Learn to Read - Duolingo ABC Reviews

I have homeschooled all 4 of our kids. (Oldest 16 youngest 7) we use DUOLINGO for teaching our two older boys Spanish. (We tried Rosetta Stone which was an absolute waste of money!) Duo Lingo is engaging and does an excellent job teaching to speak, read and write in Spanish. I saw the add for Duo abc and instantly thought of our 7 year old son who has Down Syndrome. His disability has made it a challenge to get him interested in learning. I have tried many different programs and apps, this is by far THE BEST app we have ever found!! I absolutely love it!!! The first time we opened he loved it!! It keeps his attention, and he’s finally learning his letters and sounds! The first time it asked him to say a word, I was nervous. He sees a speech therapist for his language. There are many times I (his mom) can’t even understand him. So when he repeated the word and it chimed because he got it right, I teared up a bit! I was ecstatic!! I can’t tell you how excited I am!! I have been telling all my homeschool friends!! Thank you Duo abc!!!! I am so grateful!!!

I am a Senior at Graceland University (GU) and am close to graduating in the school of Education there.
I greatly approve of what you have created. Repetition of letter names and speaking to the child who’s playing the “games” lines up perfectly with what I have learned at GU. As does the fact there is close to no distractions from the learning even between the game stages.
That said, what I would change in LearntoRead is create a way to control the settings to a greater extent, such as see the statistics and get progress monitoring by accessing LearntoRead in some way. I would say this to better keep parents, and maybe even teachers, better informed. If you were to do so, maybe also add a way to specify which as well so that it could better integrate into classroom use.
The other change I would make would be to allow for different languages to speak the instruction and for the verbal components when learning English. This would also be a means of introducing English to ESL, ELL and maybe even bilingual children.

He’s been struggling to learn his letters for years, we tried teaching him, using videos, and apps and he just would not sit down and was not interested. With LearntoRead (and the help of his teachers) he has finally started understanding letters and sounds. He actually WANTS to sit down and open LearntoRead. With the iPad and the Apple pencil, he has been learning how to WRITE and I am so amazed at how fast LearntoRead has helped him. My only suggestion would be allowing other languages on here. We are in a hispanic household and the primary language he speaks is spanish, his teachers and parents talk to him in this language, I see him struggling a bit to switch from spanish to english, especially in the first couple minutes on LearntoRead . It would be nice if he could learn the alphabet in spanish with LearntoRead. It’s still an amazing app, definitely 5 stars!!!

So I got this game yesterday and it has been so awesome! I love that unlike most other games I get this has NO things you have to buy. I’m trying to get my little brother started on this, he is a great little brother so I want to try and get him on this. I read a review that said that there kid got stuck on “Tiny Turtles? or “Hello Turtles “ but I just got on that, hopefully I won’t go threw a loop like her kid did. But this game has been great for me!!! I love how it looks so cute and how that it’s not like “ To get more lessons you can try a free trail and pay us 20 dollars a month. “ but this game has no things like that! I’m also so happy that there is speaking exercising, my brother has speech and some people can barley tell what he is saying. So I will let him start them, this game has been the best learning game for kids I’ve ever played that you don’t have to buy stuff on.

I got LearntoRead because it was an add on Duo lingo. I thought that it was going to teach me how to read in another language, preferably franchement the language I’ve been learning for about a year. As anyone would know it is very difficult to wrote on another language with the correct grammar and spelling. So I thought this would be a great opportunity. Well once I realized that this was only for English reading and writing I knew the perfect use. I gave it to my 5 year old who just started with letters. He really enjoys it. The one thing i ask for is an app that focuses primarily on reading and writing in another language. And that it would start with basics, so that kids and beginners aren’t overwhelmed. Like it teaches you to write the accent marks properly. I really have no problem with LearntoRead so far though.

For the longest time, my younger sister has struggled with reading and writing. Nothing my family tried could ever convince her to actually read, and she was failing to sound out simple words. It’s just been a really rough process trying to get her to learn. But, we stumbled upon LearntoRead, and within a day, she’s beginning to read and eagerly sounding out words. Everything about this just keeps her confident and engaged, and the fact that it’s free without shoving ads in our faces is even better. We couldn’t be more thankful for this, it put together the missing pieces that nothing else could, especially in an awful year like this, and that’s all. 10/10, would go back to kindergarten just to use this to learn to read again.

