Two Free Apps for Emergent Literacy

By: Chelsea Emery, EC-SEAT Scholar 

Technology is great. These are two great application for emergent literacy I found while taking an OT assistive technology class this winter! They are free and easily accessible. In each they describe what the application is for and what areas of learning it supports! Enjoy!

Partners in Rhyme

It is a free app that is about learning rhymes of words. This is a great tool for emergent learners to have because rhyming supports spelling, reading and phonics. This app has lots of games for practicing rhymes including matching games, memory games, either/or, yes/no, and pictures. If the child doesn't know what the picture is displaying they can click on the picture and it says the word. This way the child is getting visual, auditory, and sensory input. The pictures of this app show the matching and memory game of the rhymes. The app allows for many ways of learning the rhyming subject. They give options of activities to practice the work including matching and yes or no games. These games allow the child to have an option if they rhyme and it gives them more support as they are learning. This app is very easy to use and to navigate through. 

Areas of learning: Rhyming, Phonics, Spelling, Fine motor skills

Endless Reader

This app is great for phonics, spelling, literacy and reading. You can choose letters from the alphabet and they will give you words that start with that letter. They read the word to you then allow you to put the letters together to make the word again. You drag the letter to the right spot. As you drag is says the sound the letter makes and after you complete the word it reads it to you again. After this it then puts the word in a sentence and shows you a short cute film displaying what the sentence meant. I like this app because it allows for children's letter recognition go together with their recognition of sounds. They can use these skills to make words and learn how to read new words. This is a great app for readers and children learning how to go from sounds to words to sentences in reading. This app is easy to use, fun, and allows for emergent literacy skills to progress.

Areas of learning: Reading, Phonics, Expressive language, Spelling, Letters/Sounds writing, Communicating with words

My name is Chelsea Emery and I am a EC-SEAT Scholar. I am 23 and from New Hampton, New Hampshire. I graduated from Stonehill College last year, majored in speech pathology and played field hockey. I love working with children and always have. I interned for an early intervention, special education program, and as a speech assistant and found my love for early education special education to really grow through my experiences. When I worked as a speech assistant I found I was trying to teach myself how to accommodate children who needed assistive technology but weren’t able to get the resources. I really want to become an expert with assistive technology to help families and students in need of these resources. I wanted to be an EC-SEAT scholar to be able to earn my Master’s degree at UNH and get my certificate in Assistive Technology. The amount of support and encouragement from the program as a scholar will allow me to be successful. My goal for the future is to work in an early intervention or a specialty school for children under the age of 8.