Reading

The Summer We Accidentally Built the Thing I’m Proudest Of…

There’s a particular kind of madness that descends on us at this time of year. The good kind. The kind where the whole team is running on adrenaline and tea, where the inbox never stops, and where I find myself grinning at my laptop like an idiot. It’s launch season, the time when we open the doors on the National Read-Aloud Challenge, powered by Fonetti, and honestly, it’s the most insane and most wonderful few weeks of our entire year.

So before the gates swing open, I wanted to take a breath and tell you how we got here. Because if you’d told me a few years ago that I’d be writing this, I’m not sure I’d have believed you.

First, the important bit. How to get involved

Every year the rhythm is the same, and there’s something lovely about that.

On the 1st of June, registrations open for schools, giving teachers a full month to get themselves set up and ready before the Challenge goes live. Parents can join the waitlist any time now, and access opens for everyone on the 1st of July, when the Challenge officially begins.

Throughout the Challenge, children get free access to hundreds of books on the Fonetti app. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, news, current affairs, the lot. Content chosen to genuinely interest children of every kind, right across the ages from 5 to 15. Whatever a child is into, there’s something in there for them.

That’s what. Here’s why.

It was never supposed to be for schools

Fonetti was always meant for the home. That was the plan, start to finish. We built it for families, for the sofa, for bedtime, for the quiet ten minutes after dinner when a child reads aloud and someone who loves them listens.

And then Covid happened, and it changed everything.

Before the pandemic, schools were understandably reluctant to take on yet another piece of technology. But lockdown turned that on its head almost overnight. Suddenly there was an appetite, a need, for tools that could help children keep reading when the world had gone strange and small. So during that period we did something we’d never intended to do: we built the Fonetti school platform. And when things began to open up again, we were ready to take on the education market.

I’ll be honest, plenty of smart people warned me how hard that would be. Our wonderful education advisor, Lewis Bronze MBE, told me in no uncertain terms how difficult it is to get traction in education with a new product, especially a new one nobody’s heard of yet. He wasn’t wrong.

But the timing, for me personally, was extraordinary. I’d just exited another business I’d founded, and I made a decision that felt enormous at the time: I invested a large chunk of that money straight into developing a platform that would let us give our home experience away for free, every single summer.

That was the birth of the National Read-Aloud Challenge.

A champion in our corner

I can’t tell this story without telling you about Clare Balding CBE.

Clare was one of our earliest supporters, and she said something to me back then that I’ve never forgotten. She told me she’d always wanted to be part of building something with the potential to change the world, and that she believed this technology was exactly that. Coming from her, it meant everything.

So when we started the Challenge, it was a great joy to me when Clare took on the role of Brand Ambassador. And here’s the thing about Clare: she is not passive. She absolutely gets what we do. Anyone who has ever come to our awards ceremony, whether a child, a teacher, or a partner, knows just how engaged she is, and how wonderful she is with the children. She lights the whole room up. Watching her with them is one of my favourite moments of the entire year.

The moment we got completely, hopelessly, hooked

Here’s the thing about the early days. At the start, the Challenge was supposed to be evidence. Nothing more romantic than that. We needed proof. We needed to be able to look a head teacher in the eye and say, “Here’s what happens to children’s reading when you use this,” with the data to back it up.

But by the middle of that first year, something had shifted in all of us. We were hooked.

Watching the admin panel became our version of Netflix. I’m not exaggerating. We’d sit there in the evenings watching children read, day and night, all over the country. The numbers are ticking up. The streaks. The leaderboards are moving. We could not believe how engaged they were.

And when I step back and think about why, it’s almost embarrassingly simple. All we really did was take the most fundamental skill there is, reading aloud, and gamify it. We curated and created content that children actually find interesting, we added certificates, prizes and, of course, leaderboards. And suddenly you don’t have a reading app. You have one of the most extraordinary reading engagement platforms I’ve ever seen.

The numbers still take my breath away

Let me put it plainly, because the data genuinely floors me.

In our first year, there was one day where children clocked up 104 hours of pure reading in a single day. We thought that was unbelievable.

In 2024, we doubled it, peaking at 224 hours in one day.

And last year, we averaged 279 hours of reading every single day across the entire Challenge period, with one extraordinary day peaking at 454 hours.

Four hundred and fifty-four hours of children reading aloud, in one day, because they wanted to. I still can’t quite take it in.

We were never meant to do this alone

Here’s something I want to say loudly, because it matters: we are not in competition with anyone.

There are some genuinely brilliant reading initiatives that light up the summer, and right at the top of that list is the Summer Reading Challenge, created many years ago by The Reading Agency and run by libraries up and down the country. It isn’t just a tradition. It’s something I think everyone in literacy is proud to be associated with, and that absolutely includes us.

