Getting a Read on the App Stores : A Market Scan and Analysis of Children’s Literacy Apps

In 2014, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and New America conducted a scan of the market for language and literacy apps targeted for young children in the Apple, Google Play, and Amazon app stores. Getting a Read on the App Stores analyzes the descriptions of the apps as well as their content to learn more about what parents are likely to encounter as they search for educational apps for their young children. The report covers recent trends and surfaces some recommendations for developers who are creating apps for children, as well as for parents and teachers looking for quality apps to teach foundational language and literacy skills to young children.

The research for this report, some of which has already appeared in Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens published by Jossey-Bass (2015), was conducted by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and New America and was sparked by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading. Generous support was  provided by the Pritzker Children’s Foundation.