At Duolingo, we're committed to making world class education available to everyone—and we’re not stopping with language learning! In fact, we launched our literacy app, Duolingo ABC, in 2020 because learning to read is one of the most important milestones in a young child’s life. But, learning to read isn’t enough, and many kids who can read, don’t. At Duolingo ABC, we want kids to learn and love to read. That’s why we aim to foster a lifelong love of reading!
Children’s affinity for reading has dropped, according to a survey conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress: the survey looked at groups of 9-, 13-, and 17-year olds and all reported reading for fun less often in 2019 and 2020 compared to previous years. And educators and experts know: if a child enjoys reading, they will become better readers. They’ll read more often, and be better equipped to understand the world around them. So, it’s important that we support kids to build reading skills as well as enjoy reading. That’s where Duolingo ABC comes in!
Our curriculum is based on recommendations from the National Reading Panel, and emphasizes systematic instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness—which is essential for building early literacy skills for young learners. And our curriculum is working! A new independent research study conducted by Education Development Center and funded by Duolingo shows that kids who used Duolingo ABC for 9 weeks improved their literacy scores by 28%. That’s the same improvement in early literacy skills expected from 2 months of kindergarten! The study also found that kids show more interest in reading after playing Duolingo ABC, according to their parents. This last finding is particularly exciting, since it suggests that kids are not only learning to read with the app, but developing a love for reading that can extend outside the app to other books and stories.
All of that systematic instruction is baked into magical, delightful stories, filled with our dynamic cast of characters. We recently embarked on a redesign to make our app even more fun and engaging for kids. The driving force behind the redesign, and all improvements we make to our curriculum, has been our commitment to effective learning through play. We know children learn best from playful activities that are engaging, meaningful, and intrinsically motivating. We believe that an effective reading program helps build reading skills, but also makes the process a positive and joyful one for the child (and parents and caregivers).
And, most importantly, we always come back to Duolingo’s mission to make high-quality education available to everyone. That’s why we’re so excited to finally launch on Android, bringing Duolingo ABC to millions more homes, devices, and young readers.
Summer is the perfect time to build a reading habit with your child—and Duolingo ABC is here to make storytime even more delightful! If you have a young reader in your life, download Duolingo ABC on iOS or Android to start learning. And once you’ve read a few stories, let us know how you and your child are enjoying the app by tagging us on social at @Duolingo using the hashtag #DuolingoABC!