How we test changes to lessons

What "Help improve TaleTykes" does, what can and cannot be varied, who is included, and how to turn it off.

Updated November 2, 2026 · 1 min read

Sometimes two reasonable lesson settings exist and we do not know which teaches better. With your permission, we compare them.

What can be varied

Only two settings today: how strictly the story at the end of a lesson matches the sounds your child knows, and whether that story is read twice or three times. Both choices are ones we would use for any child. Nothing withholds teaching, skips a lesson part, or changes the checks.

Who is included

Families: only children whose parent turned on "Help improve TaleTykes" on the child's Controls page. It is off until you turn it on.
Schools: only children under a signed school agreement that covers research use, and a school can turn it off for a child.

Everyone else gets the standard settings, and nothing about them is recorded for a comparison.

How it works

Each comparison is written up before it starts, with the question and the single number it will be judged on. A child is assigned to one setting by a fixed rule and stays there. A comparison runs at least two weeks, and we keep the result whatever it shows.

What we see

Counts per setting, such as how many checks were passed. No child is named in a readout.

Turning it off

Switch off "Help improve TaleTykes" on Controls. From the next lesson your child gets the standard settings. Earlier counts are kept in the aggregate.

Where to read more

The claims and research documents are on our Evidence page.

AI and your child's informationWhat AI companies receive when TaleTykes makes books, and why your child's name is never part of it.Consent choices explainedThe three choices on the consent page, which one is required, and how to change your mind.What we store when you rate a help articleWhat happens to your answer to "Was this helpful?", the cookie we use, and how searches and page views are counted.How long we keep informationHow long TaleTykes keeps reading activity, recordings, writing and consent records, and what happens when you close an account.

Still stuck?

Write to us with what you were trying to do and what you saw on screen.