When your child taps a word in a book, the card that opens gives help one step at a time. The first tap gives the first step, and a button on the card, named for what it does, gives the next. The steps depend on how far your child has got with reading and on the word itself.
A word your child can sound out
For a child learning phonics, a word made only of the sound-spellings they have been taught starts with its sounds:
- The sounds. Each sound plays in turn while its letters are outlined. The card says "Say each sound, then push them together." This is the step where your child blends the word themselves.
- Hear it slowly. The same sounds held and joined up, so the word can be heard coming together.
- Hear the word. The whole word.
The whole word only comes after the sounds. If your child does nothing for five seconds after the sounds, the card says the word for them, so nobody is left stuck.
Characters' names, and the few words a book set out to teach, are said whole, as they always were. A word is only sounded out when every sound in it has a recording two people have checked. If sounds are turned off for your child, the sound steps are left out.
Heart words
Heart words are the common words with a part that does not sound the way it looks, like "said" and "was". Tapping one says it, and shows its letters with a heart on the part to remember. Tapping "Hear it again" says it once more.
Vowel teams and other spellings
Once your child reaches the vowel teams and alternative spellings (phases 8 and 9), a word with one of those spellings is shown in its parts, for example r-ai-n, with each part's sound. Then the whole word, and then its meaning if it is one of the richer words books teach.
Longer words, for ages 7 to 9
A longer word is split into its syllables, each one said in turn. Then the whole word, and then its meaning with an example. Pressing and holding a word, or pressing "Word parts" on its card, shows the parts it is built from, like un + happy.
Ages 9 to 12
The first tap gives the word and its meaning. "Word parts" shows how it is built (a prefix at the start, a root, a suffix or ending at the end) and what each part means. For words built on a Latin or Greek root, "Where it comes from" says which.
My words
Where there is a meaning on the card, your child may see a star marked "My words". Starring a word puts it into the words that come back for practice in a later sitting. Starring it again takes it out.
Read-along on the first read
A book made from the sounds your child knows is theirs to try first. On the first read of one of those books, the "Read to me" button waits on each page until your child has had a go: tapping a word, or a few seconds on the page. The card says "Have a go first." After the first time through, and in every other book, "Read to me" is there from the start.
This is on for readers aged 5 to 7 added from 26 September 2026. Readers who were already here keep read-along from the start. You can change it for any reader aged 5 to 9 under Settings, then Reading, then Read along on the first read.
We are extending this, gradually, to every reader who is learning to sound out words, aged 5 to 12. When it reaches your family, new readers of any of those ages start by having a go first. A reader who already has read-along keeps it: we ask you once, at the top of their Reading settings, Let them read first? Choose Let them read first or Keep the read-along. Nothing changes unless you say yes, and you can change it later in the same place.
Read it again
If your child tapped a lot of the words on a page (more than 15 in every 100), the end of the book leads with "Read it again". A book with many new words gets easier each time it is read. Nothing on the screen says how many words were tapped.
Once you have agreed to the version of our privacy notice that describes it, and learning is on, it also leads with "Read it again" when a first read needed help on more than 5 in every 100 of the book's words.
What we keep
A tapped word has always been counted, and the word noted, to help decide which books suit your child. We do not keep how many steps of help a tap took, or how long your child looked at the page first, unless you have agreed to the version of our privacy notice that describes it and learning is turned on for your child. If you have:
- each tapped word is kept with its book and page, the number of steps, and whether your child had looked for under two seconds, two to five, five to fifteen, or longer;
- a word your child could have sounded out, tapped in two of their last three books, brings its trickiest sound back for practice;
- a book where more than 15 in every 100 words on a page were tapped is noted for that day, and the next phonics phase is not suggested while books feel that hard;
- a starred word stays starred.
These are kept for three months, and all of it is removed at once if you turn learning off. The words your child tapped are never sent to anyone else. Once you have agreed, we ask a decision service, Typesafe, whether help on a word your child can sound out should start with its sounds or with the slow blend, and whether to offer a book again. It is sent your child's age group and phonics phase and a few sizes, such as how many words they tap in a book on a scale of 0 to 3; never a word, a name or a book's title. Your child still gets what our own rules chose.