out the sentences, complete with proper pronunciations/meanings.
Working
Diya also recognizes when the kid is struggling
If a kid is struggling and spending too much time speaking a particular word/sentence/phrase, Diya automatically recognizes that and assists with the reading. The recognition part of Diya works with the help of Google's speech recognition technology, while the verbal cues to help kids read the difficult section of the text are given through the internet giant's text-to-speech technology.
Advantage
App works offline, supports profiles, offers rewards
Read Along works without requiring sign-in and keeps all the data of the student, including their voice, locally on the device. Also, the app can be used offline if you download the stories needed to be read on the phone. Parents can create individual profiles to see the progress of each of their kids, which is highlighted through stars/badges.
Support
Nine languages supported at the moment
As of now, you can download Read Along to help your kid read and understand nine languages, including English, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese. Google says that the app will get more languages, features, and storybooks to make things even more engaging for young students around the world. The beta version of the app is currently available for download on the Play Store.