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Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

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Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#21

Post by tomsayer »

danielscrubs wrote: post #18

Looks great! Are you looking to expand to other languages? When it comes to English is it strict enough? For example my countrymen say "J" without any force when speaking english which is something I wish for my son to not inherit but it has never led to any confusion.

We are actually adding another language soon! (for somewhat random reasons) - we hope eventually to expand much more.

And it really depends on how strict you want it - 'strict' is a bit subjective. What we cannot do yet, but want to, is put those controls in the hands of the caregiver.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#22

Post by tomsayer »

xwowsersx wrote: post #20

This is awesome. Congratulations on the launch. So happy to see that you are going with phonics instead of whole word or other methods. Phonics is absolutely the correct approach. As John McWhorter puts it[0]: "Scientific investigators of how children learn to read have proved repeatedly that phonics works better for more children." [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/opinion/kids-reading-spel...

Yup- It's a pretty settled debate now I think. There's a good podcast on it called 'Sold a story' that just came out. Thanks for the NYT link!

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#23

Post by xwowsersx »

tomsayer wrote: post #22
xwowsersx wrote: post #20

This is awesome. Congratulations on the launch. So happy to see that you are going with phonics instead of whole word or other methods. Phonics is absolutely the correct approach. As John McWhorter puts it[0]: "Scientific investigators of how children learn to read have proved repeatedly that phonics works better for more children." [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/opinion/kids-reading-spel...

Yup- It's a pretty settled debate now I think. There's a good podcast on it called 'Sold a story' that just came out. Thanks for the NYT link!

"Sold a Story" looks great, thanks for that. I will give the episodes a listen.

Regarding Ello, how does it adapt to a child's reading level? Say my child is in 2nd grade, but is reading at a 1st grade level. Will Ello learn that over time and choose/recommend books that are more appropriate for their level? Appreciate any color you can provide on how that works. Thanks.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#24

Post by nimz »

bayan1234 wrote: post #9

I would subscribe but your website doesn't have a clear demo video of a child using the product to read. It looks very interesting and useful though!

A "real" demo video was exactly what I was looking for as well. Since the concept is so novel, seeing the product in action would increase my trust, and willingness to buy significantly. My skeptical side made me wonder if demos with real children had been left out on purpose so it doesn't make the product look bad - probably not what you were going for.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#25

Post by nimz »

Congratulations on the launching to real users. I know how challenging that is and especially when your users are kids, I can imagine the pressure is much higher.

One piece of feedback on your use of the term AI. While adding the term "AI" to the description of /most/ products seems to increase their appeal, in products that are for children, to me, it reads like this product will be buggy at best and ends up decreasing the appeal. Words like researched, "smart", advanced, cutting-edge etc may be better suited. This is just one person's reaction, of course. I could be wrong--perhaps to non-engineers, reading "AI" on kids' products now has a more positive reaction.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#26

Post by danielscrubs »

tomsayer wrote: post #21
danielscrubs wrote: post #18

Looks great! Are you looking to expand to other languages? When it comes to English is it strict enough? For example my countrymen say "J" without any force when speaking english which is something I wish for my son to not inherit but it has never led to any confusion.

We are actually adding another language soon! (for somewhat random reasons) - we hope eventually to expand much more. And it really depends on how strict you want it - 'strict' is a bit subjective. What we cannot do yet, but want to, is put those controls in the hands of the caregiver.

I'd definitely subscribe if it can teach my kids the proper native accent (preferably posh British) because that's something I can't and it would really complement my own knowledge and that will really help my kids get a job in the future so it makes financial sense to subscribe.

This would also widen the target audience, my kid is one year and kids that age are already starting to categorise sounds.

Becoming a "poor reader" is something I think most parents on Hacker News aren't going to worry about. So my tip is that you might want to change the marketing material a bit. Also I'd like to have the current age range more front and center.

Good luck!

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#28

Post by danielscrubs »

carapace wrote: post #19

I don't want to rain on your parade. I really hope I'm wrong. But I see this as somehow profoundly, deeply dystopian. On the one hand, AI should be used to alleviate the economic and social conditions that prevent children from having attention and coaching from caring adults. On the other, raising children by robot seems sketchy to me (in ways that are difficult to articulate.) Like I said, I hope I'm wrong.

I think it's the opposite. I can't phantom that I would have learned programming at a young age if I didn't have a compiler telling me (with actionable steps, nowadays the search engine) that I'm wrong.

Teaching is a frustrating job where you have to make students repeat things over and over which makes students ashamed and the teachers bored, it's not like the movies where the students remember everything perfectly after a good explanation.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#29

Post by novia »

Just yesterday I learned about the learning disorder called hyperlexia[1], where a child appears to be a very advanced reader for their age, but in reality they are approaching reading as a problem to be solved rather than as a source of information. The child ends up with a superficial reading skill that's more advanced than their verbal language understanding skill.

I'd imagine a hyperlexic reader would sound very accurate to Ello. Do you have any way to test the child's understanding of what is being read instead of just checking for correct pronunciation of words to make sure the app doesn't create a generation of hyperlexics?

You've said you're not trying to replace the adult/child interactions involved with learning to read, but the cynic in me thinks that some parents or teachers will lean on the tool a little too hard.

[1] https://www.verywellfamily.com/hyperlexia-signs-diagnosis-an...

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