Reading Train Early Literacy Intervention

Too many at-risk pre-school children lack early language and literacy skills including familiarity with books, knowledge of letters, background knowledge and vocabulary. Children are entering school already behind and without the right intervention fall further behind each year.

We provide hundreds of fiction and informational picture books with audio and visual supports so even pre-readers can learn to read independently. Children can hear every word spoken aloud and access the picture/audio dictionary to build vocabulary and background knowledge; Quiz games reinforce spelling, letter/word identification, and comprehension skills. Every book can be printed to create unlimited libraries and to share with families.

Our goal is to provide unlimited digital and print resources of readable books to the youngest and neediest children all over the world, especially low-income children at risk for school failure, to help close the achievement gap, bridge the digital divide and achieve universal literacy.

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The Reading Train program gets beginning readers started on the ladder to reading and school success. Beginning readers need to read little books, but The Reading Train's unique design allows kids to explore big ideas, reading to learn at the same time as they learn to read.

We provide hundreds of engaging fiction and informational picture books about animals, colors, numbers and science. Every book can be downloaded and printed to build school and personal libraries and sent home to support family learning. The books are also available on multi-platform apps, with audio and visual supports, so that unlike on other early literacy apps, children can read and record the books independently, building self confidence and essential early literacy skills while fostering a love of reading. The Reading Train is much more than a collection of e-books. Children can touch every word to hear them spoken aloud and access the integrated "schema" dictionary from within the books with illustrations and spoken definitions of over 450 words to build vocabulary and background knowledge. Text based quiz games after every book reinforce spelling, letter and word identification and comprehension skills. Unlimited user accounts can be created, and progress tracking shows books read and recorded and detailed scores on the quizzes; Children earn rewards for reading books, including unlocking the next book in the series, collecting stars on their personal dictionary and coins to spend on sing along song books in the music store. Reading aloud is not enough. On the Reading Train, every child, including non- readers, special education students and English Language Learners can read and record their favorite books, all by themselves. Once downloaded, Wi-Fi is not needed to access all books and features.

3 people work part time. We contract out the programming work.

I have been working with children for 35 years, first as a therapist and later as a classroom teacher, special educator and reading specialist, in urban and rural, low income schools. I have vast experience teaching reading to children growing up in generational poverty with few or no books in the home, to English Language Learners and those challenged by multiple disabilities, including emotional, learning, working memory, speech/language and cognitive difficulties. I have written hundreds of emergent level books and am the creator of the Reading Train program. The books and apps have been field tested in a wide variety of settings including public, private and charter schools, preschools, Head Start classrooms and afterschool programs. I am the recipient of numerous awards, including a Teaching Tolerance Grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, People Magazine Teacher of the Year, and the ILA Grand Prize for Technology and Reading. Tim vanBlommesteyn, our CFO, has 25 years’ experience as a financial consultant.  Evan Curran, a children’s musician, does the voice over, sound engineering and original music. Joseph Chen, Lead Developer and Designer was responsible for app development, including design, coding and testing. He remains involved as a partner and consultant. Ongoing app development is provided by a small Ukrainian company. With very little overhead, and complete ownership of our content, we are well positioned to scale this project and make a difference in the lives of young children all over the world.

Springfield, Vermont Head Start. Southwestern Community Services Head Start. Lingo Kids, as a content partner.