My child isn’t even 3 yet, and they love LearntoRead, and it’s perfect to practice their letters and spelling and writing on. As someone who loves other languages, I was hoping there would be options, but according to the developer, they are in the works, and I’m happy with how things are currently. I know some people are upset by this, especially thinking that it was more practice to go with their own Duolingo, but as a parent, I love that there is a learn to read/write/spell app for my toddler. It will be amazing when there are other languages, but giving a one star review because you didn’t read LearntoRead description is really childish. Maybe you should actually use LearntoRead, because you need some reading lessons.

Seriously though, LearntoRead is AMAZING for teaching English to toddlers.

I am very happy with LearntoRead. It has been a great tool for my soon to be kindergartener. However I think that the most recent update has an error: we are in a constant loop on one level so he keeps doing the same lessons over & over. It’s been a week with no new content. I thought it was happening because he wasn’t getting a ‘perfect score’ so I went in and did it for him. I got it to level 11. And sure enough this afternoon it was back to the tiny turtles. He’s over it and so am I.

My only other general suggestion is that LearntoRead have a place for parents to get a comprehensive overview of the skills that have been introduced and where the child is in terms of mastery.

It is a wonderful app and I truly appreciate that it is free and ad-free! Keep up the great work!!

Overall I really like LearntoRead. My daughter enjoys it and I appreciate how phonics, sight words, letter formation, and reading comprehension are all included. We have been using LearntoRead for about a year with a bit of a break in the middle. When we first started all the levels were locked until you completed the level prior; however, now my daughter can access levels out of order and just jumps around to only find the story levels. I really wish you would change it back to requiring kids to do the levels in order so they can learn prerequisite skills for the later levels.

I recently got LearntoRead for my 4 year old brother and he loves it the second he starts. It’s super effective, and he even loves LearntoRead more than video games! I thought that is GREAT, since it’s almost impossible to get him to do anything else. I recommend LearntoRead because it’s the best for my little brother(plus it’s free!!) and it helps him understand things so much better. Although this is a good review, I must say that the levels EXTREMELY long and basically repeats the same thing over and over again until you get to a higher level. I would like it if it was less lengthy, but even so it would imprint on his brain for a long time which is still good. Other than that, I think it’s the best!!

I have wanted to find an app like this for my 3 year old son. I think a parent needs to be engaged in LearntoRead alongside the child in order to keep the child truly focused. Apps can be overwhelming for little ones, they end up pressing things and going off course. LearntoRead addresses that concern of mine. I sat alongside my son and saw he was able to stay on task of LearntoRead ’s easy to follow instructions, without me monitoring his process. LearntoRead is well designed and well thought out.

When LearntoRead asks to pronounce words, OMG! I was completely won over. It really encouraged him to say the words, not just be a “tablet zombie”. He loved that feature too!

My son is 3 and loves to hear stories read to him, he often tries to read on his own and quickly realizes he doesn't know how, and that upsets him. Today we opened LearntoRead up and he couldn’t put it down. He loves the stories read to him and writing. I think he loves it all. He is currently on the 2nd letter “a”. I saw him free write the letter’a’ on LearntoRead . I feel that this is the perfect app, because its clean and straight to the point which helps my son from getting distracted. We have used A LOT of other learning apps. This one he loves. This one im sticking with. Plus IT’s FREE. Thanks duo for LearntoRead . I love there language learning app also. Go check that out.

This could be good for younger kids but not older kids. My child wanted to take writing classes and she’s pretty advanced and she wants to get better, if it’s gonna start out with how to spell monkey I don’t think this is going to help a 10 year old. And it’s also annoying because you can’t change the language and my mom was trying to help her change the age and stuff to see if that would work but she couldn’t read it . And it’s also a good app for people learning English because now my mom knows some English so I guess it was pretty helpful but it is very annoying when you 10 year old is trying to learn new writing skills and it’s literally trying telling her to spell monkey.

