Reading Eggs - Learn to Read - Blake eLearning

App Review

This review of Reading Eggs - Learn to Read was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 February 2021.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Reading Eggs - Learn to Read contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

The program was used with pre-school aged children and primary school aged children.

App description

Reading Eggs - Learn to Read is colourful, cheerful and engaging, involving an array of simple characters who regularly appear as ‘guides’ for the various reading activities. The visual scene for each activity is typically cartoon-like, often depicting a natural environment or home environment scene. Each activity or lesson is explained in a simple manner by a narrator. Activities commonly combine visual and audio representations of what is being taught. In many of the activities there is a sound icon so that instructions, words, or phonics depicted can be repeated. Each lesson or activity is approximately 1-3mins in length, thereby suitable for a child’s short attention span, with slightly longer comprehension activities for older children. An activity may involve finding or matching a correct letter in the case of young children, or matching words to pictures, and comprehension or vocabulary questions in the case of older children.

All activities are based on the level of the individual child’s reading ability, and the core lessons are designed to sequentially increase the child’s skills and knowledge. Children can start the program at any stage in their reading development (typically aged 2-13 years). A placement test is used to select the appropriate initial lesson level. Each child works through the sequence of lessons/activities at their own pace, with icons indicating successful completion of a task, prompts to move to the next task, or if a certain level of accuracy or competency was not achieved, the child will be prompted to try again. Children earn golden ‘eggs’ with the successful completion of activities, which can be traded for decorations for their avatar. The program is encouraging, and cheerful animations are used to celebrate successful completion of tasks.

Outside of the main lessons/activities, children have the option to select to ebooks to read (over 2,500), watch animations of songs, and access simple games. Children can view their own progress through a cartoon roadmap, showing how many lessons or activity markers they have completed, and which activities are yet to be attempted.

Parents can also access detailed progress reports of the types of lessons and activities undertaken and their child’s success/error rate, and can print certificates to celebrate achievements.

Reviewers comments

Reading Eggs - Learn to Read is simple for school aged children to navigate and quite enjoyable to use. Younger children and those who cannot read independently will benefit from ongoing supervision until their skills develop. The tasks required of children vary from one activity to the next and some comprehension/interpretation is required by the child, even for young children’s activities (this is not a ‘swipe’ game). Parents should assist as little as possible for the placement test to ensure that the correct initial lesson level is determined. Children are given lots of positive reinforcement and the roadmap and earning ‘eggs’ helps them to conceptualise their own progress.

Shortcomings of the program are that adults may need to assist some children aged 2-7 years with occasional complicated activities and ‘drop and drag’ skills until these physical skills are learnt - this issue can vary with the device used. Although pre-school aged children may be able to play some games and activities within the app independently, the main lessons which teach reading skills require a degree of auditory comprehension which some children may find challenging. As the reading skills lessons are designed to be completed in a fixed order, children cannot progress if they get stuck on an activity. Parents will need to use their discretion as to how much practical assistance their child will need.

Users of the app can potentially add additional child subscriptions at any time, depending on the payment controls set up on the device that the app is being accessed on. This can be prevented by, say, the use of an Apple ID passcode to prevent children authorising payments. Parental guidance is recommended to set up the app and manage subscription payments.

In App purchasing

There is In-App purchasing in this game, examples include:

• Ability to add on additional child/sibling subscriptions – monthly charge
• Ability to add on Mathseeds – additional subscriptions

This app is not free - At the time of this review, the initial free trial was 30 days and then it reverts to an automatic monthly subscription charge. Additional child/sibling subscriptions can be added to the primary account. All subscriptions involve an ongoing monthly charge unless you opt out.

• 30-day free trial, subscription fee $12.99 per month, and $6.49 per month for subsequent children

Online information

There is no online information required to play this game.

However, in order to register for the app, including the free trial, an initial account must be set up, whereby the parents’ name and email address (personal information) must be provided for log in and reporting/correspondence purposes. Parents also must set up a Reading Eggs account in their child’s name.

Gambling

At the time of review, the reviewer found no simulated gambling content. If you discover simulated gambling content in this app, please contact us with the details so we can update our review.

Advertising and product placement

There is no advertising or product placement in this game.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

None noted.

Coarse language

None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

None noted.

Other

The developer of this app has provided some information in the App store product description regarding data handling, as follows:

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Developer’s advertising or marketing - Contact info: email address and name.
• Analytics – Identifiers: user ID
• App Functionality – Contact info: email address and name. Identifiers: user ID. Diagnostics: crash data

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Analytics - Usage data: product interaction
• Product Personalisation – Usage data: product interaction

Got a suggestion?

You can contact us if you have suggestions of other children's apps to review.