When we created the National Read-Aloud Challenge, we always knew it was different, and we designed it deliberately to sit alongside initiatives like the Summer Reading Challenge, never against them. In fact it was our own Vicki Edgar who summed it up best. She took one look and said, well, it’s obviously the “Read-Aloud” summer initiative, a cheeky play on exactly what we do, because we get children reading out loud. The name stuck, because she was completely right.

And I have to stop and say something about Vicki here, because she has earned it. Vicki is our Fonetti Challenge Ambassador, and she is every single bit as passionate about this as I am. The two of us together are a genuine force to be reckoned with.

Plenty of movement, but let’s have some direction

This launch feels especially poignant, because we’re doing it during the Year of Reading.

The work the National Literacy Trust and the Department for Education have done to shine a light on declining reading among our young children has, in a strange way, been galvanising. It’s named the problem out loud. And our commitment goes well beyond simply running the Challenge: we plan to share all of the phenomenal insight we gather from children actually reading with both the National Literacy Trust and the Department for Education once the Challenge is over.

Because at the end of the day, we all need to work together. Every one of us in this space has the same single aim, to turn around the failing literacy standards among our children, and every one of us wants to do good. But if we all charge off in our own separate directions, we end up with an awful lot of movement and no direction whatsoever. A bit like an octopus on rollerskates. Plenty of energy, arms flailing everywhere, going absolutely nowhere. Pull together, and suddenly all that movement has direction. So we are completely committed to doing our bit.

The woman now steering our ship

There’s one more person I have to tell you about, and I get a bit giddy every time I do.

Over the last couple of years I’ve had the joy of getting to know Louise Hill, the founder of GoHenry. Louise is on her own mission to move the dial, in her case on financial literacy, and she has worked tirelessly lobbying the government to get financial literacy onto the curriculum from primary school upwards. She is relentless, in the best possible way.

So when Louise agreed earlier this year to become our Chair, I was absolutely over the moon. Picture it: a couple of crazy, driven women of a certain age, utterly determined to change the lives of children. Together I think we make a pretty powerful double act, and I could not be prouder to have Louise’s support as Chair of our board.

So, here we go again

If you’re a teacher, registrations are open now. Get your school set up before the 1st of July.

If you’re a parent, join the waitlist and we’ll open the doors to you on launch day.

And if you’re someone who simply cares about children and books, thank you for reading this. Share it. Pass it on. Help us make this the biggest summer of reading yet.

It’s the most insane time of our year. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Let’s go. 📚

Kim

Posted in National Read Aloud Challenge, Literacy, Reading, Team Fonetti

Why Children Stop Reading – And What Actually Gets them to Start Again

For years, the conversation around reading has focused on one central question: How do we teach children to read?

And to a large extent, we’ve answered it. Phonics works. Most children now learn to decode successfully in the early years. But there’s a second question, arguably the more important one, that receives far less attention: What makes children keep reading once they can?

Because increasingly, they don’t.

The problem isn’t ability. It’s behaviour.

Today, fewer than 1 in 5 children read daily in their free time. That’s a dramatic decline over the past two decades.
This isn’t because children can’t read. It’s because they’re choosing not to. And that distinction matters. Reading development doesn’t stop once decoding is secure. From that point on, progress depends on practice: on how often children read, how long they persist, and whether they come back to it again and again. In other words, it depends on behaviour.

Reading is no longer the default
Once reading becomes independent, it becomes voluntary. And that means it has to compete. Today’s children are growing up in an environment filled with experiences that are:

  • instantly accessible
  • low effort
  • immediately rewarding

Reading, by contrast:

  • requires sustained attention
  • offers delayed reward
  • provides little visible feedback

For a confident, motivated reader, that trade-off is acceptable. But for many children, it isn’t.

What actually drives reading behaviour
If we want to understand why children stop reading, we need to look at how reading feels. Two factors matter more than anything else:

1. Enjoyment
Does reading feel rewarding?

2. Confidence
Does reading feel achievable?
When both are strong, children:

  • start reading more easily
  • persist when it gets difficult
  • return to reading regularly

When either weakens, reading becomes effortful, uncertain, and easy to abandon. This is the point where many children quietly disengage. Not because they’ve failed to learn to read, but because reading no longer feels worth the effort.

Why traditional approaches struggle
We often assume that once children can read, they’ll continue naturally. But the way reading is typically structured doesn’t always support that.

  • Silent reading can mask difficulty. Struggling readers can skim, guess, or disengage without anyone noticing.
  • Reading aloud is powerful, but often depends on adult time and attention, which isn’t always available.
  • Feedback is limited. Children rarely get immediate, clear signals about how they’re doing or whether they’re improving.

As a result, reading can feel:

  • uncertain
  • effortful
  • and, over time, unrewarding

And when that happens, children read less.

