Learning to read is an indispensable basis for learning and development processes as well as for participation in cultural, professional and social life. Having sufficient reading skills is therefore crucial for children and young people in order to access education and to be able to participate in society. eKidz is a parent initiative arising from educational needs of multilingual students.
Reading competence is a multi-layered construct that includes different levels and facets. At the beginning of the acquisition process, increasing the level of reading accuracy and increasing the speed of reading are among the most powerful skills to master. Children are guided through a range of reading, speaking, listening and writing activities. Harnessing the power of AI, they are assessed, guided and given remedial activities, all of which the teacher can review and intervene. eKidz allows students to access reading material from level one - focusing on phonics and the grapheme-phoneme relationships. This is reinforced by auditory stimulus in the form of narration. As their decoding accuracy improves, they progress to more complex texts on 12 levels. eKidz records reading comprehension scores at the end of each book. Prosodic reading is also an indicator of basic reading skills. The eKidz recording function is a valuable tool to assess students’ reading aloud and speech progress.
eKidz is a scalable EdTech solution built in cooperation with university researchers and language practitioners. Our comprehensive back-end offers researchers a unique opportunity to obtain new experimental evidence on the effectiveness of technology-based approaches in literacy and language education.
eKidz serves K-12 market via direct sales to the regional & local governments. Our sales approach is based on the introduction of the eKidz App in larger scale pilots in collaboration with school districts. Our solution has been implemented in 3 German federal states to schools & libraries, several school districts in the US. The first pilots in Spain & Mexico have been successful. The scientific evaluation projects led by universities are ongoing in Bavaria/Germany, Utah/US & Luxembourg.
A school version of the eKidz app can be downloaded and tried for free, from our website, via Apple Store or Google Play.
Select "Register (as a teacher)", select "30 days school trial" with unlimited access to English, Spanish, German & Ukrainian literacy programs for a class, up to 35 students. Create your class, print out QR codes for students from the class list and having personalized start!
