Parental involvement in a child’s literacy development is the number one predictor of early literacy success and future academic achievement. And the impacts stretch well beyond literacy development, building core social-emotional skills like empathy and curiosity, strengthening family connections, and exposing kids to new information and subject areas they might not otherwise come across.
Along with the growth of AI tools for literacy, more and more digital tools are surfacing across the market that allow children to practice their literacy skills outside of the classroom. While older children may use these tools independently, for younger learners, they offer the added benefit of expanding how families can immerse themselves in their children’s literacy learning.
The Evolution At-Home Literacy Tools
Research on the value of family involvement in children’s literacy development extends beyond the introduction of ed tech tools. Pediatricians hand out books to newborn parents, and libraries host storytimes and other community events for good reason. Reading early and often matters.
And reading out loud with a family member is even more impactful. In 1985, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences published a seminal report on reading that described reading aloud to children as “the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading.”
The evidence is there. One 2019 study found that young kids whose parents read to them daily will hear at least 290,000 more words by the time they start kindergarten than their peers. That gives kids a huge leg up in their vocabulary development and word recognition skills. Another study yielded a statistically significant association between parental involvement and a child’s overall academic performance.
There’s something special about a parent or caregiver reading aloud to a child, side by side with a favorite book in hand, and that experience is irreplaceable. These moments are critical for connection-building and cultivating a love of books and reading.
This article is based the Rethinking Reading: AI for Literacy Achievement workshop series, a set of webinars on education AI applications organized in collaboration with InnovateUS and the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University.
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Over the years, however, digital tools have emerged to supplement family reading rituals and create engaging experiences for students to practice their skills anytime and at their own pace. Between 2010 and 2015, platforms like ABCmouse, PBS Kids’ reading platform, and the Hooked on Phonics app gained popularity for their interactive games and stories. This initial slate of tools didn’t rely on AI and instead offered pre-designed activities that were limited in the personalization they could offer. Still, they laid the foundation for a greater emphasis on reading skill development outside of school.
Following 2017, AI features began to be introduced, and the possibilities various tools could offer, such as enabling deeper personalization based on different children’s needs and skills, drastically increased. Take Google’s Read Along app, which launched in 2019. The app features a reading assistant for kids, called Diya, which uses advanced text-to-speech and voice recognition technologies to listen to children read and provide feedback.
As these tools have advanced, they have become better able to provide precise guidance, both providing direct feedback to children and offering caregivers access to data on their children’s reading abilities. For example, the organization Springboard Collaborative is now working on a Parent-Facing Literacy Screener, which will use AI to assess children’s literacy progress at home.
There’s something special about a parent or caregiver reading aloud to a child, side by side with a favorite book in hand, and that experience is irreplaceable. These moments are critical for connection-building and cultivating a love of books and reading. Over the years, however, digital tools have emerged to supplement family reading rituals and create engaging experiences for students to practice their skills anytime and at their own pace.
AI For Parent-Led Literacy Learning
Today, there are a number of digital games and tools available to help parents bring a love of reading to their kids, and many are still in the making.
Bookbot and Pip School by EarlyBird Education are two examples of AI-driven tools currently available for families to use at home.
- Bookbot is a gamified, science-backed app designed for early learners between the ages of 5 and 9 that offers an AI-powered personalized tutoring bot, which interacts with children as they read aloud from a vast library of decodable digital stories. The app provides tailored recommendations based on each user’s specified reading level and challenges while offering an interactive, encouraging experience aimed at boosting readers’ confidence. Bookbot also offers a companion app, Bookbot Reports, which allows parents to track their readers’ progress and see where they need support.
- EarlyBird Education has launched a sister entity called Sprout Labs, which is entirely focused on advancing at-home literacy support through methods based on the science of reading. They’ve developed a tool called Pip School, which similarly provides a gamified experience for learners to practice their reading skills at home, including using advanced AI to assess and respond as children read aloud. One unique element of Pip School is its human-in-the-loop model, which pairs families with a reading specialist who can help interpret student data and recommend custom learning plans.
Building on similar approaches, many organizations are combining AI with gamified elements, like conversational avatars, badges, and point systems, alongside research-backed strategies from the science of reading. Other examples of organizations that offer tools for at-home literacy skill practice include:
- Duolingo ABC is a free app that helps young children build early literacy skills through playful lessons. This tool is unique in that it targets both early reading and writing skills.
- HOMER offers a subscription-based personalized early learning program that adapts to each child’s reading level and interests, blending phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- Ello is another subscription-based platform with an AI-powered reading assistant that listens to children reading and coaches them through challenging words and areas they are struggling with.
As these tools have advanced, they have become better able to provide precise guidance, both providing direct feedback to children and offering caregivers access to data on their children’s reading abilities. For example, the organization Springboard Collaborative is now working on a Parent-Facing Literacy Screener, which will use AI to assess children’s literacy progress at home.
What’s The Future For At-Home Literacy Tools?
As more families turn to digital options for supplemental reading practice and tools’ capacity to provide personalized experiences expands, organizations will need to keep several research questions in focus.
One important area is designing tools in close collaboration with families. Co-design is critical to ensuring that tools are addressing real family concerns – from accessibility to developmentally appropriate screen use – and that experiences are being created with the aim of strengthening and complementing direct family involvement.
For example, in 2021, the Institute of Education Sciences awarded Amira Learning dedicated funding for the Reading Together initiative, which actively involved kindergarten parents in co-designing a family-school-technology reading program. Researchers collaborated with families to explore how digital tools and e-learning modules could align with parent goals and foster family collaboration.
At the same time, core technical questions also remain. As with many literacy tools entering the market, automatic speech recognition (ASR) is becoming a foundational element. Many private companies have developed speech recognition systems that now achieve near-human-level accuracy. One 2024 study demonstrated that OpenAI’s Whisper large-v3 surpassed human transcribers. However, as new innovators blend creative design with learning science, it’s vital that high-performing ASR become accessible and achievable beyond proprietary platforms. This will mean training models on more representative data, particularly reflecting the early age groups these tools are targeting.
These are just a few of the top research areas that innovators are focusing on. Other priorities include addressing bias in ASR models, responding to parental concerns about data privacy, and ensuring that engagement and personalization features stay grounded in learning goals, rather than tipping toward the development of games for their own sake.
Building on similar approaches, many organizations are combining AI with gamified elements, like conversational avatars, badges, and point systems, alongside research-backed strategies from the science of reading.
Reimagining At-Home Reading Practice With AI
In short, bedtime stories aren’t going anywhere. But now, AI platforms are helping to create new pockets of opportunity throughout the non-school day.
With the help of playful digital experiences grounded in a scientific understanding of reading skill development, these tools can help carve out more moments for parents to track progress, offer encouragement, and stay engaged in their child’s reading journey in ways that haven’t previously been possible.
