Guest: Ari Fertel from Baltimore in Eastern Time via phone or Skype
With schools closed and kids home indefinitely, a whole new dynamic has emerged. Parents are now teachers, too.
To help with this challenge, a Reading Software Company is offering a month of free reading software to help families bridge the gap until schools resume. But what’s particularly interesting about this start-up, is that it’s CEO tested positive for the COVID-19 Coronavirus.
Here to join us is Ari Fertel, a mother of five and Founder of Reading Buddy Software.
Suggested Q&A:
- For starters, how are you feeling?
- With tens of millions of children staying home from school, what does that look like in most homes:
Answer: Maintaining discipline in a public school classroom in a structured environment is difficult enough. But having a parent teach from home presents a whole new set of dynamics including keeping children occupied with wholesome activities, as well as continuing their education at home, particularly in reading since it is foundational to all other learning.
- Yes, the old reading, writing and arithmetic, so to speak. Tell us about your reading software you developed for kids to improve their reading skills at home.
Answer: It’s called Reading Buddy. It’s software that has advanced speech recognition technology that listens, responds, and teaches as a child reads. It’s like having a tutor in your computer.
- How does that work?
Answer: We use a similar speech recognition technology that an iPhone uses so when your child reads, the software is able to respond and offer immediate feedback to your child.
- How is this different from other online reading programs?
Answer: Other programs claim to be interactive but when your child struggles, there is no feedback.
4) What age is this for?
Answer: It’s designed for children in grades 1st thru 8th.
- Tell us how a family can get started?
Answer: Go to ReadingBuddysoftware.com and use the code Covid19 to get a free month trial. And if schools resume in less than a month, a parent can cancel and never have a charge. But it is our hope that parents will find our reading resource so valuable that they continue having their children use it to supplement their schoolwork since it’s not just effective. It’s fun!
Ari Fertel video demo: https://readingbuddysoftware.com/helping-all-communities/
Reading Buddy Software video: https://youtu.be/a-MoiQo-oZE/
Ari Fertel is the founder of Reading Buddy Software and a mom of 5. After having a child who struggled with reading, she understood how stressful and expensive reading help could be and decided to combine the best of science, technology and gaming to help both kids and parents. She can be found at www.readingbuddysoftware.com
