Problem Statement
Shared reading time between parents and their children is a valuable bonding experience that has been linked to a variety of positive cognitive, emotional, social, and academic outcomes in early childhood. However, parents with challenging schedules can find it hard to find time to read along with their children and they can also find it difficult to stay informed of their children's reading progress as they enter elementary school. These parents who want to to be more present in their child's reading need solutions designed to focus on bonding while also improving their child's reading skills.
Problem Characteristics
- Reading time between parents and their children is an important bonding experience for them that has a wide variety of benefits, but not all parents who want to do it have the means to do so
- Parents may become too busy to read with their children
- Parents may become more hands off with their children's reading once they enter school
- Teachers of children in early elementary school often lack communication channels with parents about specific reading objectives
- Engagement of children with parents is often overlooked in current existing reading applications/solutions
Solution Statement
Our proposed solution, Well Read, is a web-based reading application that aids children in kindergarten through second grade in developing their literacy skills by providing features to facilitate parent-child shared reading. Well Read will help parents who want to be involved and engaged with their children's reading, but are not always able to find time to be physically present for it. Well Read will also promote communication between parents and teachers in an effort to optimize the child's learning experience by setting common reading goals and objectives.
Solution Characteristics
- Parents are provided with voice recording features, allowing them to effectively be able to read to/with their children.
- Children are provided with voice recognition features that assist them with reading and giving them positive feedback.
- This will be combined with the voice recording features used by the parents to give them the experience and benefits of shared-reading.
- Teachers are provided with a way to assign reading and communicate with parents of their students about specific reading objectives.
- Children are provided with a library of books/reading materials for a variety of reading levels.
- A system to reward children and provide them incentive to practice their reading.
- Awards virtual incentives/parent encouragement after completing certain tasks (e.g., taking selfies together).
