Sometimes a note appears on your child's Progress page saying that one sound has not moved for a while. This page explains what we mean by that, what we cannot tell you, and who can.
What the note actually says
The word games work on one sound at a time. When a sound is not going well, the games do not simply serve it up again: they go back to the sound underneath it to check that one is solid, then show the same sound a different way, then give your child more practice with help before asking them to do it alone.
The note appears when all of that has happened and the sound has still not moved. It names the sound, says when we noticed, and stops there.
It is one sound, in our own games, over a stretch of days. That is genuinely all it is.
What it is not
It is not a diagnosis. We are a reading app. We see how a few dozen taps went, on one device, in one kind of exercise. We cannot see your child's hearing, their eyesight, how they are at school, whether they were tired, whether English is the language they think in, or any of the other ordinary things that make a sound stick.
It is not a reading age or a level. We do not have one for your child and we are not going to give you one.
It is not a comparison. We have not measured your child against any other child, and nothing on our pages does.
What we would do with it
Two things, and the first matters more.
Tell whoever teaches your child to read. A teacher sees your child reading a page in front of a person, which is a different and better thing than we see. They will know whether this matches what they are seeing, and they have the routes to a proper assessment if one is worth having. In England that conversation often goes through the school's SENCO; elsewhere the person to ask is whoever coordinates additional support.
Do the sounds check together. It takes about two minutes, needs no microphone, and your child reads a short list out loud to you while you tap what happened. Some of the words are made up on purpose, because a real word can be read from memory and a made-up one can only be sounded out. It is the fastest way for us to learn what your child can actually do, and you can do it as often as you like. It sits on the same Progress page.
About dyslexia
Parents usually arrive at this page with that word in mind, so here is what we can honestly say about it.
Dyslexia is a difficulty with the accurate and fluent reading of words, and with spelling, that does not follow from a lack of teaching or a lack of intelligence. It is common, it runs in families, and it is nothing to do with how clever a child is or how hard they are trying.
We cannot tell you whether your child has it. Identifying dyslexia takes a qualified assessor looking at several different things over time, including things we have no way of seeing. Anyone who tells you otherwise from an app is guessing.
Nothing about our word games changes if a child has it. The way we teach reading is the way the evidence supports teaching every child: one sound at a time, explicitly, in an order, with the sounds already learned coming back round again, and with reading and spelling taught together. That is the approach that helps children who find reading hard the most, which is exactly why it is what everybody gets.
A specialist can do things we cannot. A proper assessment can say what is going on, and it can open doors at school that a note from us cannot.
Making the page easier to read
Separately from any of this, there are settings that some readers prefer. Inside a book your child can change the paper, the spacing between lines and between words, and turn on a line marker. Typeface and text size are on your side, under that reader's settings.
We offer OpenDyslexic because some readers like it. The research does not show that it improves reading, and we are not going to tell you otherwise. How the page looks covers all of it.
Making the note go away
It goes by itself on the first night your child is no longer stuck on that sound. You do not have to do anything.
If you would rather not be shown it again in the meantime, there is an "I have read this" button on the note. It stays on the page until your child moves on, but it stops asking for your attention and we will not point you at it again.
Turning off "Learn what they enjoy" on your child's Safety page deletes everything the word games have learned, including the note.