What changes things
If reading behaviour is the problem, then the solution isn’t just more instruction. It’s changing the experience of reading itself. What we consistently see is that children read more when reading becomes:

  • Clear – they can see how they’re doing
  • Achievable – mistakes feel manageable, not discouraging
  • Rewarding – progress is visible and immediate
  • Independent – they can practise without waiting for help

When these conditions are in place, something shifts:

  • children persist longer
  • they retry when things go wrong
  • they begin to build momentum

And crucially, they come back.

In practice, this is where technology is starting to play a meaningful role. Approaches like ASR-enabled reading aloud are designed around these exact conditions: providing real-time feedback, making progress visible, and allowing children to practise independently without constant adult supervision. The goal isn’t to replace books or teaching, but to make the act of reading itself more responsive, more rewarding, and easier to return to. When feedback is immediate and success is visible, reading starts to feel less like effort and more like progress.

Making reading something children return to
If phonics gives children access to reading, what happens next depends on whether they keep going. That requires more than ability. It requires:

  • confidence to attempt
  • enjoyment to continue
  • and a reading experience that makes progress visible

Because children don’t become readers through instruction alone. They become readers through repetition. Through returning to books again and again, building fluency, understanding, and confidence over time.

A different way to think about the challenge
We don’t need to choose between teaching children to read and helping them read more. We need both. But if we want to improve reading outcomes at scale, we have to recognise where the real drop-off happens – not at the point of learning to read, but at the point of continuing to read. And that’s not just an instructional challenge. It’s an engagement one.

Final thought
If we want children to read more, we don’t just need to ask: “Can they read?” We need to ask: “Do they want to?” Because that’s what determines whether they keep going.

Posted in Insights, Literacy, Reading, Research

Children Aren’t Failing to Learn to Read – They’re Stopping Reading, New Whitepaper Reveals

New research from Auris Tech shows that declining reading engagement, not early instruction, is driving stagnant reading outcomes across England.

Introduction
Over the past decade, England has made real progress in teaching children to read. Today, around nine in ten pupils meet the expected standard in phonics by the end of Key Stage 1. Yet by the end of primary school, only around three quarters reach the expected reading standard and that figure has remained largely unchanged for over a decade.

So what’s going wrong?

Today, Auris Tech is launching a new whitepaper exploring this challenge in depth. The paper argues that the issue is not how children learn to read, but whether they continue reading once they can.

Children are reading less than ever before
Reading development doesn’t stop once decoding is secure. In fact, that’s when it becomes most dependent on practice. The more children read, the more their language comprehension develops. This is described as accumulating “reading miles”. But those reading miles are declining. Only 18.7% of children aged 8 to 18 now report reading daily in their free time, a decline of more than 50% since 2005.

In other words, fewer children are doing the one thing that most strongly drives reading development: reading regularly.

The missing piece: why children stop reading
Reading doesn’t continue automatically once children can decode. It depends on something less visible, but more powerful: Engagement. Reading engagement is a child’s sustained willingness to invest effort and attention in reading over time. The whitepaper identifies two key drivers of engagement:

  • Reading enjoyment – does reading feel rewarding?
  • Reading confidence – does reading feel achievable?

When both are strong, children are far more likely to pick up a book, stick with it when it gets difficult and return to reading over time. When either weakens, reading becomes fragile. When reading feels effortful or unrewarding, it is easily replaced by alternatives that are simpler, faster, and more immediately engaging.

Reading is now competing in a different attention environment
This shift is not happening in isolation. Today children are growing up in a digital environment designed around:

  • Instant feedback
  • Visible progress
  • Low barriers to entry

Independent reading offers almost none of these by default. It requires sustained effort, provides delayed reward, and often gives little feedback on progress. This does not make reading less important, but it does make it harder to sustain.

A different approach: making reading feel achievable and rewarding
If reading behaviour depends on engagement, the question becomes: how can we strengthen it? One approach that directly addresses this challenge is ASR-enabled reading aloud. This is the model underpinning the Fonetti platform. In simple terms, this is technology that listens as children read aloud and responds in real time. As they read:

  • Correct words are confirmed instantly
  • Mistakes can be corrected immediately
  • Progress is made visible

The goal is not to replace reading, but to change how it feels in the moment. It becomes more responsive, more supported, and more rewarding. Fonetti was developed specifically to support this shift. It helps children read more frequently by making reading more engaging, visible, and achievable in practice.

What happens when reading becomes more engaging
The paper draws on data from the National Read-Aloud Challenge, delivered using the Fonetti platform, involving more than 5,000 pupils across 265 schools. The results point to consistent changes in behaviour:

  • 83% reported increased reading frequency
  • 89% reported increased reading enjoyment
  • 86% reported increased reading confidence

Just as importantly, pupils did not disengage when reading became difficult. They were more likely to retry and persist, which is one of the clearest behavioural signals of sustained engagement. These patterns suggest that when reading feels both achievable and rewarding, children are more likely to continue and to build the reading miles that support long-term development.

