Google Play Books gets new tools for helping young readers practice comprehension

My son is well past needing help with basic reading skills, but that doesn’t keep me from getting excited about new Google Play Books features for young readers. No matter what gets added to Google’s Kindle competitor, I’m stoked to talk about it, especially if it means it’s going to help families make the most of their libraries.

While I’m not happy Google got rid of Rivet and subsequently nixed stories on Google Assistant, I am happy that it spun up Google Kids Space for the kiddos. This week on The Keyword, the company announced several new additions to help your children better read and comprehend the stories they engage with.

First, while reading a book, they’ll see the text highlighted as they read aloud, which can be great for following along. On a paper book, a child would normally follow along with their finger, but with a tablet, that’s not quite as easy since the page would turn with a swipe. Next, if they get stuck on how to pronounce a specific word, they can tap on it to hear it read aloud. These words can then be broken down by syllable and spoken aloud by the app.

Additionally, your kids can tap a word to get its definition right inside of Play Books without having to open a Google Search. Lastly, Google is adding tools for your young ones to set and track their reading position in a book (this can help them see how much progress they’ve made per reading sessions), and to practice difficult words. 

How this works is the book will, of course, let your child speak out loud what they’re reading, the tools will highlight where they are via the microphone, and any words they skip or mispronounce, they’ll be presented with at the end of the page. If they want, they can speak it several times to practice it before continuing to the next page.

Of course, many parents will want to disable the microphone access for their kids’ devices, and I get that, but for anyone who does opt in to this, they can enjoy helpful tools to assist with reading comprehension. Google is making it easy to find books in the Play Store that have these  tools built into them too. Just look for the “Practice” label on the listing just below the book cover before you buy!

Once you have a few books like this, you can simply filter them out with the smart chips at the top of your Play Books library by tapping the “Reading practice” option. I’d be interested in knowing in the comments whether you and your family choose to use apps that process your child’s voice or if you avoid them like the plague. So far, I haven’t let my son use Google Assistant, and will likely keep it that way for many years to come.