Worldreader's impact in Kenya
Exploring the Impact of Worldreader’s BookSmart App on Child Development: A Report from Kenya
Founded in 2010, Worldreader brings books to families via its mobile-first, low-bandwidth platform. Focused on children aged 0–5, the app offers multilingual books and pre/post-reading activities to support comprehension, social-emotional learning, and playful bonding between children and caregivers.
Worldreader’s goal is to build daily reading habits at home. Encouraging parents to read at least 25 unique books a year helps children develop early literacy, emotional, and digital skills, setting them up for school success.
To measure the impact of its product -the BookSmart app -, Worldreader partnered with the International Centre for EdTech Impact (ICEI; WiKIT) to study how families in Nairobi, Kenya engaged with BookSmart. The research looked at changes in children’s literacy and socio-emotional development over 22 weeks, with support from local research partner Laterite and academic quality assurance by Professors Sharon Wolf and Natalia Kucirkova.
Preliminary findings are promising. Children showed measurable gains in both literacy and socio-emotional skills. Time spent reading (and not just number of books read) was linked to literacy improvement, suggesting that depth of engagement matters.
Although family use of the app dipped slightly over time, parents reported high satisfaction with BookSmart. Erin Williams, Senior Strategic Operations Officer at Worldreader, emphasized the app’s design to fit naturally into family routines:
“We encourage caregivers to invest just 10 minutes a day in reading—replacing passive screen time with active bonding and learning.”
The study also found room for improvement, especially in vocabulary growth and memory of stories, pointing to the need for enhanced app features to support these areas.
Overall, this study, the first of its kind for BookSmart in Kenya, shows how digital tools can strengthen early education, especially in underserved communities. Read more here.