“She was so excited to get home to read today and I never hear her come in house an ask can I read one of my books. I’m so excited.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Jacqueline B

Verified Reviewer

“Between Covid and some issues with our daughters hearing, reading has been difficult. She had tubes three times because of this and is a bit behind her class. We got our first box today and our daughter immediately read through 3 of the books in her box! She had so much fun and is excited to continue. I love that the app listens to her and coaches her along. I am not a teacher and honestly it’s hard when we both get frustrated. This takes that frustration away and she’s excited about earning stars and the prize possibility for next month! Thank you!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“So far, my son has done phenomenal with Ello! Ello takes the time to break down words my son needs help with and has all the patients that I lack after a long days work. I’m so happy with my son’s progress and excitement to read new books with Ello!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“As a parent of a struggling reader who is 9 and Covid really wrecked their K-2 education, I am so thankful for this program! I love that it breaks down the words that may be a little difficult before the story so the child is familiar when the words do come up. I also like how it stops to help when the child is struggling. My child has loved reading the books and actually finished all of them in 2 days!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“My little guy just finished kindergarten. He will be 7 in June, and reading isn’t always his very favorite thing to do. When the books arrived, he was so excited! There was such a great variety of titles - some books we’ve read, and other new to us reads. He was so engaged. He loved the sticker chart and earning stars. I knew it was a five star item when it was the first thing he asked to do when he woke up! Thanks for keeping reading fun.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“My daughter enjoyed it but how the app detected how she read is quite a bit off. She might not read correctly and the app just it goes. Also when clicking to question mask”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“My kiddo started saying he loves reading and it’s fun! He enjoys reading with Ello so much that I dot. Even need to ask him to read. He’s reads the books over and over again and keeps asking for more books. Heaven sent!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“There are pros and cons to reading with Ello. The pros: Ello is an elephant and my daughter loves elephants. The books arrive in a fun box with confetti and my daughter gets so excited to open it up and see the books inside. We don’t have to keep the books, so we don’t end up with a shelf full of books we won’t read. Cons: Ello rarely catches when my daughter doesn’t read the word right. Also, the books we receive are old school. Books I would have read as a kid. Would be so much better if they were newer books, the popular books that kids love reading these days. My daughter would be more engaged and more interested in reading them.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Thank you for the feedback! We love to hear that you are finding elements of the program helpful! We are always adding to our collection of books, so thank you for the suggestion (if you have specific books you love, let us know!). One note: many children's books are not written in a manner that is optimal for children who are learning to read (they are written to be shared between a child and an adult). We aim to choose books that are engaging but are also written in a way that is optimal for children learning to read (the vocabulary and decoding is age-appropriate and consistent, rather than highly variable). Speech recognition (as you might know from Alexa or Siri) isn't perfect. We walk a delicate balance between not wanting to be SO strict that a slight accent or difference in pronunciation results in Ello getting stuck or detecting an error, and also not wanting to be so lenient that it lets kids through with a ton of mistakes or doesn't correct a mistake. Kids are particularly sensitive to the first --no one likes to be told they are "wrong" when they aren't-- so we lean a bit more lenient. Ello is always there for kids (via the question mark) when they want help, and we never interrupt them during reading to correct an error. Teachers don't do this either. We wait until the end of the page and then have them go back if we think they missed a word. The bottom line is this: we think about the experience holistically. Ello is motivating support that will correct them on errors (although not all errors, by design), is always there to help if a child proactively asks for it, and motivates them to keep going! Hopefully, some of these tips help. Thank you again for the thoughtful response!

Posted 1 year ago

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