Hooked on Phonics, established in 1987, emerged as a renowned educational program designed to enhance early reading skills in children. Initially introduced as a set of books and cassette tapes, the program gained widespread popularity for its systematic approach to teaching phonics. This popularity came during the peak of ‘balanced literacy’ instruction which was taking a very different pedagogical stance. 

Over the years, Hooked on Phonics evolved with advancements in technology, transitioning into interactive software and digital platforms. Currently, their ‘blended approach’ incorporates physical materials such as books that coincide with the programming in the app. 

Hooked on Phonics continues to be a resource for parents and educators seeking effective tools to support literacy development in children. This review focuses on the literacy approach in the Hooked on Phonics app. Learn all about it below!

Organization and Navigation of the App

The Hooked on Phonics app is thoughtfully organized into four distinct categories, catering to various learning needs:

1. Pre-Reader: This section lays the foundation with alphabet and letter-sound instruction, ensuring a solid start for beginners. 
2. Learn to Read: This category progresses students to learn blending letters and sounds to read words. 
3. Hooked on Spelling: This section is dedicated to spelling and writing words.
4. Hooked on Math: The math section helps kids explore a robust math curriculum alongside their phonics instruction. 

The user experience of the Hooked on Phonics sections is enhanced by easy sign-up and navigation processes, allowing parents and children to navigate the app effortlessly. 

A notable feature is the app’s commitment to maintaining a systematic learning path. This is a beneficial approach as it allows children to gradually build upon necessary skills in a step-by-step manner. 

Users can revisit and reinforce concepts by repeating games, rewatching fun alphabet letter videos, and rereading books within the app. Games and concepts can also be skipped if your child already has mastery of a concept, ensuring that children are having just the right amount of challenge in their reading practice. 

Instructions & Gameplay

The Hooked on Phonics app excels in providing clear and repeatable instructions, catering to children with language or memory concerns. A notable feature is the ability for children to easily turn off background music, enhancing customization to individual preferences and reducing distractions in the game. The games within the app are designed for simplicity, ensuring ease of play for young learners. 

Risk of Passive Participation

Many of the games in the app are somewhat passive. Children primarily click on items to check receptive skills without much emphasis on expressive skills. 

For example, children are asked to click on the word ‘pig’ next to other words like ‘wig’ and ‘rig,’ but aren’t asked to read the word frequently. In this instance, a child can look at the first letter and choose the right answer without looking at the entire word or reading anything. 

Because of the app’s enablement of passive participation, It’s recommended that parents or adults actively monitor the child’s engagement, encouraging them to make sounds or read words aloud to foster more active participation and reinforce expressive skills during the learning process.

Letter-Sound Practice

The Hooked on Phonics app places a strong emphasis on letter-sound instruction, recognizing the pivotal role of letter-sounds in early literacy development. Limited to American English pronunciation, the app introduces letter sounds in a structured and systematic manner, prioritizing the most common sounds to establish a solid foundation for young learners. 

One notable strength is the avoidance of adding schwa or extra sounds to the letter sounds. However, some users have reported challenges in deciphering certain letter sounds, such as the sound of the letters <f> and <v>, which could benefit from clearer articulation. 

Despite these occasional challenges, the app incorporates engaging and adorable letter videos that contribute to a fun and interactive learning experience. People of a certain age may still remember the old commercials for Hooked on Phonics because they know how to create a jingle that sticks! 

These videos not only aid in learning letter sounds but also foster phonemic awareness, contributing to a well-rounded approach to letter-sound instruction.

Reading Words

After letter-sound correspondences are established, Hooked on Phonics uses “word families” to teach word reading. Word families use common rhymes to teach reading. For example, ‘rat’, ‘cat’, and ‘sat’ are all part of the ‘-at’ family. This type of analogy phonics has been shown to help children learn to read words. 

However, more current research has compared the effectiveness of analogy and synthetic phonics and has found synthetic phonics to have a greater impact on reading and spelling ability. 

Synthetic phonics blends individual letters and sounds together to read words. While any phonics instruction is beneficial, incorporating more emphasis on modeling and practicing individual phoneme blending could enhance the program’s efficacy.

Reading Books

Some lesson sequences in Hooked on Phonics end with the reading of a book. The Hooked on Phonics app uses decodable books, which means that the words a child reads align with the words they have been taught how to read. 

Many of the books in this app are highly decodable which supports early readers in solidifying phonics knowledge in continuous texts. Any irregular words in the text are introduced and practiced before the child reads the book, which is another positive scaffold to help new readers. Additionally, these books can be revisited in the in-app library for repeated practice at any time. 

The books within the Hooked on Phonics app could benefit from the addition of comprehension questions to ensure the child has understood the sentences and stories they have decoded. This is something parents could do with their children after reading a book together. 

Spelling

Spelling instruction begins with a short video with direct and explicit instruction and explanations of the skill the child will then practice. This is a strength of the Hooked on Phonics app as both children and adults can quickly learn key spelling concepts in a short amount of time. 

In the app, early spelling instruction largely focuses on a ‘word family’ approach. Initially, children are asked to sort words they hear into word families. For example, does the word ‘rap’ fit in with the ‘-an’ family or the ‘-ap’ family? The full sample word is already spelled in the game, which leaves room for children to play this spelling game without paying attention to sounds in the words. That is not ideal.

The next spelling activity has children sort word families and letters into separate boxes to ‘unscramble’ a word. This activity resembles the common practice of Elkonin boxes, however, these boxes should represent individual sounds, not word families. 

Similarly, consonant blends like ‘sl-’ or ‘dr-’ are placed in the same box instead of two separate boxes, one for each sound. The spelling activities could be improved by using individual letter sounds more often to spell (synthetic phonics). 

Evidence & Research

Some versions of Hooked on Phonics have been around for 37 years. Surprisingly, there are no studies evaluating its effectiveness. 

What Works Clearinghouse evaluates high-quality scientific evidence supporting different educational methods and approaches. Regarding this phonics app, WWC states they are “unable to draw any research-based conclusions about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of Hooked on Phonics.”

As the educational landscape evolves, it would be beneficial for Hooked on Phonics to incorporate contemporary research findings into its materials and reference more recent studies to back up its effectiveness.

Unsubstantiated Advertising Claims

That said, the history of Hooked on Phonics involves notable scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1994, which demanded that the program’s manufacturer either discontinue its advertising campaign or conduct more extensive research into the program’s effectiveness, while also disclosing any evidence of failure. However, 30 years later, it appears that this demand has not been fully addressed. 

Despite this history, Hooked on Phonics continues to assert its bold claim with the current motto: “Your Child Will Read, Guaranteed.” It’s important for consumers to critically evaluate such claims and be aware of the ongoing need for transparency and up-to-date research to support the efficacy of educational programs. No app can claim to teach every child to read. 

Is the Hooked on Phonics App Worth It?

The Hooked on Phonics app offers a user-friendly and enjoyable experience that is likely to aid children in learning to read. The app’s ease of use, engaging content, and cute features contribute positively to the learning process for both children and adults. The decodable books in this app are simple and clear, supporting new readers in their practice. 

However, the literacy instruction in the app could benefit from updates. The type of phonics instruction, expressive engagement from learners, and a reassessment of the program’s claims could use more attention. 

While the Hooked on Phonics app remains a popular choice for parents and educators, an ongoing commitment to evidence-based practices and transparency in advertising claims could further enhance its effectiveness and reputation in literacy education.
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Hooked on Phonics Ratings

Overall rating: 3.5 stars

Quality of Literacy Instruction: 3.5 out of 5

Usability: 4 out of 5

Engagement: 3 out of 5