Updated in January 2022
Below is a collection of some very good iPad apps to use with your kids and young learners to help them develop their reading fluency. The apps provide a wide variety of reading materials that include interactive stories, engaging activities, fun games, quizzes and many more.
And because reading is a composite skill, using these apps will also enable kids to practice a number of key sub-skills related to reading including: pronunciation, vocabulary, phonics, word recognition, comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling.
1- Reading Eggs
Reading Eggs is a great app to help kids develop reading fluency. It offers a wide variety of interactive reading games, guided reading lessons, phonics activities, word puzzles, nursery rhymes, and more than 300 storybooks. Reading Eggs' materials are focused on the five components of reading namely: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. As kids interact with reading materials, they receive rewards in the form of golden eggs, collectable pets, and more games. Parents and teachers have access to detailed reports to track kids performance and view their progress in real time.
2- Starfall
Starfall is another great app to help kids become fluent readers using interactive games, fun activities, songs, rhymes and many more. More specifically, kids will get to practice letter sounds, word recognition and enhance their reading comprehension. They will also be initiated to grammar and learn about punctuation, parts of speech, among others. 'Starfall's playful open format intuitively guides children through sequential learning objectives for reading, math, art, music, and social subjects like kindness and caring.'
[ Related: Best apps for learning cursive writing]
3- Reading Raven
Reading Raven takes kids on a fun learning journey in which kids develop their phonemic awareness, phonics and practice reading whole sentences. Reading Raven offers access to step by step reading lessons that take kids all the way from pre-reading to reading fluency. Reading materials are customizable by reading age and level and include clear voice instructions and feedback to guide kids learning. Sticker rewards are provided for kids to motivate them and keep them focused.
'With the Reading Raven companion guiding them along, children will go on delightful fun-filled adventures where they will encounter fly eating frogs, caterpillars that turn into butterflies, circus acrobats, ball balancing seals, underwater sea creatures, snow monsters, flying penguins, space robots, rhyming rockets, and much more!'
4- Teach Your Monster to Read
This app helps kids develop their reading fluency through fun games. Basically, kids create their monster and take it with them in a learning journey which involves playing three main games: First Steps, Faun with Words, and Champion Reader. Starting with letter sounds and basic phonics and going all the way to champion readers, kids will definitely enjoy playing the game while learning. The app is great to use with students in class or at home. It 'covers the first two years of learning to read, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying little books.'
5- Spark Reading for Kids
Spark Reading, as its name indicates, is all about improving kids reading skills through interactive and immersive stories. The app provides access to a moving digital library that kids can take with them anywhere. Stories in Spark Reading are selected by teachers and educators and cover a wide variety of topics including both fiction and non-fiction titles.
Stories come with comprehension question and activities to test their understanding. It also features recommendations based on kids reading levels and interests and allow them to track their reading progress along the way. Parents and teachers can use the app's reporting feature to track kids reading progress, monitor their performance, view scores, time spent reading and many more.
Age: 4+ /Compatibility: iOS /Price: Free, offers in-app purchases
6- Epic
Epic is another great digital library full of interactive and age-appropriate reading materials to help kids develop their reading fluency. Some of these materials include: thousands of high-quality kids books, interactive learning videos, audiobooks, read-to-me books, quizzes, and more. Epic also offers personalized recommendations based on kids reading levels and interests. Incentives provided by Epic include badges and rewards.
Epic offers two subscription versions: there is epic for families and includes both Epic Unlimited and Epic Basic and there is a version for teachers and educators called Epic School. The latter is free for elementary school teachers. Some of the feature it provides to teachers include: the ability to create profiles for students and assign them books to read, progress tracking, personalized recommendations based on students reading levels, and more. To learn more about Epic, read this full review.
7- Vooks
Vooks provides access to a large digital library of children's animated storybooks. Kids can watch their favourite story books anywhere there is Internet connection. They can also download reading materials to their devices and watch them offline. 'Vooks brings storybooks to life, expands vocabulary, promotes language development, and supports comprehension. Entertaining while educational, Vooks empowers families to read the recommended 20 minutes a day'.
8- Homer Learn & Grow
Homer Learn & Grow enables kids to learn reading through playful activities, interactive lessons, and engaging stories. Besides reading, Homer also provides educational resources that cover other subject areas including social emotional learning, math, thinking skills, and creativity. These materials are personalized by skill level, age and interests. The app also offers additional resources for parents that include videos, activities, learning tips, and many more.
