Photo Play (for Families)

Critical pre-literacy skills are developed long before elementary school — through play and interactive conversations with caregivers at home. Free early-literacy apps from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) are made for parents and caregivers to use with their children to encourage fun and rewarding interactions and promote dialogue — giving children the foundations they need to read, learn, and thrive.

Welcome to Photo Play — a fun and creative way to get families talking! Just by talking with your little one — and helping them talk with you — you can get them ready to read and ready to learn about the world. This app is specially designed for you and your child to use together, talking and laughing about everyday objects and interactions as you play. In Photo Play, you’ll use your own family photographs and memories to develop conversations and early literacy skills with your children. Choose a photo and have fun drawing on it, decorating it with stickers, playing hide and seek with it, and talking about people and events you see in the image. Photo Play can help you build your child's language skills even when you've put the app down, during everyday activities like going shopping, running errands, or walking to the playground. Photo Play will give you plenty to talk about all day!

Photo Play is a product of the Reach Every Reader initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in collaboration with FableVision Studios. Check out HGSE’s related apps, Small Wonders and Animal Antics — equally fun, and equally ready to spark conversation and lay the foundations for reading!

To learn more, and for information about privacy and updates, visit http://hgse.me/apps.