The Phonics App vs WordStar

This multi-award-winning phonics app can help absolutely anyone learn to read. Join thousands of people around the world learning to read with The Phonics App! "We loved The Phonics App, as it has been specifically designed NOT to be addictive, and doesn't rely on dopamine hits for kids' rewards." - MadeForMums Tech Awards 2025 Editor's Choice. "A beautifully designed, calm, and research-led approach to early literacy that stands out in a market dominated by highly gamified products" - Digital Education Awards 2025 Highly Commended The Phonics App Features: * Learn the a-z sounds and how to blend 2 and 3 letter words completely free. * Subscribe to learn all the other sounds and practise with 400+ words. * ⁠⁠Video guidance from an expert phonics teacher every step of the way. * Beautifully simple - just tap the words to hear the sounds they're made of. * Learn how to pronounce all of the sounds of English (with an English accent). * ⁠Build up your knowledge of phonics, one sound at a time. * ⁠Learn how to read and understand common irregular (tricky) words. * ⁠Informal checks at the end of each section to reinforce your learning. * ⁠Learn both lower case and capital letters. * Learn to decode nearly every English word. * No collectibles, coins or dopamine rewards! Why did we make this app? Jonny is a father of two and started making this app to teach his kids to read. It worked really well, so he showed it to Miss Mabel (founder of Reading Roots, community of 750k parents and teachers learning phonics) to see if it would be useful to other people. She said yes, and had a lot of ideas how to make it better! So they spent AGES making 'The Phonics App', and now it's finally ready for you. We hope it helps you learn to read too! Miss Mabel & Jonny Subscriptions in this app follow standard Apple Terms of Use (EULA) which you can read here: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

WHY IT EXISTS Reading is a sequence: recognising letters, knowing their sounds, recognising words, knowing what those words mean, then following the ideas that words and sentences build. Schools do well at the first three. It is the fourth, word meanings, where children from different backgrounds come apart. Meeting the kindergarten curriculum takes a working vocabulary of around three thousand words, and many children arrive with fewer than a thousand. WordStar is built to close that gap, so that real literacy gains are within reach of children whatever their circumstances. It was born from the interdisciplinary research of our founder, Dr. Steffen E. Palko, set out in his book Knowledge and Learning (TCU Press). This app is where that work starts. Phonics is the foundation, and word meanings are what the foundation is for. A child's vocabulary is the set of ideas they can think with, in every subject they will ever study, which is why getting these first steps right, child by child, matters long after the reading lesson ends. WHERE IT STARTS This app is the first step of that work, and it is for the early literacy specialist sitting beside the child. Pick a student, pick a phonics skill, and work through it together on this device or on a WordStar Mini in the child's hands. Every item in the run is on screen from the start, so you can see what is coming, what has been covered, and what you have said about each one. Have fun! YOU MAKE THE JUDGEMENT The system does not decide for you. A Mini reports what happened, including how many times it repeated an item, and stops there. You mark each skill Developed, Developing, Not yet or Not observed with one tap, and a second tap changes your mind. A child who hesitates, self-corrects and arrives has done something no device can see. WORKS WITH THE WORDSTAR MINI DEVICE A Mini in the room appears with its own six-digit code on its screen, so with eight on a table you always know which one you have. Start a run from here and it appears on the device. Tap any skill to put that letter in front of the child. The session keeps going if the link drops, and picks itself back up. NINE PHONICS SKILL AREAS Letter names, letter sounds and letter words, in lowercase or uppercase. Initial sounds. Sight words to read and to find. Rhyming pairs and rhyming production. Concepts of print, with a real book in a child's hands. BUILT FOR A REAL CLASSROOM All the feedback is recorded on the device first and sent to WordStar when there is a connection, so a session finishes whether or not the network does. Progress appears in the WordStar web app for organisation administrators, alongside the rest of the child's journey. Access is invitation-only, for staff at schools using WordStar. Ask your organisation administrator, or request access at wordstar.providenthq.com.