A shift in how we think about reading
For years, the focus of literacy improvement has been on how children learn to read. In many ways, that focus has worked. But this paper points to a different challenge. Once decoding is secure, progress depends less on instruction and more on whether children continue reading over time. That means the question is no longer just:

Can children read? But: Do they keep reading?

A way forward
If reading outcomes are to improve, the conditions that sustain reading need to be addressed directly. This means supporting:

  • Regular, independent reading
  • Visible progress and feedback
  • Experiences that build both confidence and enjoyment

In a world where attention is increasingly contested, reading cannot rely on effort alone. It must also feel achievable and rewarding. Because if phonics gives children the ability to read, it is the reading miles they accumulate that determine how far they go.

“Restoring Reading Engagement: How ASR-Enabled Reading Aloud Can Rebuild Reading Miles in the Digital Age” is now available and linked below:

Download the whitepaper

Posted in Insights, Literacy, Reading, Research

Looking Ahead to the National Year of Reading

2026 has been named the National Year of Reading – an invitation for schools, families and communities to “go all in” on stories and give every child more chances to fall in love with reading. At Fonetti, this is more than a slogan. Our mission is centred to help children read aloud, more often, with more joy and confidence.​

Why a Year of Reading matters
Recent national initiatives highlight a clear concern: too many children are reading less for pleasure, especially as they move through primary school. The Year of Reading 2026 is designed to turn that around by putting reading back at the heart of daily life, not to be treated as a task/chore, but as something social, enjoyable and woven into everyday routines.​

By combining stories with voice-recognition technology, it turns solo reading into an interactive experience where every child’s voice is heard and encouraged. That makes it easier for schools and families to build small, sustainable reading habits throughout the year.​

Fonetti’s Pledge: A Year of Reading 
While the national campaign focuses on reading in all its forms, Fonetti’s commitment is to make 2026 a Year of Reading Aloud. That means helping more children:

  • Read out loud regularly, in a way that feels safe, fun and supported.
  • Build fluency, confidence and expressive language with instant, gentle feedback from the app.​
  • Celebrate their progress through badges, challenges and shared school events like the National Read-Aloud Challenge.​

Reading aloud is powerful, we recognise it brings together decoding, comprehension, oracy and confidence in one simple habit. When children practise this every day, even for a few minutes, it multiplies the impact of every story they encounter.

Other areas Fonetti supports the Year of Reading: 

  • Supporting schools with termly read-aloud initiatives that align with national themes and school priorities, for teachers to plug Fonetti directly into their reading plans.​
  • Using inclusive speech recognition designed to understand diverse accents and speaking styles, giving EAL learners and less confident readers a way to practise without feeling exposed.​
  • Offering data on reading time, engagement and progress to help schools demonstrate impact during a high-profile literacy year.

New Years Resolution
The Year of Reading is also a chance for families to make reading a New Year’s resolution that actually sticks. Fonetti can support parents and carers with:

  • A simple daily promise to encourage families to commit to “10 minutes of reading aloud together” each day, that can be used with Fonetti, short enough to be realistic, powerful enough to build a lifelong habit.
  • Providing a “Family Year of Reading Aloud” toolkit with tips, routines and printable charts that fit around real life: after school, before bed or even on the school run.​
  • Curating themed collections that let children “read into what they’re into” sport, nature, mysteries and more, so practice feels like play, not work.​

Looking ahead: Every voice counts…
The future of storytelling will be multimodal: children will meet stories through pages, pixels and voices. But however stories are delivered, the skills that matter most won’t change, fluency, comprehension, confidence and the belief that “I am a reader.” By embracing 2026 as a Year of Reading Aloud, Fonetti aims to give every child more chances to speak stories into life, be heard, and see their progress grow over time. 

One voice, one story, one session at a time. That’s how a Year of Reading can turn into a lifetime of reading.

Posted in Year of Reading, EAL, Insights, Reading

The Future of Storytelling: How Children Will Read in the Future

The way children discover and enjoy stories is changing fast. In living rooms and classrooms, books now compete with screens, games, podcasts and AI. Will the next generation of readers grow up moving fluidly between all of them, or will it be something else entirely. Story telling has been around since the dawn of time and is a fundamental part of what makes us human. The question is not whether storytelling will change, but how to make sure those changes strengthen, rather than weaken, children’s reading lives.​

How children’s reading is changing
Over the last decade, enjoyment of traditional reading has declined, with recent surveys showing that fewer than half of children say they enjoy reading in their free time. At the same time, listening has surged: more children now choose audio books and podcasts than print books for pleasure, especially in older primary and early secondary years.​

Children’s reading is also becoming more “multimodal”: they jump between text, video, audio and interactive content, often within the same story or lesson. That flexibility brings opportunities for engagement, but it also means reading has to work harder to compete for attention.​

