When a child says they hate reading
Usually it comes down to one of four things. Only the first is really about reading itself.
The book is too hard
A child reading a book a year above them spends every page working out words, with little left over for the story. You may not see it, because they can manage a page while somebody is watching. What tells you is whether they pick it up when nobody is.
This is the problem TaleTykes was built for. We write the next book at the level they are reading now, whatever the books on their shelf are pitched at.
The book is boring to them
Most children's books are about a handful of things. A child who cares about none of them has been told to read for years and offered nothing they wanted. The trouble there is with the books.
Each story here is about what they chose. They pick from a menu instead of typing into a blank box, and the stories change as their choices do.
Reading has become a thing they are marked on
Levels, charts and a book bag with a number on it soon teach a child that reading is graded. That lesson is accurate but unhelpful, and a grown-up's enthusiasm won't undo it.
Your child's screen here shows no score and no streak, and a week without reading costs them nothing. Anything we measure is shown to a grown-up.
They would rather be doing something else
Sometimes that is the whole of it. Reading aloud to a child who can read perfectly well still counts. It is a big part of how children become readers.
Books here can be read aloud by the product, or recorded by a grown-up in their own voice. Both count just as much as reading it themselves.
What this page doesn’t claim
None of this is a diagnosis. If a child finds reading far harder than the children around them over a long stretch, talk to their school or a specialist. A story written at their level can’t replace that conversation.
We also don’t claim that this will make a child love reading on its own. What it can do is deal with the two reasons that come from the book itself. The other two come from how reading feels to your child, and you are the best person to help with those.
A book at the level they read at now
It is about whatever they chose, and there is no score on it anywhere.
There are no ads, and a child can't buy anything.