Interactive Reading Apps for Young Children and Families

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Henry Helps Plant a Garden - A Capstone Interactive eBook

This is one of many digitized Capstone Publishing eBooks (there are many available for free and you can get the Cap Reader to store them). The purpose of this story app is to tell the story and steps of how to plant a garden. The pages of the story can be read using autoplay (no interaction), read to me, and then there is an option called talking time. A natural-sounding voice reads the story, each word is highlighted. Keywords stay highlighted, and the child can push them to hear the word again. There are also one hidden item per page to collect and secret interactive elements on each page. The talking time portion revisits the hidden items the child found on each page. Henry says what the item is, and then the child is prompted to talk. Then the child's voice comes out of Henry. This app is based on a paper book. The sequence and social story can support young children's learning about gardening and plant growth. Perhaps a classroom or family is planning their own garden. A story like this can support a child who may need more examples of what planting a garden looks like.


Henry Helps Plant a Garden Screenshot


Tales2Go (30-day free trial)

This app has over 3,000 streaming books and songs. It is simple to use without any distracting ads or popups. You can search for audiobooks or songs by age, grade level, author, characters and other categories. When you choose the story it is recited with a real voice much like the original books on tape or CD. You can locate the play button using VoiceOver. This app is great for children with low vision or who are unable to read the text to access a wide variety of literature. One limitation is the books are not shown page by page.


Tales2Go Screenshot

Oceanhouse Media Books

This software company created electronic Dr. Seuss books that have three options "Read to Me," "Read it Myself," or "Auto Play." The app highlights words as it reads, and children can select words to be read aloud to help them along. The Dr. Seuss ABC's app is $3.99 for Apple Devices and $1.99 on Android. Many classic favorites are available for these easy to use the app. The only downside is you have to purchase each book separately.


Oceanhouse Media Website Screenshot

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