Coaching Parents Digitally

ReadAskChat and the Mission to Close Achievement Gaps Before School Begins

Abstract

The ReadAskChat innovation addresses the decades-long quest to close achievement gaps between poor and academically at-risk children and those from more affluent families. In today’s marketplace, the majority of education apps are digital versions of worksheets, games, and puzzles. However, for education apps to be effective, educators and pediatricians agree they must deeply engage children and spur social interaction. Through digital technology, ReadAskChat delivers a profound learning innovation that empowers parents and caregivers of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers to participate in a sustained process of what pediatricians call dialogic reading -- back-and-forth conversation about the books they are reading together. Using the ReadAskChat digital library and its embedded, on-demand conversation starters, adults can guide their young children in mindful responses to varied, meaning-rich stories, verse, songs, and science and math features, and in so doing, lay the groundwork for all future learning.