RocketReader for Parents and Children


Students page Child reading

I started using Rocket Reader when my kids were little and I had to read to them. They are now reading, and with Rocket Reader's help, are reading a lot more than they would have otherwise. I am looking forward to the updates of version 8.

       (A Dean, MA)

Parents!

If you want to give your children a lasting competitive advantage that will improve their class ranking now and help them succeed in their careers later, RocketReader is the answer. Excellent reading skills form the foundation of school success, and are vital for virtually any of today's occupations.

Reading skills are the easiest to acquire during your children's young age - but does the ability to read come to a child naturally? Consider these important facts from National Institute of Child Health & Human Development:
  • only 5% of children learn to read effortlessly
  • 20% - 30% of children learn to read relatively easily once exposed to formal instruction
  • for the remaining 60% of children, learning to read represents a considerable challenge
  • for at least 20-30%, learning to read is one of the most difficult tasks they will encounter during their school years
  • 74% of the children who have reading problems in the 3rd grade, continue with the problems into the 9th grade!

It can also come as a surprise for many that poor reading skills is a problem that extends across socioeconomic groups. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress, approximately one-third of all poor performers in fourth grade have college-educated parents!

Fortunately, 90% to 95% of poor readers can greatly increase reading skills through prevention and early intervention programs. RocketReader helps children not only to catch up with the rest of the class, but to become excellent readers achieving their full reading potential.

Children are initially taught to read letter by letter, to vocalize each syllable, to form words and then build sentences. Children must change these habits and learn to read one or more words with a single fixation of the eye, or they will be SLOW READERS. Schools do not teach this next vital step. Contemporary education system is designed to teach children to read to an acceptable standard, but is not equipped to help them achieve their full reading potential. Because of this a huge number of adults read the slow way. If you move your lips when you are reading, or you vocalize each word as you read it, then your reading speed and comprehension is about 20% of what it can be.

RocketReader will train your children to read faster and more accurately. Children who learn to read quickly have great advantages when moving on to higher studies and when they join the workforce.

The Educational Value of RocketReader

Support reading with suitable texts, regular practice and comprehension checks. Explore practical reading habits and the reading research overview.

How RocketReader builds reading proficiency skills

Here is how RocketReader trains your children to be excellent readers:

  • RocketReader significantly increases reading speed by breaking what is termed the "sub-vocalization barrier". This barrier limits most readers to around 200 words per minute as the reader reads each word or each syllable with a single eye movement. The RocketReader technique changes the way that the eye and the brain work together to read sentences. This allows sentences to be scanned as a complete unit by the eye and the brain is taught to read each word from the mind's eye.
  • RocketReader is designed to improve reading, spelling, vocabulary and memory. The RocketReader flash-training exercises alone develop all of these areas. The child must read the flash text, remember it, and type it back into RocketReader. The child must visualize the spelling of more difficult words in order to score a correct point. This visualization and recall of the words improves spelling and vocabulary as attention and recall are the two foundations for effective learning.
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    Develop stronger word knowledge for more effective reading. Build the vocabulary to understand more at speed.

  • RocketReader has a Junior mode that has two levels: Easiest (60 practice readings for five- to eight-year olds) and Intermediate for older children (40,000 phrases & 3000 words & 60 levels). This represents a vast amount of content, much more than most educational programs that have a polished interface but limited content. This means that your children will easily find practice reading material that is interesting, educational and age-appropriate. This also means that your kids will not get bored with RocketReader as there is so much to learn and do.
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  • Sound and graphics make it fun for children. RocketReader reinforces progress by displaying pictures and playing sound when your child advances to higher levels. This reward creates a desire to learn more.
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  • RocketReader is suited to individual use as it stores the progress of each user in a separate file. However RocketReader can be used by a group of up to four children at any one time. The RocketReader flash trainings are especially suited to group situations. The flash trainings rapidly display randomly selected text of a certain length on the screen, and the group must then discuss what was displayed, and then type in the answer. The flash training exercises select this information from a huge database of hundreds of thousands of words and phrases. You never know what will be displayed next on the screen. The text is displayed for only a fraction of a second, and the length of the text increases gradually as the skills of the players improve. The flash training is very challenging for groups of children. It encourages discussion and debate about what was actually displayed. The text is quirky and interesting and usually results in much laughter.
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  • In classroom situations it has been found that child concentration levels are extremely high for the whole period. This is because RocketReader takes the child through a structured training program one step at a time, flash training, exercises, speed training, practice reading, memory testing and finally speed testing. Each part of the lesson is different and RocketReader can maintain the child's interest for 45 minutes non-stop. It also means that parents can either work with their children, or leave the child on their own to complete the lesson.
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    "My daughter has been using Rocket Reader for several months.  She is an eight grader and her reading went from 150 wpm to about 500. She can only practice from time to time while in school."
    (Russ Montello, California USA)
  • RocketReader has a special "Educational" category in the practice readings. This means that while your child practices his or her reading skills they will be learning positive education material such as "the environment", "poverty", "Hollywood movies", "homelessness", "computers in society", "racial discrimination", "dinosaurs" and "health and fitness".
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  • RocketReader allows you and your child to monitor progress. RocketReader has a keystroke counter that shows how many keys or button clicks have occurred during the lessons. This counter is displayed on the main RocketReader window and it allows you to check at any time to see how much real learning your child has done. RocketReader has graphs of your child's reading speed and their progress in the flash trainings. These graphs show you how your child is improving over time.
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  • RocketReader can also be used by parents. RocketReader has two main skill categories, Basic for children, and Advanced for adults. In the advanced levels more sophisticated English is used throughout the program. RocketReader is being used worldwide by parents, professionals and university students. One copy of RocketReader can be used by many different people (on the same computer) as RocketReader stores the progress and level information of each person under a profile name. When you start RocketReader you simply type in your profile name and you continue from where you left-off in the previous session.
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    Tell me more!

    RocketReader has a broad range of readings (over 500) each with a grade level and comprehension testing. RocketReader also has three methods of training that eliminate poor reading habits. Since RocketReader constantly adapts the skill level according to your child's progress your child will always be running RocketReader in the optimal zone of learning. This means that the level of difficulty will adjust up or down to ensure that the child is not making too many errors.

    Build the speed and understanding to handle more demanding material. Build reading speed and comprehension together.

    The challenge is set so that the child is trained with sufficiently difficult material. RocketReader develops reading speed, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, memory, keyboard skills and computer skills simultaneously. And it does so at the correct level of complexity for your child. It achieves this with a fun interface that incorporates activities, reading training, graphics, and sound. This proves to be a winning combination for kids, and is a combination that will maintain your child's interest over time.

    "He [my ten year old son] truly enjoyed the stories in your program. He read all of the children's stories at least once, many of them over and over, and he loved watching the speed start out at 100 wmp and increase over and over without him realizing it."
    L. Grubb (SC USA)

     

    Read what other users say about RocketReader

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