Bamboo Learning Releases Voice-Enabled Reading App for iOS

Bamboo Learning has introduced the Bamboo Learning mobile app for iOS, a touch and voice-enabled reading and listening comprehension learning program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The Bamboo Learning app offers children a voice-driven, self-paced experience for reading and listening to books and incorporates interactive activities to improve reading fluency and comprehension, promote active listening, expand vocabulary, and boost confidence.

Bamboo Learning features more than 25 free books and hundreds of free reading and listening comprehension activities. Up to six children per family can use Bamboo Learning independently. Bamboo Learning is a free download, available in more than 170 countries in the Apple App Store.

Each day Bamboo Learning's human-narrated Panda greets each child and guides through activities. Children can select books from a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles via touch or voice. Then children embark on interactive literature experiences with professional narrators reading the story and screens with illustrations and text to follow along with the narrator. Every few sentences or paragraphs, depending on the grade level, the narration pauses and the Bamboo Learning app offers listening comprehension questions. Children can answer questions using either voice or touch.

Bamboo Learning's solution evaluates children's voice responses or touch responses and provides immediate feedback. The Panda praises children when they answer correctly and supportively nudges them to try again if they answer incorrectly. To keep children engaged, Bamboo Learning includes professional custom-designed sound effects accompanying both correct and incorrect answers; children earn tokens (with accompanying sound effects) when they answer questions correctly.

"As a former educator, I know how critical conversational learning is to boost children's in-context reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, and narrative skills," said Irina Fine, co-founder and chief content officer of Bamboo Learning, in a statement. "Bamboo Learning for iOS is the first-ever app to offer children a choice to respond using their voice or touch. We're so excited to make it available today for families to use on iPads and iPhones in over 170 countries."