Immersion Reading for Kindle? - Reader Q&A at Cool Mom Tech

Wednesday 10 October

Immersion Reading for Kindle? - Reader Q&A

As a mom of a child with a learning disability in reading, technology has been a huge help. But most of the reading apps out there are geared toward young children who are learning to read, not 9 year olds. I just stumbled across the Whispersync and Immersion Reading from Kindle and I need to know more about it. Thanks! Courtney

This is a great question, Courtney. Both of these technologies are exciting developments for the Kindle, and we think one of them especially will be of great help to your daughter.

While you may find that both Whispersync and Immersion Reading have features that could be of interest to your daughter---or anyone who loves both audio and text books---they are pretty different technologies. Whispersync allows a person to go from audio to text seamlessly by synchronizing your content across your devices, which is very attractive to someone who listens to an audio book while in the car but then turns to the Kindle to read at bedtime.

For your needs, though, I think Immersion Reading for the Kindle will be more useful. Not only does it let her hear the story with Audible.com's high-quality narration, but the text will be highlighted in sync with the audio. This allows her to still read along, but minimizes the chance of losing her place if she gets momentarily distracted.

It's important to note that you'll need a Kindle Fire in order to use the Immersion Reading. And while I've read some false claims that in order to get both audio and visual books, you'd have to buy both at full price, this actually is not the case. If you go to Audible.com with your Kindle Fire, you'll see that you can add Immersion Reading to the purchase of enabled audio book for only a few dollars more. Phew!

I'm also pleased to see so many titles for kids like the Percy Jackson Series, Holes, and 39 Clues, with other Immersion Reading-enabled children's titles listed at Audible.com. Hopefully, they'll be adding more soon. But with over 800 titles, this should keep even the biggest story-lover busy for a good long time. -Christina

Visit Audible.com for more information on Immersion Reading for the Kindle Fire, as well as to see a helpful video about the technology.

Find More: Ask Cool Mom Tech, E-Readers, Educational!, Tweens + Big Kids

1 Comment

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Penny | February 7, 2013 9:48 AM | Reply

My son also has learning disabilities. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard of Immersion Reading for Kindle when we bought him a Google Nexus for Christmas instead of Kindle Fire. {sigh} We downloaded the Blio app and purchased a few books that read allowed and hightlight text in sync but there are very few books he's interested in and their search function is not good -- we mistakenly bought a book that doesn't read allowed because the description said it did.

So, I think this question is going to be silly, but can you get the app for the Nexus 7 (Android as well) and purchase the books from amazon and get immersion reading on the Nexus?

We cannot purchase another tablet at this point.

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