EdTech

The Importance of a Balanced Diet of Screen Time

Each parent has pondered the impact of screen time on their children, contemplating both duration and potential benefits. It can be challenging to navigate something that was absent during our childhood and beyond our parents’ experience. Without a frame of reference, comparisons are elusive, making it difficult to grasp and comprehend fully. Following a captivating interview with Amanda Gummer on the BBC, this blog delves into the ways in which screen time can effectively aid children’s development.

A Balanced Diet
Just like anything in life, a well-balanced diet is crucial. The same goes for a child’s play. While it is crucial to promote engaging and imaginative child-led play, known as the ‘broccoli’ of play, we should not completely deny them other play experiences and screen time can have a place in that diet. It is important to strike a balance and offer a variety of play opportunities to enrich their development and enjoyment.

Amanda Gummer recently shared an incredibly insightful image illustrating the components of a well-rounded play diet. It provides valuable guidance on how to foster a healthy and balanced approach to play. During her recent interview, she expressed that parents shouldn’t feel guilty for letting their children have screen time. She also emphasised the value of incorporating high-quality screen time judiciously, acknowledging its rightful place. Fonetti not only provides purposeful screen time to aid reading development, it also incorporates gamification to make reading fun and interactive.

Guidance is Key
Regardless of our personal preferences, technology has become an integral part of our daily lives. We therefore need to embrace it and teach our children how to use it responsibly and safely. Without clear guidance, children may struggle to distinguish between what is appropriate and what is not. It is crucial that as adults, we empower our children to harness the potential of technology in a beneficial manner by making them aware of what is suitable and what isn’t. 

Fonetti and other educational apps provide an immersive screen time experience for children, seamlessly blending learning with enjoyment. By guiding children to choose the right apps, adults can ensure that screen time is not only enjoyable but also beneficial for their development.

Active & Passive
Screen time has often been negatively portrayed, and I do agree, there are certain aspects that may not be beneficial for our children. Nonetheless, there exist incredible opportunities for children to utilise their screen time in productive and meaningful ways. Screen time can be split into two parts:

  • Active Screen Time

This is a time when screen time is utilised to enrich children’s learning and foster cognitive development. Fonetti exemplifies how children can utilise technology to boost their reading abilities and accelerate their progress. Through platforms like Fonetti, children not only acquire knowledge but also derive pleasure from embracing technology’s marvels.

  • Passive Screen Time

This is when children are not having to think at all and are passively looking at a screen. This can include watching TV or looking at social media. There is no critical thinking taking place and children are just simply absorbing what is on the screen.

In Summary…
When it comes to children and screen time, it is important to approach the topic with consideration rather than demonization. Screen time can be beneficial for educational purposes and can have a place in child play, if used appropriately. Fonetti strongly supports productive screen time as an opportunity for children to enhance their learning through technology. Today’s children are tech-savvy, and we should embrace this by exploring alternative methods of learning that incorporate technology.

Posted in Insights, EdTech, Literacy, Reading

How Reading Aloud Benefits Dyslexics: Unlocking Story Magic

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that can make reading difficult for individuals. It can be challenging for dyslexics to engage with the written word, which can impact their ability to keep up in school, work, and personal life.

While there are various techniques that people with dyslexia use to make reading easier, including text-to-speech software and dyslexia-friendly font, reading aloud is often found to be the most effective. It’s an excellent exercise that can help improve reading comprehension, pronunciation, and confidence.

In this blog post, we’ll look at how reading aloud helps dyslexics, and how an app like Fonetti can make reading more accessible and engaging for them.

Reading Aloud Helps with Phonics
Phonics is a method of teaching reading that focuses on the relationship between sounds, letters, and how they work together to form words. It helps dyslexics to understand that words are made up of smaller sounds and how these sounds can be blended together to create words. When dyslexics read aloud, they are not only seeing the words they are pronouncing them which helps them to learn the sounds

Reading Aloud Improves Comprehension
For people with dyslexia, reading silently can be a struggle as they may find it challenging to keep their attention on the text, which can cause them to miss crucial details. Reading aloud can help to improve their comprehension of what they are reading by increasing their engagement with the text. It helps them to process the information more slowly and makes it easier to visualise the words on the page.

Reading Aloud Helps with Pronunciation
One of the most significant challenges for dyslexic people can be mispronouncing words. Reading aloud can help them to see which letters make which sounds, and how this relates to the words they are reading. By hearing the words, they are learning how to pronounce them correctly, which can help improve their confidence when reading.

Fonetti: The Read Aloud App
Fonetti is an app that can help dyslexic people to engage with reading better and the National Read Aloud Challenge, powered by Fonetti will keep them entertained during the summer holidays. With Fonetti, your child can read aloud while the app listens, corrects, and encourages when they don’t get it right. It provides regular feedback, guiding the reader through the text and highlighting areas that they need to work on. Fonetti’s speech recognition software ensures the reader always gets accurate feedback, and its interactive features make reading more engaging and fun.

The Importance of Regular Reading
Reading regularly is crucial for all children, but for dyslexics, it can be even more beneficial. They need plenty of opportunities to practise their reading skills, and reading aloud can be an excellent way to help them improve their accuracy, comprehension, and pronunciation. Fonetti can make this process more enjoyable and engaging by providing a fun and interactive approach that keeps them motivated.