The future of storytelling
Several clear trends are shaping the future of how children will read and experience stories:

  • Audio-first stories: Audio books and spoken stories are becoming a primary gateway into narrative for many children, supporting vocabulary, background knowledge and comprehension, even when decoding is still developing.​
  • Interactive and immersive formats: AR, apps and early VR story experiences let children “step into” a book, influence what happens, or see scenes overlaid on the real world, which can increase motivation and time spent with stories when well designed.​
  • AI and personalised tales: AI tools can now generate bedtime stories based on a child’s name, interests or choices, offering highly personal and responsive narratives, but also raising important questions about screen time, data and the role of adults as storytellers.​

In this landscape, stories will no longer live in one format. Children will encounter narratives through pages, pixels and voices, sometimes all at once.

What this means for children
The skills children need are expanding. Tomorrow’s readers must be able to:

  • Move between print, audio and interactive content, drawing on listening, speaking and reading skills together.​
  • Stay focused and reflective in a world of constant stimulation, building the deep attention that complex texts still demand.​

There is also a real risk of a widening gap. Children who mostly consume passive digital content may miss out on the practice in decoding, fluency and expressive language that comes from active reading, while others benefit from tools that blend support with real reading practice.​

Why active, voice-led reading matters
This is where read‑aloud technology can play a powerful role. Combining text, gentle audio support and real-time feedback on a child’s own voice brings together the best of old and new: the focus of reading, the confidence-building of performing a story, and the motivation of interactive tech.​ For children, that means:

  • More chances to feel like successful readers, especially those who find print hard at first.
  • Regular, low-pressure practice in fluency, expression and oracy, skills that underpin both literacy and wider learning.

A more hopeful future for reading
The future of storytelling does not have to be a story of print versus screens. It can be a future where technology helps more children fall in love with stories, while strengthening the core skills that reading demands. Tools that encourage children to speak, perform and interact with texts can turn them from passive content consumers into active readers with a voice.

For schools and families, the challenge is to choose technology that supports that vision: not replacing books, but sitting alongside them; not removing the effort of reading, but rewarding it. If we get that balance right, the next generation may read differently, but they can still grow up as confident, curious storytellers in their own right.

Posted in Insights, Reading, Research

Tech in the Early Years: Striking the Balance Between Play, Print and Pixels

Why balance matters
Young children learn best through rich, hands-on, play-based experiences, and technology is now simply part of the world they are growing up in. Thoughtfully used, digital tools can complement they are not a replacement to traditional play and print. They can support language development, creativity and early literacy when adults stay actively involved. For both parents and early year educators, the goal is not striving for “no screen time” but “better screens”. Used in the right measure and for the right reasons, it supports confident advancement without creating dependency.

What research says about tech and print
UK guidance for early years emphasises limiting sedentary screen time and prioritising movement and social interaction, especially under age 5. For 2 – 4 year olds, recommendations suggest no more than about an hour of sedentary screen time per day, and less is better when that time displaces sleep, physical play or face-to-face connection.

Studies also show a “print advantage”: children often focus more deeply and understand stories better when reading from physical books, with higher activity in attention-related areas of the brain compared to screens. Print brings additional benefits such as tactile engagement, freedom from notifications and reduced eye strain, all of which support early readers’ concentration and enjoyment.

Principles for healthy digital use (Early Years Foundation Stage)
For early primary and EYFS, three principles help keep technology in its place: purpose, participation and proportion.

  • Purpose: Choose digital tools that clearly support language, early literacy, creativity or communication, rather than passive entertainment.
  • Participation: Aim for co-use adults and children explore together rather than children using devices alone for long stretches.
  • Proportion: Protect sleep, outdoor play, print books and social interaction first, then fit short, high-quality digital sessions around those foundations.

Play first, pixels second
Play remains the “engine” of learning in the early years, building everything from motor skills and coordination to language, problem-solving and self-regulation. Open-ended play with blocks, role-play, drawing, sand, water and outdoor exploration provides sensory and social experiences no app can replicate and should anchor the day in homes and classrooms.

Digital tools can join this play, rather than interrupt it. For example, children might photograph a block model, record themselves telling a story about it, or use a simple app to capture and replay their own narration, blending physical making with digital meaning-making.

The unique power of print
For young readers, physical books offer a calm, predictable space where adults and children can slow down together. Shared print reading encourages turn-taking, pointing, talk about pictures and story prediction, all of which feed vocabulary and comprehension. Because print books are free from in-app rewards and notifications, they naturally encourage longer attention spans and deeper emotional connection with characters and ideas. For many families, bedtime print reading also becomes a cherished routine that supports attachment and language development at the same time.

Print will always have a unique role in family reading, but well‑designed digital books can sit alongside it, especially when they encourage children to read aloud, interact with the story and share their progress with adults.

