Logical Literacy for New Readers

Curious about how the Jolly Phonics program compares to other literacy apps? Read more app reviews at phonics.org and find the best literacy app for your child. 

What is Jolly Phonics?

Chris Jolly founded Jolly Phonics to help children learn to read. The app is intended for learners ages four and older with the guidance of literate adults. The program has been adopted in over 80 countries worldwide! 

The Jolly Phonics app emphasizes literacy instruction in the areas of:

• Letter Names
• Letter Sounds
• Letter Formation
• Phonemic Awareness (phoneme isolation, blending, and segmenting)
• Decoding (word-reading)
• Encoding (spelling)

This specific app is not a comprehensive literacy program but does offer quality instruction of word reading for early readers. Read on to learn more details about this literacy app. 

Is the Jolly Phonics App Easy to Use?

Jolly Phonics is generally well-organized and easy to use. In this section, let’s explore the app’s usability in detail. 

Navigation and Organization

The Jolly Phonics app is well-organized and easy to navigate. The app organizes content into categories:

• Home (literacy lessons)
• Games 
• Songs
• Assessments

While it’s generally easy for children and adults to find their way around the app, it is advisable to make sure songs are paused or stopped before navigating away from the ‘Songs’ category. This is because songs will continue in the background and overlap and interfere with other games and lessons. 

Children should use the app under adult supervision to ensure they practice the appropriate content, as navigating to more challenging areas independently could lead to frustration. 

Game Settings

The Jolly Phonics app has multiple adjustable settings. Users can select between British English and American English accents, as well as choose a preferred font.

There is a setting in ‘Games’ that can be played using ‘Select Sounds.’ This is a potentially great feature as the grown-up could set the app up to hone in on specific letters or sounds that a child needs to practice. Additionally, the guiding adult could align the games in the app to the order of letter sounds they are learning at school. Unfortunately, this setting only works for some of the games. However, the Segmenting and Reading games do not seem to consistently abide by these selections.  

Phonics Screening Assessment

The Jolly Phonics app incorporates the Phonics Screening Check—a standardized assessment by the UK Government—which includes real and nonwords for children to read in isolation. Users can easily administer the test and record results within the app. This assessment provides an accurate way to evaluate word-reading skills, as it includes nonwords to gauge phonetic decoding abilities rather than just counting which common words a child has memorized.  

For those new to phonics teaching, the assessment may not offer clear starting recommendations. However, the screener is helpful for pre-learning and progress tracking. 

Engagement in the Jolly Phonics App

The following factors influence player engagement in the Jolly Phonics app. 

Rewards

In the Jolly Phonics app, rewards are provided through positive verbal reinforcement within the games. Unlike many other apps, there are no collections of items or external rewards. This approach encourages intrinsic motivation where the reward is inherent in the learning process itself, enhancing focus and engagement without distractions.

Gameplay

Seven games are available in the Jolly Phonics app. These games are designed to be very easy and straightforward for young players. Clear, repeatable instructions accompany each game. The lessons are logically structured and consistent, which helps learners anticipate what to expect, although this predictability may become a little boring over time.

Stories and Songs

There are several aspects of the Jolly phonics lessons that are designed to improve retention of key concepts and engage young learners:

• Story: a short story to illustrate the letter sound in the lesson
• Action: a physical cue connected to the letter sound
• Song: a short jingle to reinforce the letter sound

These lesson elements incorporate music, physical movement, and the imagination of new readers. All of these components are engaging and fun for younger children.  

Literacy Learning With Jolly Phonics

The Jolly Phonics app provides literacy instruction that follows many recommendations backed by research. 

Consistent and Sequential Lesson Structure

The lessons in the Jolly Phonics app follow a structured format consisting of 9 steps:

1. Review previously learned letter-sounds

2. Story (comprehension)

3. Action (practice)

4. Flashcard (new letter-sound association)

5. Formation (printing)

6. Blending (putting sounds together to read new words)

7. Sounding (identifying new sounds in words)

8. Writing (spelling)

9. Song (singing and nursery rhymes)

The content in these lessons is valuable to learn and in a logical order. This consistency over all of the lessons makes it easier for adults to guide their new readers and for the learner to know what to expect and follow along appropriately. 

It is widely recommended that phonics skills be taught sequentially, in a pre-planned logical sequence. Jolly Phonics does a great job of having a clear and logical order of phonics skills that are clearly shared with educators and parents. 

Letter Recognition 

Teaching new readers letters and their associated sounds is a crucial objective of the Jolly Phonics app. The app provides accurate, clear, and consistent instruction. While effective in teaching letter sounds, some songs include words that may seem unusual to young learners, such as <C> for ‘castanet’.

The letter formation practice in the app is also clear and easy to play. Children are shown how to create a letter and then practice the proper formation with their fingers on the app. It is logical to include letter formation practice with letter names and sound learning and is a great addition to the app. 

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness skills such as phoneme isolation, blending, and segmenting are fundamental for literacy development. Phoneme blending helps children decode words while segmenting assists in spelling them. The Jolly Phonics app integrates these skills into its lessons and games. 

Is Jolly Phonics Helpful for New Readers?

Short answer: Yes! Jolly Phonics offers easy navigation and well-organized lessons for students. While occasional app navigation glitches exist, they can be managed. The app also allows for customization based on the child’s accent, learning needs, and pace.

The app is also relatively engaging for younger children. Instead of distracting rewards and prizes, the app focuses on engaging details like physical actions and jingles. While the seven games are initially appealing, they may become repetitive over time. Also, a participating literate adult is necessary for a child to use this app to learn to read. 

Finally, Jolly Phonics incorporates essential components of literacy programs, including sequential, synthetic phonics, letter learning, and phonemic awareness skills. However, it currently lacks practice with reading phrases or sentences for fluency and comprehension development. Jolly Phonics would be a good app to pair with a comprehensive literacy program.

Compare other phonics reviews at Phonics.org, where literacy experts share their honest opinions and ratings of some of the latest literacy apps on the market today. 

Jolly Phonics: Overall Ratings

Quality of Literacy Instruction: 4 / 5

Usability:  4 / 5

Engagement:  4.5 / 5