Are kids’ reading apps failing to deliver educational value?

Many mobile apps claiming to support early reading skills in children fail to deliver actual educational benefit, with positive app store reviews seemingly driven by aesthetics and functionality, a new Flinders University analysis has found.

Experts are now calling for greater regulation and more robust certification of the educational quality of available mobile apps.

Led by Dr Lisa Furlong from Flinders’ College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the first-of-its-kind study had an expert panel of speech pathologists appraise 309 mobile apps claiming to support the development of phonics and phonological awareness skills; foundational skills critical to early reading development.

Almost one in five apps were found to be of poor quality, with expert reviewers only recommending 85 of the 309 apps appraised, for their potential to support development of foundational reading skills.

“More than 9,000 apps are currently available for children across the Apple and Google Play stores that claim to assist children in developing early reading skills, including phonics,” says Dr Furlong, a practising speech pathologist and researcher, also with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

“Many apps are aesthetically pleasing and entertaining, but our study showed the majority lack the educational rigour required to teach phonics and phonological awareness effectively.

“In today’s world, with increasing use of mobile devices, parents often turn to mobile apps as a way to support their child’s reading development; we should ensure that what is out there will actually benefit children’s learning.”

The study, published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, also found no significant correlation between consumer and expert star ratings.

Apps that scored highly with consumers were those with high engagement, aesthetics, or functionality, rather than those with the potential to support children’s reading.

“This research highlights a major gap between consumer perception and educational quality,” says Dr Furlong.

“Parents and educators often rely on star ratings and user reviews when selecting mobile apps, but our findings show these metrics are not reliable indicators of educational value.”

Among the most concerning findings were widespread instructional flaws. Most apps failed to provide explicit teaching, didn’t provide a structured and sequenced approach to teaching letter-sound associations, nor were they able to provide corrective feedback.

Many apps included incorrect modelling of the target skills, mispronunciations of letter sounds and inappropriate word choices for reading tasks.

The researchers say there needs to be greater regulation of app stores and the introduction of a robust certification process to help educators, speech-language pathologists, and families identify apps that align with evidence-based methods of early reading instruction.

“App stores are largely unregulated when it comes to educational claims,” says Dr Furlong. “Clearer labelling and disclosures are essential to ensure that children are engaging with tools that genuinely support their learning.

“Between June 2021 and September 2024, only six new high-quality apps were released that met expert standards. This is a strikingly low number given the volume of apps entering the market. Despite increased advocacy around the science of reading, app developers are not responding with tools that reflect best practice.

“We urgently need more investment in high-quality, evidence-informed educational apps and ongoing collaboration between educators, researchers, and developers to create tools that truly enhance early literacy.”

The paper ‘Finding the needle in the haystack: A quality appraisal of mobile applications for foundational literacy skills’ is published in the Early Childhood Education Journal. This research was funded by a Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grant for Early Career Researchers, awarded to Dr Lisa Furlong.

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