Common Sense Media Review
Fun, interactive stories can support reading comprehension.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
StoryPals
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
Kids can read short stories with picture illustrations that are animated when activated, or have the stories read to them. In the basic version, digitized text (recorded by a story creator) is read aloud; the full version also has text-to-speech and word highlighting as it's read. Kids then take a multiple-choice quiz to determine comprehension. The included stories target second- to sixth-grade readability levels. Parents and kids also can write their own stories with provided backgrounds and characters or use their own pictures.
Is It Any Good?
STORYPALS is a good app for supporting kids as they learn reading comprehension and how to respond to "wh" questions, which fosters a deeper understanding of content. But, with only 24 stories, ultimately kids will memorize them and the quizzes will become invalid. The ability to create your own stories is a nice feature, but it can be time-consuming. Both app options seem a bit pricey for the limited number of stories offered.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Help kids get started with the instructions and help section of the app.
Work with your kids to write original stories through a fun process.
Developing good questions to create a quiz on original work is a great exercise in higher-order thinking and processing.
App Details
- Device : iPad
- Subjects : Language & Reading : reading comprehension , storytelling
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , problem solving
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : October 24, 2012
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : Expressive Solutions LLC
- Version : 1.1.2
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 5.0 or later
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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