When pixels help: high-quality literacy apps
Not all screen time is equal. High-quality literacy apps designed around active engagement, feedback and language-rich content can support early readers, especially when access to adult one-to-one time or physical books is limited. Tools that encourage children to read, speak, listen and respond rather than just swipe and watch align more closely with early years pedagogy.

An interactive experience allows children in early primary years to practise decoding and reading aloud in short, focused bursts, while parents and teachers gain insight into reading frequency and progress through built-in reporting.

Practical ideas for EY educators
In nurseries and early primary classrooms, technology can sit alongside print corners, construction areas and role-play spaces rather than as a standalone “ICT treat.”

  • Create a reading ecosystem: Combine a cosy print book corner with a small digital station where children can record themselves reading or use an app like Fonetti for short, timetabled reading practice.
  • Blend physical and digital: Invite children to draw storyboards on paper, then read and record their stories using a tablet, linking concrete mark-making to digital publishing.
  • Use data to target support: Use literacy apps’ reporting to identify children who need extra support with fluency, then follow up with print-based small-group work and adult-led reading.
  • Co-construct rules: Involve children in agreeing how, when and why devices are used in the setting, building digital citizenship from the earliest years.

Comparing play, print and pixels

A balanced reading diet
For early primary years, thinking of a “reading diet” can help lots of play and print as the main course, and carefully chosen pixels as a powerful side dish. Print stories and real-world playground children in language, relationships and imagination, while digital tools can boost confidence, provide extra practice and make progress visible in ways that motivate both children and adults. When parents and educators collaborate on clear routines, shared expectations and open communication, technology becomes an ally in building lifelong readers rather than a competing distraction.

Posted in Reading, EdTech, Insights, Technology

Universal Design for Learning in Practice

How Small Changes Create Big Inclusion
In today’s classrooms and digital learning environments, inclusion is more than just a goal, it’s a necessity. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers a transformative approach, ensuring every learner can access, engage with, and express understanding in ways that resonate uniquely with them. What is powerful about UDL is how even small, intentional changes can ripple out to create meaningful inclusion for all students, regardless of their diverse needs.

At its core, UDL is about flexibility and choice. It acknowledges that learners come with a wide spectrum of abilities, preferences, and backgrounds. By designing materials and experiences that anticipate these differences rather than retrofitting for disabilities later educators and EdTech developers can eliminate barriers before they form. Whether it’s providing multiple means of representation, offering varied ways for learners to express knowledge, or engaging motivation through tailored content, UDL ensures learning is accessible by design.

So, how can educators put UDL into action in everyday classrooms?

Practical UDL Strategies for Everyday Learning
Three concrete strategies make a substantial difference:

  • Multiple Means of Representation: Present content in diverse formats, text, audio, video, visuals, and hands-on activities.
    • For example, new vocabulary might be introduced through spoken explanations, illustrative images, and short videos alongside written definitions. This ensures all learners have equitable access to key concepts.
  • Flexible Ways to Demonstrate Understanding: Invite students to show what they know in alternative ways. Instead of relying solely on written tests, encourage presentations, audio recordings, artwork, or physical models.
    • Such flexibility in assessment is highly inclusive and lets students demonstrate learning using their strengths.
  • Build Engagement and Motivation: Boost engagement by offering choices in topics, learning materials, and collaborative work.
    • For instance, allow students to select which book to read from a curated list, or choose whether to work solo or as part of a group. These small choices create autonomy, motivation, and authentic connection.

The Wider Impact of Inclusive Design
Recent research supports the real impact of these seemingly simple adjustments. Studies show that small UDL strategies, such as those above, have a measurable effect on inclusion and achievement. According to Davies, Schelly & Spooner, embedding these techniques improves learning outcomes and classroom engagement for all students not just those with identified needs.​

Minor adjustments, like incorporating text-to-speech options, adjustable font sizes, or visual supports, profoundly impact learners who might otherwise struggle silently. These changes not only support students with identified needs but also enhance learning for everyone, creates an inclusive atmosphere where curiosity and confidence thrive side by side. The cumulative effect is a learning space that embraces diversity as a strength rather than a challenge.

Crucially, UDL is not about lowering standards or simplifying content. Instead, it’s about enriching the educational experience to reach deeper and wider. This ethos aligns perfectly with the human-centred approach needed in EdTech a synergy where innovative technology meets empathetic teaching. Thoughtfully applied, UDL principles can amplify the effectiveness of platforms like Fonetti’s Read Aloud Challenge, combining adaptive technologies with the essential warmth and insight of human mentorship.

Designing for Belonging
For practitioners, the takeaway is clear: intentionality in design matters. Every small inclusion tweak, whether online or offline shapes a learning journey that is more equitable and inspiring. By weaving UDL into everyday practice, unlocks potential for all learners, it creates access, and real belonging.

