Readio Help

Help Using Readio

About Readio

What is Readio?

Readio is a revolutionary new service designed to help your kids become better readers who love to read. Readio is all about sharing the magic of reading great kid's books both within your family and with other families who are part of the Readio Network. Readio adds a powerful layer of digital interactivity to real, physical books — which you can pull from your own bookshelves, borrow from the library or buy from your favorite store. For more detail see About Readio.

How does Readio work?

Readio combines great children's books, a strong pedigree in educational research and patented automated speech recognition technology to support and encourage early readers while they read.

What books are available to use with Readio?

For the Pioneer Program we have 100 wonderful children's books available in the Readio Library. These books cover a range of text levels and subject areas. As we expand the Library further in the future, we will add a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The library includes books in 3 categories; Picture books, Leveled readers and Chapter books. We're confident that you will find a number of books that are a good fit for your child in terms of difficulty level and subject matter.

As with all areas of the Readio Network, if you have any suggestions for books you'd like to see added to the Readio Library, please send us an email.

What is the educational philosophy at the core of Readio?

Readio recognizes the importance of reading practice. The approach we use is called Guided Oral Reading. Guided Oral Reading is a simple idea that reflects what parents and the best teachers do naturally when they sit and share a reading experience with their child or student, playing the role of a concerned listener. When the reader comes to a word they haven't seen before or have difficulty with, the listener will often let the reader attempt the word before they step in with help. When the child gets stuck or misreads an important word, the concerned listener gives support, providing opportunities for the reader to learn and grow. They will provide encouragement as the reader moves through the text, and they will offer praise when the reader has completed block of text or an entire story. Readio mirrors all of these behaviors and by doing so, paves the way for emergent readers to flourish and develop the key skills they need to become fluent readers.

The team that is building the Readio Network has been profoundly influenced by both Dr. Marilyn Jaeger Adams at Soliloquy Learning and Dr. Jack Mostow at Carnegie Mellon University. The work they are doing in researching and applying the use of speech recognition technology and the concept of Guided Oral Reading to improving reading fluency continue to inspire us.

What is fluency and why is it important?

Educators define reading fluency as the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluent readers do not have to think about the process of reading as they read. Instead, they think about the meaning of the words, the characters and themes in the text or the mood of the scene described by the author.

How to Use Readio

Readio should be used as a supplement to the general reading activity happening in your home. Think of Readio as a digital layer that sits on top of your child's favorite books. Readio is there to provide help when needed and to be a constant source of encouragement and motivation. At its very simplest, when your child stumbles on a word, Readio will play a recording of that word. As they complete pages and then complete books they receive verbal encouragement and a reading score.

The exact amount of time that will be right for your child to be using Readio will depend on their age, reading ability and familiarity with computers. As a starting point, think about encouraging your child to use Readio at least a couple of times a week for 20-30 minutes at a time. We encourage you to view Readio as an important element in building the skills necessary for your children to become strong readers.

Who should use Readio?

Is Readio recommended only for children who are struggling to read? Absolutely not. Readio is designed to be used by any child who is on the road to reading fluency. This includes children who have a small number of sight words as well as children who are already reading chapter books. Remember, the goal of Readio is to offer children the opportunity to practice reading with a concerned listener. Every child can benefit from reading with Readio.

What is the ideal age range for using Readio?

Most children between the ages of 5 and 9 years old are at stages in their reading development most appropriate for Readio. Even children younger than 5 can use Readio, however, if they have a sufficient number of reading building blocks (i.e. phonics, decoding and sight words) in place.

Can Readio be used in a home school environment?

Readio can be used in any context where children are learning to read. For the Pioneer Program, there is no explicit scope and sequence built into Readio. However the Readio library is balanced across a wide range of reading levels and can provide a powerful supplement to any other reading programs your children or students are engaged in.

Selecting Readio Books

When choosing a book to read with Readio, you should begin by looking at the Readio Library. You need to have the physical ReadioReady™ book available as Readio is an enhancement to children's books not a replacement for them. We encourage you to try any Readio Book that your child is interested in reading and for which you already have the physical ReadioReady™ book or plan on borrowing or purchasing. A bit of experimentation to find the right books for your child is a good thing!

Once you have made your selections on the website, the digital books will be downloaded to your computer the next time one of your family's users logs in to the Readio Software.

Listening and Recording

For a new book that your child hasn't read before, an ideal way to start them off will be to have them listen to a recording of that story. The benefit of this is that a child will have the opportunity to be exposed to the sounds and meanings of any words that are new to her in the story.

If no Readio Recording for a particular book that was made by other Readio Network members or a professional narrator affiliated with the Readio Network is available for download, we encourage you to make a recording yourself or get one of your family members to do so. See the section Making Your Own Recordings for more information and suggestions.

Tip: You can listen to a preview of the recordings available for each book you are selecting, to choose the narrator you like best.

Echo

If your child is an early reader, a great way to move towards independent reading will be for him to play Echo. You will find Echo in the Read and Record area of the Readio Software (off the main Child activity screen). Echo is an activity that allows your child to hear a part of the story (usually a sentence or a phrase) and then attempt to repeat those words. Your child can pick a Reading Partner to read with (including you). This is an ideal activity for early picture books and leveled readers. Please let us know which Readio Books worked particularly well with Echo for your child.

