Games and Learning

Speakaboos has cut deals to make available hundreds of popular children’s titles on its platform.

Speakaboos began with a simple, if ambitious, goal: to increase childhood literacy from pre-school to second grade.

That idea has given birth to a mobile interactive reading platform that has gotten a lot of buzz lately – and for good reason. Just last week, the firm added new content from publishers like Scholastic and the Jim Henson Company.

With over 175 titles to choose from, including classics such as Rapunzel and Where the Wild Things Are as well as contemporary stories such as Thomas and Friends, the team at Speakaboos prides itself on finding what they call “high-interest” books and transforming them into interactive landscapes.

“We saw a real need in the publishing landscape to bring books to digital – specifically children’s books,” said Noelle Millholt, COO and co-founder of Speakaboos. “We also saw an opportunity to use interactivity… to add literacy support and additional comprehension-based activities to books that just aren’t available through a traditional book.”

The result is a so-called scaffolded learning experience that walks kids through three stages, depending on their readiness – Read to Me, Read and Play, and Read it Myself.

Millholt said content is the key to their success, making sure that the original story and the digital interactivity they add are aimed at promoting literacy through interactivity and child engagement. Children using Speakaboos access an average of 50 titles per month, Millholt said, and spend an average of 22 minutes reading or being read to per session.

Speakaboos boasts licensing with big names such as Mattel and Hit Entertainment, and the content library is continually growing to include books and characters kids recognize and respond to. Titles are carefully curated by a team of expert educators led by Dr. Alice Wilder, who helped produce and direct Blues Clues at Nick Jr. and co-created SuperWHY! for PBS Kids.

The plan appears to be paying off. Since launching in 2008, the company has acquired nearly 200 titles and holds a top spot on the charts for kids learning apps and games.

But Speakaboos is more than just a tech success.

The digital learning program is reaching into more homes and classrooms than ever thanks to expanding partnerships with entities such as Google Play across multiple platforms, including Android and iOS, as well as the addition of a Speakaboos YouTube channel for kids.

And Speakaboos will soon launch a teacher ambassadors program, as well as a blog geared toward educators, in order to further open lines of communication between the content development team and teachers in the field.

Speakaboos has an explicit goal to reach kids in lower-income and underserved communities.

The company said it uses teacher outreach both to spread word about their product, and gather feedback to improve their offerings. Recently, in response to teacher feedback, they incorporated advanced search functions. In addition to searching by interest category – trains, dinosaurs, robots – teachers can search for texts by metadata including lexile, grade level, fiction vs. nonfiction texts, and more.

Soon, the team will add a reporting feature that will allow parents and teachers to keep tabs on which texts children are accessing and how long they read in one sitting.

Speakaboos’ books are selected for child engagement and transformed into worlds of interactivity to keep kids hooked. But great stories and engaging interactivity are only one part of Speakaboos’ mission. Millholt pointed out that Speakaboos’ mission is increased literacy for every child – and that means reaching into low-income and high-need communities.

Millholt said the team at Speakaboos found many teachers were requesting to suspend their subscriptions during the summer months because they were paying for the service for their classrooms out of their own pockets.

To that end, Speakaboos recently launched a partnership with First Book, an organization that distributes books and learning resources to low-income programs and schools. With First Book, Speakaboos will provide up to $3 million in subscriptions available free of charge to educators serving high-need, low-income students and families.

“This is a wonderful way for us to reach those children in low income communities. We hope to partner with similar organizations, like First Book, with similar missions – we really believe that technology can help be an equalizer during those formative years to help all students reach critical literacy milestones,” Millholt said.

Educators and program leaders serving at least 70-percent low-income students can access a Speakaboos subscription free through First Book – see the First Book website at the following link: www.fbmarketplace.com/speakaboos.

Editor’s Note: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is working with First Book to develop a survey of lower income and after-school programs and their use of technology. The Center is also responsible for producing gamesandlearning.org.