Reading iPad apps for a 5 year old boy

January 25, 2017 11:09 AM

I would like my 5 year old son to start learning to read. Overwhelmed by the number of options. Gamification seems like a perfect approach, so any suggestions for iPad apps?
posted by aeighty to Education (8 answers total)

Best answer: Huuuge fan of Endless Reader, my almost-5-year-old daughter literally won't put it down. The app has a free demo (six words) and then has word packs you can buy.
posted by Oktober at 11:26 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I use Starfall with my students who come into first grade as non-readers... the website is Flash-based, I think, but they have iOS apps, too. Starts with ABCs, then basic short-vowel phonics and far beyond. Lots of holiday and other activities as well. Lots of free stuff, and membership is $35/year.
posted by Huck500 at 11:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I hate to say it, but a couple studies have said kids learn to read better & faster with dead-tree books, rather than e-books or apps. Apparently the tactile-ness of the paper books helps.
posted by easily confused at 11:48 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Not an app, but I firmly believe that my son learned to read very early because we let him watch these videos: Leapfrog Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, and Storybook Factory, in combination with reading to him lots and lots and lots. When reading, be sure to trace your finger across the words as you read them.
posted by anastasiav at 2:12 PM on January 25, 2017

Teach Your Monster to Read is adorable and free on a desktop, so you can try it before you buy. It's $4.99 on iPad/iPhone, and based on the amount of time our nearly 4-year old has spent on it, totally worth it.
posted by slmorri at 2:38 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maybe sounds strange, but I think my youngest son taught himself to read by playing Scribblenauts. Starfalll would be my more conventional answer.
posted by everything's coming up milhouse at 8:02 PM on January 25, 2017

We've been using Progressive Phonics and Starfall with our 4 year old (both on tablet and computer). As a supplement I play this cvc dice game with him, and plan to start the Explode the Code workbooks soon. I think all of this combined is probably overkill, but he's been having fun with it and it's been working for us.

I should note that I started him off by learning the letter sounds (Leapfrog videos) and then using letter tracing apps on the tablet such as Wet Dry Try and Letter School. I actually had 3 different ones on there and he would spend a lot of time in each of them.
posted by Circumstands at 2:48 PM on January 26, 2017

My daughter really loves the Homer app for reading. It's got a huge variety of stuff to do and it keeps her interest for a long time.
posted by dawkins_7 at 2:31 PM on February 21, 2017