Posted in EdTech, Insights, Reading, Research

From Reluctant to Resilient: Why Children Switch Off from Reading

Many parents and teachers treasure those moments when a child becomes completely absorbed in a story. Yet for many children, that spark of engagement with reading never truly ignites, or fades long before a lifelong love of books can take hold.

While conditions like ADHD or dyslexia play a part for some children and need dedicated support, it’s important to explore the psychological and social reasons behind reading reluctance and how we can help children rediscover their love of stories.

The Psychology Behind Reading Reluctance
Disengagement from reading rarely happens overnight. Most reluctant readers begin with curiosity and enthusiasm, but certain experiences shape their relationship with books over time. This can be due to many reasons: 

  • Fear of Failure: Children who find interpreting words or understanding text challenging can quickly become anxious or embarrassed, worried about being judged by their peers or teachers.
  • Low Confidence: Repeated struggles may lead to self-doubt and the belief, “I’m just not good at reading.” This mindset can stifle motivation and curiosity.
  • Perfectionism: Some children feel pressured to read perfectly, and fear of making mistakes can outweigh their willingness to try.
  • Boredom or Lack of Choice: If reading materials don’t reflect a child’s interests or feel too restrictive, reading can start to feel like a chore rather than an adventure.

The Social Dimension: Influence, Environment and Identity
Reading doesn’t happen in isolation; social context often plays a big part in shaping attitudes towards books and learning. Peer influence can work both ways, if reading isn’t seen as “cool,” some children may avoid it to fit in, yet when their friends enjoy books, enthusiasm can spread quickly through social circles. At home, children mirror what they observe around them. 

When reading is modelled and valued, whether through bedtime stories, shared reading time, or simply having books visible throughout the house, it becomes a natural part of daily life. However, modern family schedules can work against this. Between schoolwork, extracurricular clubs, and screen time, there’s often little room left for quiet reading moments. Perhaps most damaging of all is the power of labels. 

Once a child is identified as a “struggling reader,” it can be incredibly difficult for them to shake that identity, as these labels can unintentionally reinforce reluctance rather than encourage the resilience needed to overcome reading challenges.

What Parents and Schools Can Do

  • Building a resilient reader is about creating opportunities for confidence, choice, and joy to grow.
  • Celebrate small wins by recognising progress, not just perfection. Praise effort and persistence to build self-belief.
  • Offer children choice and let them explore books that genuinely interest them, whether that’s comics, audiobooks, fantasy stories or interactive reading apps.
  • Model reading by reading together, sharing favourite stories, and talking about characters and plots. Making reading a shared, everyday experience sends a powerful message.
  • Create safe spaces to encourage reading in relaxed, judgement-free environments where mistakes are simply part of learning.
  • Connect reading to real life and relate stories to children’s own experiences, interests, or current events. When reading feels relevant, engagement grows.
  • Use technology wisely by using digital tools, which can be powerful motivators. Fonetti’s read-aloud challenges, for instance, provide instant positive feedback, helping children see progress while keeping reading fun.

Teachers are often the first to spot when a child’s enthusiasm for reading begins to fade. Professional development in reading psychology, inclusive teaching strategies, and creating engaging book spaces can make a world of difference. Activities like author visits, reading clubs and peer-to-peer reading help build a genuine community around books.

Conclusion: Building Resilience, One Story at a Time
Reading reluctance doesn’t have to be a fixed trait; it’s a phase that can be overcome with understanding and the right support. By recognising and looking out for behaviours or external factors influencing reading or learning, and also creating positive, nurturing experiences, we can help children move from switched off to switched on, resilient readers who approach every story with confidence and curiosity.

Every page turned, every word of encouragement, and every moment shared brings us closer to a world where every child can discover the joy of reading.

Posted in Insights, EdTech, Reading, SEND

AI and the Individual Learner: Personalisation Without Losing the Human Touch

For parents and educators, the promise of artificial intelligence in education is both exciting and daunting. We’re told that AI can tailor reading programmes, identify strengths and weaknesses, and recommend bespoke pathways faster than ever before. But as personalised learning technologies become more sophisticated, an essential question arises: How do we ensure personalisation doesn’t come at the expense of the human connection fundamental to learning?

Understanding Personalisation: The New Edge in EdTech
Personalisation means more than auto-generated reading lists or smart assessments. In today’s EdTech landscape, AI is helping children learn at their own pace, spotlighting those who need extra support and celebrating unique learning journeys. Tools powered by machine learning, like the technology underpinning Fonetti’s Read Aloud Challenge, adapt to each child’s progress offering encouragement when needed and new challenges when ready.

While algorithms can identify patterns far more quickly than humans, they lack the empathy and intuition that only caring adults can provide. Without this human element, there is a real risk that education becomes a transactional process, reducing students to mere data points instead of nurturing them as individuals.

