Play Connect Learn
Providing digital content in a child’s mother tongue to improve reading skills.
The Annual Status of Education Report, 2017, indicates that almost 42.5% children in Grade 3 cannot read a Grade 1 level text . In Maharashtra, 92% children in Grade 1 and 81% in Grade 2 read below grade level. These numbers tell us that while children may be going to school, they are not learning.
Evidence suggests that reading in the mother tongue in the early years helps children build a stronger learning foundation. Multiple studies have also demonstrated the positive impact of using digital technology to promote learning. With the “Play.Connect.Learn” project we set out to demonstrate that providing children well-researched, culturally-relevant content in their mother tongue on a digital device can improve their reading skills. We developed an innovative self-paced, learning application, loaded with stories and games and provided it to children at home to promote early reading proficiency. The app was also used as a supplementary teaching tool in schools.
Madhukar Sanone from Jalgaon shares, “My 7-year-old grandson, Samarth, has a learning disability. Due to the disability, he wasn’t able to concentrate in class and would often run back home. The mobile application helped him connect with the characters Chamki and Googly and understand lessons being taught in school. It gave him the confidence to fit into school. He can now recognize and read words.”
Sangli, Kolhapur, Amravati, Buldhana, Chandrapur, and Yavatmal districts of Maharashtra.
The program reached over 12,000 children in Maharashtra.
Children from the intervention group had significantly higher scores than the comparison group in 4 of the 6 indicators - letter name identification, syllable identification, familiar word reading and oral reading fluency.
Boys from the intervention group had significantly higher scores than control in 4 of the 6 indicators – letter name identification, syllable identification, familiar word reading and oral reading fluency.
Girls from the intervention group had significantly higher scores than control in 4 of the 6 indicators – letter name identification and syllable identification.
Analysis showed an average Cohen’s D effect size of 0.2 SD across the 4 indicators with significant improvement.
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