LWith the increase in use and availability of AI, many people are looking for ways to use AI in all sectors of their lives—and one of these areas is in helping kids with their reading. Bill Gates says that AI will soon be able to tutor children in literacy as well as any human can do. For parents wanting to help their kids become better readers, there are a few considerations from AI experts and learning specialists on how to make the technology work for you while still doing what’s best for your child’s learning.
How to use AI as a reading tool for kids
There are many ways your child could use AI to aid their academics. One would be to put a topic into a chatbot that your child is passionate about and say something like, “Write a short story about Roblox.” Using a topic your child enjoys can create an increased and hopefully intrinsic love of reading.
In order to level it correctly, put in keywords you want your child to be focusing on. Something like “write a story at a second-grade reading level” doesn’t seem to be specific enough. “When I analyzed the passages generated by ChatGPT, the vocabulary level was quite advanced, and the passage included words with upwards of five syllables that would be hard for most second graders to read with ease,” learning specialist Rebecca Mannis says. She says that, in order to make the most of these AI generated stories, “take turns alternating reading the paragraphs or use other features like text to speech to hear the excerpt. Better yet, read the piece to your child and put some of the new words on Post-its or a word wall to review at a later time.” Mannis suggests a simpler way to use AI in reading would be to “instruct ChatGPT to ‘Write me some riddles about space’ and are likely to get some fun ‘what am I’ brain teasers that are factual, fun, and within your child’s reading window.”
AI is also present in many educational games or apps and is adaptive to your child’s skills to create a comprehensive reading profile. The differentiated instruction possible with an AI teacher and the instant feedback can be a valuable asset to reading teachers and parents of struggling or emerging readers. Unlike traditional teaching methods, the variability with the content and type of teaching AI can produce increases accessibility and inclusivity for students who do not learn well via the old methods of teaching and who have diverse learning styles. Text to speech, adaptive teaching, and visual or audible aids can all increase engagement for struggling learners.
Keep in mind that sometimes, AI does not work
Gamifying reading seems like a good idea, but it isn’t always going to be the most effective way to increase your child’s reading proficiency. Research shows “no transfer of reading knowledge into real books for our struggling readers,” from the use of educational technology alone, according to Kathryn Starke, a literacy consultant, reading specialist, and author who spent the last six years researching AI and children’s speech recognition to teach children to read. Starke says she “watched young readers in K-2 struggle to learn to read through the screen without hands-on manipulatives, real books, and physical engagement and motivation from the teacher.” Starke concludes, “AI could help struggling students learn to read but it has to be in conjunction with strong, effective direct in-person instruction from the teacher.”
The quality of content is hard to discern right away, but that applies not only to technological resources. Mannis says, “There are some wonderful computer-based reading programs, and there are both terrific and highly ineffective print materials. It’s all about getting to know your kid, figuring out what works given his skills and interests, and especially working in tandem with trusted experts to ensure that it’s a developmentally appropriate, fun, and safe experience.” With seemingly infinite EdTech resources available, finding some trusted, well-reviewed programs is vital.
Plus, AI can sometimes make things up entirely. We call it “hallucinating,” and it occurs when AI generates a result it thinks is correct, but actually isn’t. There are a number of factors that can contribute to AI hallucination, but it is an issue to watch out for. If you use AI, make sure to double-check the results to prevent distortions or falsehoods from being treated as fact.
While much AI increases accessibility and inclusivity, many EdTech platforms are inaccessible to people due to cost, tech proficiency, or other barriers to success. Additionally, without guidance and redirection, AI may uphold existing bias in terms of material. Because AI is not creating completely new ideas, the creation of new ideas, concepts, or nuance is lacking when using AI-generated content.
Be vigilant about your child’s use
AI as a tool is a concept that is currently being reviewed and understood. There are both safety concerns for the user and ethical issues with the content that parents and kids should be aware of. From a safety standpoint, have conversations with your kids about what information is OK to share online, and be an active participant in their learning so you know what’s being said and shared.
Ethically, plagiarism is a concern for many when it comes to using AI educationally. It’s often difficult with AI to determine who owns intellectual property and what comes directly from a source vs. what is an interpretation of facts or quotes. The use of others’ intellectual property in generating AI content is not yet defined, but generally using something for one’s own at-home use would be OK. Selling or teaching with material created by AI using intellectual property copyrighted by another, such as using a story with characters from a movie, is likely copyright infringement, or will be found to be illegal soon, and is certainly unethical. Overall, Mannis says, “Tech is a tool, not an answer. It’s all about using it and finding ways to customize how you use it in that toolkit for the specific casual or learning context.”
So while from the outside, AI as a teaching tool seems like a solution to many educational problems, such as skill-building, access, and assessment, it requires constant revisiting by the creators, lawmakers, educators, and parents.
