An icon for the word
A clear picture carries the meaning before any reading is required, which is often where a struggling reader gets stuck.
Language · Urdu vocabulary
SparkEd
Urdu vocabulary built from the words a child already lives with.
Everyday words are grouped into collections, and each one carries an icon plus English and Urdu voice and text. Three ways into the same word, so a child can find the one that works and build recall on their own.
3 ways
Icon, text and voice for every word
2 languages
English and Urdu, side by side
Collections
Words grouped by everyday context
Android
On Google Play, iOS in development
What is SparkEd?
A word is easier to keep when you meet it three ways.
SparkEd teaches Urdu vocabulary through collections of everyday words. Each word appears as an icon, as written text in English and Urdu, and as spoken audio in both — so a child who cannot yet decode the script still has a route in through the picture and the sound.
That matters for children with learning difficulties, for children learning Urdu as a second language, and for any child building early vocabulary. The app is designed to be used alone, at whatever pace the child sets.
SparkEd builds vocabulary. It is not a screening or diagnostic tool — for that, see EAST and our dyslexia research.
How it works
Every word, three ways in.
Picture, text and sound arrive together on the same card. A child leans on whichever one they can read today, and the other two follow.
Written in both languages
English and Urdu text sit together on the card, so a child links what they already know to what they are learning.
Spoken aloud, twice
Voice in English and Urdu gives pronunciation and a second route to recall for children who learn by ear.
Collections
Words grouped the way a child meets them.
Vocabulary is organised into collections of everyday words rather than alphabetical lists, so a child learns a set that belongs together — the things in a kitchen, the animals in a story, the words used getting ready for school.
Working through a collection gives a finishing point, which is what makes a child come back for the next one.
At home
Rooms, objects and routines a child sees daily.
Food and drink
Meals, ingredients and the words around a table.
Animals
The creatures children name first, and name often.
School
Classroom objects and the language of the day.
Inside the app
What a child sees.
Choose a collection, work through the cards, practise what was learned, and finish the set.
Who it is for
Three children, one app.
SparkEd was built for children who find written Urdu hard to hold on to. That turns out to be a wider group than it first appears.
01
Children with learning difficultiesMultiple routes to the same word mean a child is not blocked by the one channel they struggle with.
02
Second-language learnersChildren who speak English at home and meet Urdu at school get both languages on every card.
03
Early readersAny child building first vocabulary, working at whatever pace they set for themselves.
Common questions.
Other products
Autism screeningEASTA cost-effective tool for assessing autism at an early age, typically at preschool.Dyslexia remediationRawaanThe first Urdu-based remedial therapy tool for dyslexia, delivered as a game.For practitionersPMSPractice management for therapists and clinics: scheduling, records and timelines.