A teacher’s review of Poio:

“A unique learn-to-read game”

Vilde Randgaard / November 12, 2019

“I think it is a really clever way of teaching children some of the skills they need to be able to decode and blend. It’s not like any other educational app on the market because it looks and feels just like an adventure game,” says mother and teacher Joanne Sains from Darlington, who has tested out the learn-to-read game Poio by Kahoot! together with her 4-year-old son.

A different approach to learning
Understanding the importance of reading, Joanne is keen to give her child the best possible start to learning the skill. She had already started with a little training by reading to him, using phonics flash cards and made-up games to keep him interested. More recently, she decided to give Poio a go. 

“Using Poio is an entirely different approach as it doesn’t require me to make-up a game in order to interest my child,” she says, believing that the biggest advantage of the method is that it looks and feels like a game as opposed to an educational app.

The educational value
“Poio is intuitive and can be accessed even by younger children. The gameplay is fast and very responsive. The learning is incidental and that’s what makes Poio unique,” Joanne says. 

Joanne sees a lot of educational value in the game for her son. For instance, by how he has started repeating some of the phrases from the game, such as “e”  for the Poio character Ebbe, in real life.

“I liked this, as he was making links between what he had learned in the game to actual printed words.” 

Advice for parents on using Poio with their children
Joanne recommends Poio to both other teachers and parents, and thinks parents should use it as a complement to what their children are taught in school. 

“I think parents would find the game element a good way of motivating their child to learn the skills involved in reading. They should just let their children play with the game and watch them make links.”

Joanne’s expert tip on teaching your child to read:
“I think the most important thing in preparing your child to read is to read to them from a very early age. Children’s exposure to the rich language often found in books helps to expand their vocabulary and to recognize the underlying structure of sentences and phrases.”

Give your child the best possible start to their reading journey!

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