Amazon's Kids Plus service has a new feature called Reading Sidekick. It is available on Echo smart speakers and Fire tablets. The Reading Sidekick is designed to improve children's reading skills. It allows them to read digital or physical books with Alexa, and they can also take turns reading aloud the books with the digital assistant. The Reading Assistant is part of the Kids Plus service, which comes with Echo speakers and Fire tablets for Kids. It is also available as a $2.99 per monthly or $69 per annum subscription plan. Available from June 29th.The Reading Sidekick is compatible with all Alexa-enabled devices including the Echo, Echo Dot Kids and Echo Plus. After the Amazon Kids mode has been enabled on the smart speaker, smart display or through the Alexa smartphone application, a child can say Alexa "Let's read" to activate the Reading Sidekick. The child will be asked to select a book on the Fire tablet or in Kids Plus on another device. They can choose to read a lot or a little or take turns. After that, they can start reading the book. Amazon claims that there are over 700 books in the system, and more will be added each week.Alexa can automatically help with pronunciations and other difficulties when a child is reading a book. Alexa will encourage children with phrases such as "good job!" when they finish a book or get through a difficult section. The read a little mode will read the majority of the book, while the child is expected to follow the story and then only read one or two pages. The read a lot mode will require the child to read four pages at a time, while Alexa reads one page after the other. The take turns mode allows for the alternation of reading one page or paragraph between Alexa and the child.The Sidekick does not follow up with comprehension questions to determine how much the child understood or retained from the book. This is not a quiz or test component. It's better to view this as edutainment and not a replacement for a learning curriculum.The Reading Sidekick can be used with Alexa smart speakers or smart displays. However, it will not display the text of a book on smart displays screens and instead uses that screen for book recommendations. Alexa can make recommendations for basic Echo speakers, so it is not necessary to use the Reading Sidekick without a screen. The Kids Plus web dashboard allows parents to view the books that their children have been reading.Amazon also announced that it will be rolling out Alexa Voice Profiles to Kids this week. The Echo will be able to recognize the voice and personalize the experience for a child, which is useful when more than one child uses the Echo. If Alexa recognizes the voice of a child speaking to an Echo without Kids mode enabled, the Echo will automatically switch to Kids mode. It will provide appropriate answers, filter explicit music and limit calls and messages to authorized contacts. The Alexa app will allow parents to create up to four voice profiles for their children.Marissa Mierow from Amazon's learning and education department stated that the Reading Sidekick was designed to help children develop fluency and a love for reading. Amazon created it because reading skills are closely linked to academic success and social life.According to the company, it took almost a year for this feature to be built. This was due to Alexa's patience and ability to recognize when children are sounding out difficult words and to understand their pronunciations. Mierow said that the company formed an advisory council made up of science researchers, teachers, and curriculum specialists to guide the service's development. The company is releasing the feature in the hope it will reduce the summer slide in reading ability caused by kids being away from school for six to 8 weeks between grades.Mierow states that the Reading Sidekick's sweet spot range is between six and nine years old. This is because the child must be able to read in order to follow Alexa through the various modes. The majority of books in the library are for beginning readers. However, there are some books that are more challenging for those who are older and want to use the service.Before today's announcement, I was able to test the Reading Sidekick out with my 6-year-old son. On both the standard Echo Dot with Kids Mode enabled and the newly released Echo Show 5 Kids Edition, we were able test read digital and physical books with Alexa.Our experience has shown that a Fire HD Kids tablet or the Kids Plus app on an iPad, iPhone, or similar device is the best setup for Reading Sidekick. A Echo speaker with audio only is also a good choice. Although the Reading Sidekick can be used with physical books, my child struggled to keep up with Alexa reading. Turning the page requires more dexterity than simply swiping the screen, as they have to use their fingers to swipe the screen. The tablet can also access all the compatible books, while it may not be possible to access your home library. Amazon will only highlight books that are compatible with the Reading Sidekick in its online store.The Reading Sidekick app on the Echo Show would often quit to the homescreen, displaying a weather or a clock, while Alexa was still reading to my child. They found this confusing as they would stop reading when the screen changed. The screen's recommendations are duplicated from the tablet's, making it difficult to read. However, the Echo speaker only made the experience much better. It works best when Alexa can hear the voice of a child.Alexa stopped listening to the book while she was reading on her two devices. We had to restart the process from scratch. Although we were able pick up where our previous efforts had led us, it was a tedious process that my child would not have been able understand without me. Amazon claims that this was not something it noticed during beta testing of Reading Sidekick. However, it is possible that the company has expanded the availability of the feature from the preview I was in to the wider Echo owner population.My child was able to navigate difficult sections with the Sidekick automatically. It also corrected pronunciations for a few wordsThe Sidekick worked as expected and helped my child to read sections that were difficult. It also corrected some of their strange pronunciations. The Sidekick also gave them a reward for finishing a book and a message of encouragement. After we had finished testing the feature, my child wanted to play with apps and games on Fire tablet and he didn't want to read any more books.You should be aware that your child may not be able to read the robot's commands. Privacy is a concern, but if you have an Echo speaker already in your home, it isn't that different.Perhaps the bigger concern is that Alexa, the Reading Sidekick takes the place of a parent/teacher in teaching reading. Many parents treasure the time they spend teaching their children how to read. They see it as a bonding and developmental activity.Many parents want their children to read more, but they don't have the time or the resources to do so due to modern life. It might appeal to parents to allow their child to practice reading with Alexa, in addition to any family reading. Alexa will never tire of the same book, unlike a parent.Parents will need to address their concerns about privacy and the Amazon-powered robot that is teaching their child. However, they'll also have to consider the fairly high hardware requirements. The service requires at minimum one Amazon device, as well as a subscription to Kids Plus. This service works best if you have an Echo speaker and a Fire HD tablet or another tablet with Kids Plus. That will double the number of devices that you need to purchase or already own in order to get the best out of it.Amazon is constantly looking for ways to make Alexa and artificial intelligence more useful in our lives. The Reading Sidekick is one example of this. It is unlikely that it will be the last educational tool Alexa gives: many children already use the virtual assistant for simple math and trivia questions. It is not unreasonable to speculate that Alexa's education and learning team may be heading next.