In Summary…
Dyslexia can be challenging, but reading aloud can make a significant difference. It is a highly effective way for dyslexics to improve their accuracy, comprehension, and pronunciation. Fonetti is an app that can help provide dyslexics with the support they need to become confident readers. With its interactive features and speech recognition software, Fonetti is an excellent tool for engaging children in reading and the National Read Aloud Challenge will keep them entertained during the holidays. By making regular reading a priority, dyslexics can unlock the magic of stories and improve their reading skills.

Posted in SEND, EdTech, Reading

Screen Time for Children: A Shift in Perceptions

Screen time – a sudden shift in perceptions
The recommended daily screen time allowance for children is an hour per day (based on the World Health Organisation guidelines issued in 2019).

Easily manageable when you take nursery/school hours and outdoor activities into the equation. That is until one little word introduces itself:

Lockdown

If there was ever a metaphorical rule breaker, tempting us all, lockdown is it.

As adults, let’s consider our own screen time use. Pre-lockdown it would probably have been high but during lockdown it’s potentially doubled.

Zoom is no longer a word we see in the pages of a picture book at bedtime, it’s a verb we use daily and a virtual ticket that connects us to colleagues, friends and family via a screen.

Smartphones, tablets, laptops and TVs become our focus out of necessity and our children are no exception.

Screen time used to be viewed as ‘lazy-parenting’ and was seen as an ‘easy option’ to entertain, frowned upon by many.

But in a world where technology offers our safest way of communicating, keeping in touch and educating ourselves, perceptions are changing daily. Screen time is being embraced and the positives are being explored, for some for the first time.

Educators are way ahead of us. They know the positive powers of screen time and are already taking advantage of technology as a teaching resource.

With four in 10 British children predicted to own a tablet before their 6th birthday it’s clear that screen time is becoming habitual in a large percentage of homes.

Our children are a generation of ‘digital-natives’ who adapt to technology instinctively. All sounding positive so far isn’t it? But what about the guilt?

“As a busy mum of 3, I am guilty, as I’m sure many others are, of using screen time as a babysitter in order to get jobs done. However, it’s not all bad, I have noticed a marked improvement in my two-year-old’s vocabulary from the educational games that he has been playing.”,

Chloe Smith (Mother and Primary School Teacher)
Many parents feel guilty for using screen-time. They believe it will make their children anti-social, damage their eyesight and lure them away from traditional methods of learning.

But feelings of guilt should actually be replaced by gratitude. Screen time can enhance learning rather than hinder it.

Just as the world is changing rapidly, so are the perceptions of screen time.

In fact in their The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 2019 screen time study shows that social media has more of a negative impact on an individual rather than the use of the device itself.

They recommend that screen time use with digital devices should be made on a case-by-case basis within families rather than a general limit based on age.

It’s time to turn the spotlight on the advantages of screen-based technology
When used effectively, screen time can be hugely beneficial to a child’s development.

Fonetti:

  • Encourages independent learning
  • Connects students directly to schools and syllabus
  • Improves cognitive skills
  • Develops motor skills and co-ordination
  • Nurtures life-skills such as email comms, coding and video conferencing
  • Provides access to educational tools and resources

So where does Fonetti fit-in?
Quite simply, Fonetti injects fun into screen time. Accredited by The Department for Education’s Hungry Little Minds Campaign, Fonetti is an approved platform, and a safe place, for children to practise their reading.

With Fonetti screen time and story time merge into one with a little bit of magic and many benefits including:

Building confidence:

  • There’s no fear of reading aloud or peer pressure. With Fonetti children can read independently without the need of a grown-up (great news for parents working from home). If children stumble on certain words, they just double tap for hints and help – it couldn’t be simpler.

Entertaining all abilities:

  • We have a range of reading levels to suit every reader and that works alongside the National Curriculum. Our library is constantly evolving with new titles added daily ready for eager readers to jump in and enjoy a new adventure.

Supports children learning English as a second language:

  • Fonetti recognises a child’s speech patterns regardless of dialect, accent or native tongue, making it the ideal learning platform for those learning English as a second language.

Provides encouragement:

  • Think of Fonetti as a virtual high-five, as the pages turn, the fanfares, prizes and encouragement begin

Keeps parents in the loop:

  • If children use the app at home, you’ll be notified weekly of their child’s progress – we’ll email you to tell you how much time your child has spent reading, which books they’ve finished, which words they’ve struggled with and if they’ve progressed from one reading level to another.

We’re the world’s first listening bookshop.
And we’re the only platform that listens to children while they read, that recognises their speech regardless of dialect, accent or native tongue.

You could say, at the moment, we’re the teaching assistant available to every home and the technology behind interactive reading.

And we’re building confidence on an hourly basis…or however long your children choose to interact with us.

Screen time is a personal choice.

The results of screen time resources are fact. Using some of your child’s screen time allowance on Fonetti will benefit them more than playing on their games console.

It still entertains, feeds their imagination and gives them valuable life-skills as well as nurturing a love of reading.

We’re sharing this experience together.

The fears, the frustrations, the pain. The pride, the gratitude and the love. We’re sharing our space, our time and our skills. We’re sharing our screens. We’re sharing our stories.

And there has never been a better time: #Fonetti

Posted in EdTech, Insights