A little help with a hard word.
Tap an unfamiliar word to hear it spoken. Try it again, then return to the sentence. The help stays inside the story.
Why early reading matters
Small stories.
Strong foundations.
A new word. A question about the picture. A sentence they want to try themselves.
Reading brings together opportunities to build language, understanding and early reading skills. Those opportunities begin long before a child can finish a book alone.
Anga helps you make room for them—with personal stories, word practice and spoken help when your child gets stuck.
Books and language
Books give children words everyday conversation doesn't.
In a study of 100 children's picture books, researchers found 72% more distinct words than in an equally sized sample of adults talking to young children. Books offered a wider variety of language—not simply more of the same.
Think of the difference between big and enormous. Between walking and tiptoeing. Between a rainy day and a tremendous storm.
Montag, Jones and Smith, 2015.
Reading routines
One book a day adds up.
Researchers estimated how much language children encounter through different reading routines, from birth to their fifth birthday. A daily story added up to almost 300,000 words heard.
A book at breakfast. A favourite before bed. A story while you wait.
You don't have to make every reading moment a big occasion. Give it a place in everyday life.
| Reading routine | Words heard |
|---|---|
| Once or twice a week | 64,000 |
| Three to five times a week | 170,000 |
| Daily | 300,000 |
Rounded estimates from Logan and colleagues, 2019. Word totals include repetitions.
Language development
The benefits show up in children's language.
A major research review found that programmes helping parents share picture books with their children produced small but measurable improvements in understanding and using language.
The OECD's 2025 early-learning study found a related pattern: five-year-olds read to frequently had stronger early literacy skills than those read to infrequently, even after accounting for family socioeconomic background.
Dowdall and colleagues, 2020: 19 randomized studies, 2,594 children. OECD, 2026.
Reading it again
“Again!” can be part of learning.
The same characters. The same surprise. The same ending they already know.
It can feel like nothing new is happening. Research suggests otherwise.
In an experiment with three-year-olds, children learned and remembered new word meanings better when they heard the same stories repeatedly. Children hearing different stories encountered the target words just as often, but did not remember them as well.
Horst, Parsons and Bryan, 2011.
Personal stories
Make the story personal.
Their muddy shoes. Your trip to the beach. The day Grandpa lost his glasses.
A story can begin with something your child already has something to say about.
There is research behind personalisation, too. In a study of 18 preschoolers, children showed better knowledge of new words from personalised sections of a picture book than from non-personalised sections when tested a week after the first reading.
Kucirkova, Messer and Sheehy, 2014.
Shared reading
Reading is also a relationship.
The voice they recognise. A shared joke. The question that takes you away from the page and into a conversation.
Leave room for those moments. Ask what they notice. Talk about what surprised you. Let the story become something you share.
Use Anga alongside the books on your shelf—and bring your own voice to both.
“Reading together with young children weaves joyful language and rich interactive moments into the fabric of daily life.”
From listening to trying
From listening together to having a go.
Learning to read brings different skills together: understanding language, connecting letters with sounds, working out words and practising with sentences. Evidence-based teaching guidance includes all of these—not just one.
Anga gives your child ways to practise, with support close by.
Words and sounds to explore.
Move between illustrated stories, themed word practice and phonics activities. Choose something to explore together or revisit something familiar.
A library with your family in it.
Save your own stories and return to favourites. With an Anga Group Space, up to 10 trusted people can contribute—so a bedtime story from Grandma can be a story by Grandma.
Make room for the next reading moment.
You don't need a perfect routine to begin.
Choose a story. Read a little together. Give your child a chance to try.
With Anga Plus, build your personal reading library and one shared family space, with allowances for creating your own stories and word lists.
For beginning readers aged 4–7. Available on iPhone and iPad.
Free to download, with an optional Anga Plus subscription.
The research behind the ideas
These studies explore children's reading and language development; they are not evaluations of Anga.
- Books and vocabularyMontag, Jones and Smith, 2015. Comparison of 100 picture books with matched samples of speech directed to children.
- Reading routinesLogan and colleagues, 2019. Estimates of storybook words heard from birth to age five.
- Shared reading and languageDowdall and colleagues, 2020. Review of 19 randomized studies, involving 2,594 children, of adult–child book-sharing programmes.
- Home reading and early skillsOECD, 2026, reporting the 2025 Early Learning and Child Well-being Study. Associations between family reading activities and children's early learning.
- RepetitionHorst, Parsons and Bryan, 2011. Experiment with 16 three-year-olds examining learning and remembering new word meanings.
- Personalised storiesKucirkova, Messer and Sheehy, 2014. Experiment with 18 preschoolers comparing word learning in personalised and non-personalised book sections.
- Shared-reading guidanceAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, 2024.
- Beginning-reading instructionInstitute of Education Sciences, 2016, revised 2019.