For young children, learning how to read is a crucial skill. Being able to read, piques their curiosity and makes it easier to gain knowledge by themselves, which is highly motivating to discover the world even more. While reading is key, it doesn’t come easy to everyone. Enter FONEMI (link in Dutch), a webapp for preschoolers to offer every child the smoothest reading start possible.

Developed by our proud member Bits of Love based on research of VIVES Hogeschool, the app playfully stimulates something called the phonemic awareness. That’s a crucial building block for learning how to read and write. Before primary school, toddlers must learn to recognise sounds in words, split words into sounds, and replace sounds in words. Kindergarten teachers train this classically, but they often don’t have time to provide individual support for every child.

FONEMI helps them with a series of playful exercises, adjusted to the level (there’s four difficulty levels) of each child. The application is coupled to a powerful Learning Management System, so teachers are able to easily monitor the progress of their children and adjust where necessary. Currently developed for use in the third kindergarten, the project aims to expand to both second kindergarten and first grade in the future.