The Irreplaceable Role of Human Connection
Research continually shows the value of teachers and parents who listen, understand, and advocate. When a child struggles with reading, it goes beyond correcting mistakes; The actual goal is to build confidence, resilience, and joy. AI can highlight which words are stumbling blocks, but it’s the adult’s patience and praise that make the breakthrough moments truly memorable.

In fact, many literacy experts believe the best results come from “AI-plus-human” partnerships. AI can suggest new books, flag disengagement, and recommend intervention, but only people can read the room, pick up on subtle emotional cues, and nurture lifelong curiosity.

Designing for Both: Lessons from EdTech Innovation
Personalisation must always serve a human-centric learning experience. When developing speech recognition technology for reading aloud, the Fonetti team prioritises transparency and trust, where parents can track progress, and children always see their achievements celebrated by real people. Our technology never replaces the adult or teacher, but enhances and augments their feedback.

Thoughtful design ensures that every child’s reading journey feels personal, not impersonal. That means AI recommendations support, rather than dictate, choices, and young learners feel seen, heard, and understood.

Questions for the Future: Where Do We Draw the Line?
As AI continues to evolve, the education community faces big questions. How far should automation go before it risks alienating the very learners it aims to help? What checks and balances ensure that EdTech remains accountable and inclusive? Further how do we support parents and teachers to harness AI’s power without sacrificing the warmth and wisdom that only humans bring?

At every step, the principle remains clear: personalisation must lead to connection, not isolation.

Conclusion: Empowered Learners, Human Teachers
EdTech is reshaping classrooms and living rooms across the country. The challenge isn’t whether to use AI, but how to use it wisely. By keeping human connection at the heart of personalisation, we can help every learner reach their potential and ensure that technology supports, but never replaces, the magic of learning together.

Posted in EdTech, Automatic Speech Recognition, Insights, Reading

The Science of Reading Aloud: Why It Builds Brains Beyond Literacy

When we think of reading aloud, we often see it as a stepping stone to helping children with vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Increasingly, research shows that its impact reaches much further. Reading aloud not only builds readers, it also promotes brain development. From memory to social understanding, and from confidence to connection, this simple habit brings lifelong benefits.

How Reading Aloud Shapes the Brain

  1. Boosts Memory – Speaking words out loud improves recall, a phenomenon known as the production effect. By seeing, saying, and hearing words, children create stronger memory traces than through silent reading alone.
  2. Strengthens Neural Connections – Reading aloud engages multiple systems at once: vision, speech, hearing, and language comprehension. This multi sensory workout reinforces the links between brain regions, building foundations for focus, problem-solving, and flexible thinking.
  3. Supports Comprehension for Struggling Readers – For children who find decoding difficult, hearing text read aloud provides a framework for understanding. Assistive technologies, now used in many UK classrooms, show that combining audio with visual text can raise comprehension and confidence.

Benefits Beyond Literacy
Reading aloud helps children develop skills that extend well beyond the classroom:

  • Attention and focus: Following along encourages concentration.
  • Imagination: Stories stimulate mental imagery and creative thinking.
  • Empathy and perspective: Hearing stories deepens emotional understanding.
  • Confidence and independence: Shared reading empowers children to engage with texts they might find challenging alone.
  • Stronger relationships: Reading together nurtures bonds between children, parents, and teachers.

Practical Strategies for Parents and Teachers
To maximise the brain-building benefits of reading aloud, here are strategies you can adopt:

The Role of Technology, and the Rise of ASR
As educational practice evolves, digital tools now play a significant part in making read-aloud more accessible and engaging. A key advancement is Automatic Speech Recognition (“ASR”) technology. ASR offers direct, real-time feedback as children read aloud, helping them refine fluency and accuracy independently. This proves invaluable for those children who may not have adult support at home, allowing them to build confidence through solo practice.

For teachers, ASR applications provide data and analysis regarding each child’s reading performance, helping guide in-class learning and allowing for targeted intervention. Many solutions also incorporate gamification badges, progress scores, and reading challenges – which serve to increase engagement and motivation in young readers.

Looking Ahead: Read-Aloud in a Changing World
For parents, reading aloud is a daily ritual that goes beyond story time. Only ten minutes of shared reading can boost a child’s confidence, imagination, and sense of connection. For teachers, it is a proven strategy to support comprehension, especially when layered with evidence-based practices and adaptive technologies now widely available in UK classrooms.

Digital platforms utilising ASR, now put these scientific principles into practice. Fonetti, for example, uses ASR to provide children with instant feedback on their reading, while engaging them through gamified rewards and progress tracking. This fusion of science and technology helps struggling readers build independence, without diminishing the human connection found in shared reading experiences.

The opportunity for both parents and educators lies in treating reading aloud not as an optional extra, but as a cornerstone of development. It is a practice that supports brain growth, literacy, and, ultimately, the life skills young people need to thrive in the ever-changing future.

Posted in Automatic Speech Recognition, Reading, Research, Technology