Google is adding a couple of new tools to Play Books to make the platform more friendly for kids and anyone else who may be a "beginning reader" or have limited reading skills. Following a new update, Google Play Books can now read stories to kids. The app is also getting a kid-friendly dictionary to help make reading more fun for young readers.
When you open a kids title in Google Play Books, you will notice four large navigation touch buttons on the screen. There's a "back" button at the top left corner and three more buttons within a tray at the bottom-center. The first one is to for the "read & listen" feature. If you hit play, the app will read out the book aloud, highlighting each word as it is read. You can also set the app to turn the pages automatically.
The second button lets you zoom out and scroll through all the pages in an ebook. The scroll bar at the bottom will show the total number of pages as well as the page you are currently seeing. The bar will also highlight the page you last read. The last button is for bookmarking a page so you can return to it whenever you wish.
The "tap to read" feature lets you tap on a word to listen to its pronunciation again. Certain words also come with kid-friendly definitions, often with illustrations to support comprehension and learning. If you tap on a word and see a "question mark" above it, you can tap on it to learn more about the word.
Google Play Books gets kid-friendly tools to help young readers
As Google says, Play Books was primarily designed for proficient readers. However, since last year, the company has been trying to make the app more friendly for younger people who may not have the skills necessary to read a book, or perhaps are not very interested in reading due to the lack of illustrations in books.
In April 2020, Google started adding a "Teacher approved" badge to apps that have been rated by teachers and meet the company's quality standards. It was followed by the introduction of Kids Space on Android tablets in August.
Now, Google Play Books is getting additional tools for beginner readers. Google says the vast majority of kids' titles, which are books designated for ages 0-8, have reading tools enabled. You can download a free sample of any book to confirm if it supports reading tools before purchasing the book. Google promises to continue adding new tools to Play Books to make reading more accessible and fun for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment