Finally, a reading app made for kids with dyslexia.
Scripted phonics lessons you run at home in 20 minutes a day. No teaching background needed.
What Ode is
Ode gives you five short activities a day, based on research, with the repetition your reader actually needs. You don't have to be a reading teacher.
Five activities. Twenty minutes. The same every day.
Predictability is the point. Your reader always knows what comes next, so all of their effort goes into the sounds and none of it goes into figuring out the app. Every activity revisits what came before it.
Word builder warm up
Cumulative review at the sound and word level.
Lesson
A new phonics skill, taught explicitly, with engaging activities & the script read to you.
Spelling game
Build fluency by connecting the words to their spelling.
Matching game
A board game for the two of you. This is the repetition, in disguise.
Decodable stories
Stories your reader can actually read, using only the phonics skills they know.
ALL FIVE TAKES ABOUT 20 MINUTES.
"He asked to do the matching game again. He has never once asked to do reading again."
What you do
Your job is to sit down. Ode does the teaching.
Open today.
Take the placement assessment or start from the beginning. There is nothing to plan, print, or choose.
Follow the prompts and cheer your child on.
Every word you need to say is written for you, including how to correct a miss without deflating anyone.
Stop when the five activities are complete.
The skill check is available any time you want to assess progress or see if your child is ready to move on to the next step.
"It's at my daughter's level and pace, so she doesn't get frustrated or overwhelmed."
kids has characteristics of dyslexia. Almost none of them are taught the way the reading research says to teach them.
Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity
The research behind it
Nothing here is a hunch.
Dyslexia research has been available for decades. The gap is delivery: most kids never get the explicit, sequential, heavily repeated instruction the studies describe. Ode is that instruction, in a form a parent can run at the kitchen table.
Explicit and systematic
Sounds are taught one at a time, in a fixed order, at the child's level and pace. This is the core finding of structured literacy.
National Reading Panel, 2000
Repetition, on purpose
Dyslexic readers need far more exposures to a pattern before it holds. Ode builds in those exposures until the skill is automatic.
Orton-Gillingham approach
Multisensory practice
Seeing, saying, and moving a sound at the same time builds a stronger trace than reading alone. Hence the tiles and the board.
International Dyslexia Association
“This was the easiest part of the day.”
LENNIE, PARENT OF A 5TH GRADER
How Ode compares
Every other program asks the child to keep up. Ode keeps up with the child.
"Nothing about it feels like a baby app. That is the only reason my daughter will touch it."
For parents
Dramatically simple.
Designed for parents to use at home. Low cognitive load, with all materials and guidance provided. Ode takes your child through the phonics sequence so your child’s reading progresses from learning, to accurate, to fluent.
Learning
A new sound is taught explicitly, with the script written for you.
Accurate
Your child starts reading the words correctly, with effort.
Fluent
They read it automatically, and Ode moves them to the next step.
What parents run into
Where other solutions fall short.
"Hiring a tutor for your dyslexic child is great but they really need ongoing help for years."
AI listening tools that don’t work
You listen to your child so they are not misheard.
Screen-only practice
Dyslexic learners need hands-on, multisensory work, so Ode adds tiles, a board game, and stories.
Words without meaning
Orthographic mapping requires vocabulary knowledge, so words come with pictures and meaning.
Not enough repetitions
Ode schedules the extra exposures dyslexic learners need.
Not responsive to how the child is doing
Ode tracks what stuck and brings back what didn’t.
Phoneme awareness left out
Phoneme awareness is part of every lesson.
The real cost of tutoring
Most dyslexic kids need a reading tutor for years.
per year, plus the drive in one long hour per week instead of short daily practice. More if it's twice per week.
per year, for every child in your house. Twenty manageable minutes a day, at home, whenever your reader is ready.
Have you ever thought you can do what the tutor does yourself?
Why I built Ode
I spent years searching for the solution that would help my daughter read. And then I built it myself.
I read the research, took the training, and built the sequence myself, because the tutoring waitlist was eleven months long and everything I could download was either for kindergarteners or for teachers with a classroom.
Ode is that sequence, finished, so the next parent doesn't have to build it. It is not a game with reading bolted on, and it is not a worksheet factory. It is the twenty minutes that worked, every day, in order.
KATE, FOUNDER OF ODE
Questions parents ask.
My child hasn't been formally diagnosed with dyslexia. Is Ode still right?
Yes. Structured phonics is the recommended approach for every struggling reader, and it is the only approach that reliably works for dyslexic ones. You do not need a diagnosis to start, and nothing in Ode assumes one.
Do I need to know how to teach reading?
No. Every prompt is scripted, including the corrections. If you can read the sentence on the screen out loud, you can run the lesson.
Is this a replacement for tutoring or school services?
Ode is daily practice, and daily practice is what most plans are missing. Families use it alongside a tutor, on a tutoring waitlist, or on its own. Keep your IEP meetings.
Will my 5th grader think it's babyish?
Ode is built for 2nd through 5th grade. No cartoon mascots, no confetti, no baby talk. The stories are written to be worth reading at that age even though the words are simple.
How much screen time is this?
Less than you'd think. The app holds the sequence and the prompts; the tiles, the board game, and the stories happen between the two of you. Nothing rewards staying on longer.
What does it cost?
$49 a month, or $399 a year. One subscription covers every child in your house, and you can cancel in two clicks.
Start tonight.
- Every child in your house included.
- Today's lesson is ready as soon as you sign up.
- Cancel in two clicks, whenever you like.
Not ready yet?
Let's stay in touch.