Note: The Reading Partners list includes only those readers who have recorded the entire Readio Book.

Tag

For children who are progressing towards fluency, Tag offers an engaging opportunity to share the reading task with an interactive Reading Partner. Like Echo, this activity can be found in the Read and Record area of the Readio Software. In Tag, the child and the Reading Partner take turns reading sentences. The goal here is for the child to read through the complete story with the added support and stimulation of a reading companion. This will be especially useful as your child starts to get comfortable with reading but might be intimidated by the size of a longer picture book or chapter book.

Solo

Solo is the hallmark reading activity within Readio and the premiere way for children more or less capable of reading on their own to receive support and encouragement from Readio. Solo is currently the only Readio activity for which Story Points can be earned. While certain books — even picture books — can be too difficult for a child to read on their own, the personalized real-time support provided by Readio during the Solo activity in particular enables children to read through, enjoy and learn from their favorite books. Though Solo may beyond the ability of younger/earlier readers, we encourage every Readio Pioneer family to give it a try and share their experiences (including which books worked especially well for readers of what ages/reading skill levels) with the Readio Network community.

Switch

An advanced form of Tag can be played by using the "Ramblebot, Switch" voice command. At any time during the Solo or Listen activities, the user can ask Ramblebot to switch roles simply by saying "Ramblebot", waiting for her response and then saying "Switch". Switch seamlessly changes the roles of Listener and Reader between the child and the chosen Reading Partner from the same place in the story. The only requirement is that a recording of the book be available.

Note: As with Echo the Reading Partners list only includes the names of readers who have completed the entire story.

Other Voice Commands

In addition to "Switch", there are currently several other voice commands available in various of the Readio reading activities. The Voice Commands button that appears towards the bottom of the screen in each Readio activity details exactly which voice commands are available during that activity. Voice commands are fun for kids to use and Ramblebot, Readio's built-in "artificial intelligence" never gets tired of being bossed around. All that one has to remember to use Readio voice commands is to:

say "Ramblebot"
wait to hear Ramblebot acknowledge your call (by saying "uh huh")
say the voice command of your choice

In addition to Switch, Readio's voice commands include Find, Repeat and Never Mind. They accomplish the following things:

Find enables the user to read or listen from anywhere in the book. For example, a child can use Find to skip to a favorite part of the book.
Repeat allows the user to hear the current sentence again — quite useful in case a child wants to hear a challenging word again or is confused about the meaning of a sentence.
Never Mind is what you'd expect this command to be — a way of telling Ramblebot that you've changed your mind and want to go back to the story.

Sharing

Any Parent user can choose to share a recording that they or any member of their family (including Child users) has made using the Readio Software with other members of the Readio Network community. Sharing recordings is a marvelous way to show off your reading skills (great reads are a pleasure to listen to — and keep the same books fresh and interesting) and enable other Readio Network members to benefit. You'll find a growing number of both user created recordings as well as Professional recordings (marked as "Readio Pro").

Making Your Own Recordings

Who should make recordings?

Anyone who can who can read can make a recording. We encourage you to get siblings and grandparents involved by asking them to make recordings of your child's favorite Readio books. Children can listen to the recordings or use them as Reading Partners to play Echo and Tag.

Note: The Readio Software currently saves only the most recent recording you have made or portions thereof. Each time you completely re-read a book in Readio, the previous recording is erased.

How do I make my recording sound better?

When you record a story using Readio, the quality of that recording will depend on a number of factors, many of which you can control.

Background noise: the quieter the room you are in when recording, the better the recording will sound.
Equipment: a better (and usually, more expensive) microphone can have a significant impact on sound quality.
Volume: resist the temptation to speak very loudly. The Readio microphone headset and software are quite sensitive. Accordingly, speaking at a normal, perhaps even quietish volume will yield the best results.

Even with a standard microphone you can make great recordings, just remember not to have the microphone too close to your mouth and to speak clearly.

What do I do if I make a mistake while I am recording?

Readio keeps the last recording you make for each section of a book. If you made a mistake on a single sentence you can just go back to and rerecord that sentence, you don't need to rerecord the whole story.

Tip: while listening to a story you can use the "Ramblebot, Switch" and/or "Ramblebot, Find" voice commands to navigate within the book and re-record any sections of the text.

Story Points and Reports

What are Story Points?

For many children, obtaining a score for their performance and working to improve that score over time are, in general, important motivational forces. The enormous popularity of video games is ample proof of this. We have tried to incorporate this notion into Readio through Story Points.

Story Points are loosely based on a common technique in reading instruction used to assess the number of correct words a child can read in a given time frame. Errors such as stumbles or missed words are counted against the total score. In Readio, we have added an additional parameter to this calculation, namely, the percentage of the total book the child reads in a given reading session. We take these calculations and perform a bit of smoothing to avoid penalizing children unduly on longer books.

