2 App Reviews - Starfall Learn to Read and Reading Train

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By: Ryan Keefe, EC-SEAT Scholar

Starfall Learn to Read by Starfall Education

This app is a good straightforward app for working primarily with short and long vowels. It lacks the excitement of music and graphics that some apps have, but it definitely helps a student work on their vowels and better understanding their place in words. Through short stories the short and long versions of vowels are shown for students to hear and read. An additional piece that I liked was the ability for a child to work with phonics and chunking such as oa, ar, or, er, ir, etc.

Students are allowed to take this concept further with a game that allows them to match words based off a picture. The app will show the child a picture and the last letters of the word, and the child then needs to sound out the word, and figure out which letter starts the word. Many special education students have great difficulty with literacy and reading. With the motivational factor, and the simple stories, it introduces one of the most pivotal pieces of reading, the vowel. Many students need repetition, and with the stories and games the child are able to play they constantly hear each vowel repeated constantly. With the request for the child to repeat the word it allows the user to also work on their speech.

Reading Train by The Learning Station, LLC

This app allows your child to read and listen to stories, and also has the ability to have your own voice recorded for the stories. This app starts off with entertaining music, and is quite entertaining throughout with the trains used to select stories, and the way a child can choose what they want to do. The app also adds a motivational factor in that when a child completes a book and activities that follow they will receive a prize of a crate for their train, unlocking a new book, and receiving coins which allow them to open a song book in the music section.

One major downfall I had with the app however, was the fact that it did not highlight the words as it read them. While my daughter was very enthused by the books, activities, and song books, I found myself wishing that the words would be highlighted as they were being read to help her follow along. This app can be great for a student with special needs as it for many it allows for the text to be read for the student, and the student is able to read it aloud once they feel comfortable. It also helps with a child who may require scaffolding as it allows the user to advance as they learn the stories. The reward of coins at the end of a book can be a great motivator for a child as well. Reading Train has a big downfall in my eyes. It is not a pay for app, but a subscription app. While you have the ability to read one book from each subject and level in order to read more and to receive updates, it comes at a cost for a 1 month, 6 month, or 12 month subscription.

About the author: Ryan has been working in the special education field for over a decade working with students from fifth grade through high school. He has had the pleasure of working with students of varying abilities, and looks forward to taking his knowledge and experience, and using it for early
childhood education. For the last two years, Ryan has also worked in the early childhood education setting. Working in a day care center as a float teacher in the pre-school, toddler, and kindergarten room, as well as a lead teacher for the school age after school program. Currently he is interning in a public preschool classroom and in early intervention. Ryan looks forward to the opportunity of teaching our young children the wealth of possibilities they have, and can achieve.