This is actually working really well with my son who is only 3. His speech development has always been a little concern, but with the help of LearntoRead he has learned so many new words quickly. He is even learning how to read AND write quickly. He has always been behind his peers in school and all of a sudden he’s catching up really fast. I am really relieved to have found Duo ABC. It has been such a game changer of making learning fun for him.
*We use LearntoRead plus other things like flash cards, blocks, and whiteboard to help our son and he has changed so much in such a short time.

I would like to be able to skip to a specific lesson as a parent, I found the beginning lessons too easy for my kids but am sure something in the middle would be perfect. LearntoRead seems very well made and easy to figure out with cute little owls. At times it felt a little slow and you have no control over the pace. I’m not sure my kids will stay engaged long term since it’s slow and doesn’t have very fun games. I love that it is advertisement free and well designed! Those are very important to me for my kids. In the end they said it was an early release and with such a solid start I can see this being a great app soon.

I love LearntoRead so much for my 4 year old. I downloaded it in my tablet and I did not use it. My daughter found it by herself. I was shocked to see how it’s helping her through speaking, writing and reading. I also got her learning report coming through my email. This is beyond my expectations. I was like LearntoRead is better than abc mouse that I purchased for her. The only thing is sometimes it’s frozen but you can restart the iPad and it will work. So far it is the best app that actually teach effectively. I really love it. I don’t like doing reviews, this one I have too... Good job

If your child is working on letter naming, letter sounds, and printing letters, then LearntoRead is great! It allows them to engage with the content using multiple modalities.

However, if your child can already read sight words and simple sentences, this is probably too easy for them. Although I will say I, as an adult, had fun playing through a few levels.

I also appreciated that there wasn’t anything else to click on besides the next lesson. It would be easy for a young child to navigate and it seems like it would be hard for them to get in trouble while clicking around in LearntoRead .

Although I’m an 18 year old without any kids, I think that this would be a great app for kids trying to learn. I downloaded this thinking you could select the language you want to learn, but unfortunately that’s not the case. If it is possible, could you please add a selection to change the language, I really was hoping I could pick Japanese so I could learn the strokes of the symbols. I have been learning Japanese on the regular Duolingo app and figured I might be able to learn some more here but I can’t :(.

I have a 7 year old and a 3 year old they both like using it. I just started teaching my 3 year old capital and lowercase letters and it was a bit of a struggle. This teaches that and so much more and I can just supervise and supply encouragement and recognition. I love how it’s easy for my 3 year old to understand and navigate through. My kids hate abc mouse but love this. It only needs some type of way for me to track what they learned and what they’re struggling with.

I just got this game for my five year old sister and she loves it! I’ve been trying to get her to read since forever and now she’s reading her sight words and writing them. I can’t believe how fast she’s learning, in just a couple of hours she’s been able to recognize rhyming words like at and mat, and even larger words like monkey and turtle. And she’s reading mini books by using the pictures as inferences. Not only does she love LearntoRead, but I love it too! It’s so cool to see a little kid reading and writing so well. Thank you Duolingo!

It was fun and helpful, but didn’t do what I was looking for

My kids Tried the Duolingo Spanish app, but it does not teach the Spanish alphabet, so they have a hard time because they do not know them in Spanish. I was hoping LearntoRead had a Dual language option.

Just when we needed something more to do with my 3 year old at home...I saw this came out on Instagram. He loves the little lessons already!

LearntoRead is really cool. It help my child with all her reading and writing. And it also makes it fun for her so that way she always wants to learn.

I am 3. I have been using LearntoRead for just 4 hours and I can already write. Super helpful!

one of the first ratings.. this is great
ok anyways
great app, im not a child but still gonna use it cause i love the duo bird mascot

Great app from Duolingo.

I’m a really big fan of LearntoRead , it’s very easy to use and very nicely developed. I was just wondering is it possible to see some of these ideas in the future:
- teach the alphabet of other languages like Spanish (and the pronunciation of the letters)
- stories in other languages
(Maybe a bedtime story mode, where parents can read to their kids)
- different levels for different age groups
(Like 2-5 and 5-7)
And thank you a lot for your hard work!