Thursday, 6 July 2023, Letterprins announces it has passed the 10,000-user mark. The latest version of the educational game was officially launched by Princess Laurentien last autumn. In eight months the game has managed to motivate 10.0000 children and their parents to start reading more and (re)discover the pleasure of reading. Among other things, insights from scientists show that many children continue to play the game almost daily once they have started and reach a higher level as they play.
Esther Steenbeek, one of the developers of Letterprins and a psycholinguist at Radboud University and the Donders Institute, says: "It's great to reach the milestone of 10,000 users already within a year of launching Letterprins. The game is designed for children in group 3 and with the summer holidays approaching, these children can continue to practice reading and children entering group 3 can already prepare in a fun way. The game is also designed for families in which dyslexia is prevalent. It is very important that children at risk of reading difficulties experience immediate success when learning to read and that they say to themselves, 'I can do this, I am good at this'."
"In addition, we hear back from parents that playing the game makes children want to visit the library. This is also one of our goals. The first results exceeded our wildest expectations. For the whole team, it is a dream come true: children are having fun learning to read and thus making the necessary reading miles. We will continue to develop the game to motivate even more children and their parents to read."
Insights from science
The game not only lets children discover the joy of reading, but also leads to valuable insights for science. These insights are collected by the Radboud University, the Donders Institute, the Behavioural Science Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and from this it shows:
- There is an established user group of over 5,000 children who play the game regularly (every day or every other day on average) for 3 to 7 months. It hardly ever happens that they stop playing the game for a few days or a week. If they do, they quickly pick up their old rhythm again.
- Players who play the game almost daily actually continue to play it once they have started.
- As children get better at Letterprins, they can complete tasks that become increasingly challenging. Thus, they progress step by step. In the exercises, children work on fluent word recognition, meaning and comprehension: the basic elements needed to read well.
- Data show that a group of almost 1,500 children play the game extremely devotedly. They play several exercises every day, and their performance increased significantly in all four categories into which the tasks are divided. Thus, they achieve higher-level tasks and the difficulty level also goes up.
Scientific study by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Parents can participate with their child in scientific research by the Max Planck Institute. This study collects DNA from children who use the Letterprins app to practise reading, who learn to read at their own pace and in their own way. By collecting DNA, scientists can investigate how DNA factors collectively influence the pace and trajectory of learning and which processes in the brain are involved in learning to read. Read more more about the Max Planck Institute's research.
About the game
Letterprins is available for free and can be played at home. In the game, the Prince of Letters loses his letters in a colourful castle and players help him find them again. In each tower, they encounter exercises tailored to their reading level and the game also tracks what children can already do. They can also earn book tips that link to the children's library. This encourages children to discover the library and the richness of stories.
Want to know more about Letterprins? Go to www.letterprins.nl.