We recognize that there are many ways that we can improve Story Points and expect to evolve this important part of the Readio experience over time. Meanwhile, we'd greatly appreciate your feedback on how your child responded to Story Points — what they liked and didn't like. Thanks in advance for sharing!

Note: Scoring Points are currently awarded ONLY for the Solo activity. We plan to enable Story Points for the other Readio activities at some point after the end of the Pioneer Program.

What Reports are Available for Parents?

Beyond the appearance of Story Points throughout the Child part of the Readio Software, we have prepared 2 reports for Parents to benefit from during the Pioneer Program. As your family continues to use Readio, you can check the reports periodically to gain a better understanding of the progress your child(ren) are making over time.

Story Points Report

This report is provides insight into your child's reading performance by graphically displaying his/her Story Points scores by session over time. Information about when each session took place (date/time) as well as which book was read is also provided.

Activity Report

This report is all about time on task. In other words, how much time is your child spending on each Readio activity. Again, when each session took place and which book was read is also provided.

As with all of the features of the Readio Pioneer program we welcome your feedback on how you used these reports and are especially interested in what other data points you would like to see in future versions of the Readio Network.

Technical Questions

What are the system requirements to use Readio?

To enjoy the best experience with Readio you will need a computer with the following specifications:

Windows XP™ operating system with Service Pack 2 installed
At least 200MB of available disc space
Adobe Flash 8 or higher
Internet Explorer 6 or higher or Firefox 1.5 or higher.
A broadband connection to the Internet

Apologies, but we do NOT currently support either Macintosh OS or Microsoft Windows Vista for the Pioneer Program but expect to do so for future versions of the Readio Network.

What Other Equipment Do I Need (besides the PC)?

The only other equipment you'll need besides a PC that meets the minimum requirements detailed above is a microphone headset. The Starter Kit provided by Readio Network includes a headset that we have tested and approved. If you already have a headset you have used with your PC for applications such as Skype™ you may be able to use that with Readio as well. We encourage you to try it and share with us your results.

Note: If you experience persistent speech recognition problems with your headset, you may wish to upgrade to a noise canceling or USB headset that can offer a higher level of performance.

How do I install Readio?

After completing your family profile with at least one Parent and Child user and selecting at least one Readio Book from the Readio Library, you may download the Readio software.

Make sure to take note of the location on your PC where you choose to download the installer. The download typically takes 5-10 minutes to complete, depending on your internet connection. Once that has finished, double click on the installer file (which is called ReadioSetup.exe) to begin the install process. The installer will ask you at the outset to enter your Family Email and Registration ID into the installer. This information should have been sent you as part of you registration process. If you don't have this information available please contact the Readio Network Help Desk (Email: support@readionetwork.com or Phone: 1-888-READIO-1). Once you have entered the Family Email and Registration ID, you will need to follow some simple instructions confirming the location of where you want to install the Readio Software and store certain data. For most users, just accepting the default values is the best choice.

How Do I Share Ideas I Have for Improving Readio?

Please send us an email at support@readionetwork.com or call us at 1-888-READIO-1.

I Tried to Install the Readio Software on a 2nd PC but it Doesn't Work. What's the Deal?

Readio can only be installed on a single PC per family during the Readio Pioneer Program.

Troubleshooting

My child Misread or Skipped a Word But Readio Didn't Correct Her. Why Not?

The Readio Software was designed to emulate concerned listeners who provide emergent readers with support and encouragement. With this in mind, Readio was not intended to correct every single mistake or omission a child might make. Readio purposely allows a certain number and type of mistakes, while intervening with a correction in other cases. Having said this, the technology on which Readio is built is not perfect and will continue to improve. The important thing is that children who practice with Readio become better readers and develop a love of reading that can last their whole lives.

My Child Read a Word Correctly But Readio Tried to Correct Him. Why?

Once again, the technology on which Readio is built is not perfect and will continue to improve. It sometimes misrecognizes words children read and offers inappropriate corrections. We have tried to minimize this situation and will continue to do so. Therefore, any specific feedback you can give us about interventions the Readio Software makes — good, bad or otherwise — will be very much appreciated.

My Child Was Reading One Part of a Book and Readio Thought She was Somewhere Else in the Story. What Happened?

The patent pending technology that allows Readio to find the exact part of a particular book your child is reading and to keep tracking him as he reads is pretty robust, but sometimes gets confused. If this is the case, you should be able to quickly and easily remedy the problem by having your child use the "Ramblebot, Find" voice command to get Readio back on the same page with your child (pun intended).

What Do I Do if I Forget One of My Passwords.

No problem. You can change your Parent password for the Readio Software by visiting the Profiles section. Should you lose your Security ID (either the original one you were issued or a new one you may have created), you can click on the "I forgot my Security ID" link right below the LogIn button and a new password will be emailed to the Family Email account that was used to set up your Readio profile. If you are still having trouble, don't hesitate to email or call us at the Help Desk.

Known Issues

Supported Browsers

We have tested the site on Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 6 & 7. We have seen some inconsistent problems displaying and playing recording previews with Internet Explorer 7. If you see this problem please email us at the Help Desk.