How a session works
- The child opens HyFo and sees today's lesson: one card, a short description, how long it takes, and a Start button.
- Three exercises follow, one at a time. Each has a short instruction, read aloud, and a single task on screen.
- A wrong answer gets a calm "try again" and a hint. A right answer gets a small, quiet reward (XP).
- After the third exercise, the session ends with a clear "done for today". There are no streaks to keep and no timers counting down.
Five to ten minutes, once or twice a day. That's it.
The six exercise types
1. Find a pair
Letter and sound matching. The child sees a small set of tiles and taps the two that match: two letters, a letter and its sound, or later two short words. Builds letter recognition and the quick visual matching that early reading depends on. Typical ages: 5–6, and older children who still mix up similar letters.
2. Read the word
A single short word appears, letter by letter, and the child sounds it out and chooses the matching picture or word. Decoding practice at word level, from three-letter words ("cat") to words with blends and vowel teams ("trunk", "rain"). Typical ages: 5–7.
3. Hide and seek
A small grid of letters hides two or three words. The child finds them. Trains fast word recognition and visual attention: keeping the eyes on the task and scanning in order, which is exactly what reading a line asks for. Typical ages: 6–8.
4. Syllable blending
Syllables appear as separate tiles; the child drags them together to make a word and reads it. This is where many 7–8-year-olds slow down: one-syllable words are automatic, longer ones aren't yet. Typical ages: 6–9.
5. Lost word
A short sentence with one word missing, and three options to fill the gap. The child has to read the whole sentence for meaning to pick the right word. Builds reading ahead and sentence-level comprehension. Typical ages: 7–10.
6. Checked reading
The child reads a short text on a clean screen, then answers two or three comprehension questions. The app times the reading, and words per minute is recorded only if the questions are answered. This is the exercise that builds fluency and comprehension together, and the one parents see as reading speed in the dashboard. Typical ages: 7–10.
Learn a poem: an exercise parents assign
Alongside the six exercises, parents can send their child a poem to learn by heart: the one from school, or any other. The parent adds the poem's text in the dashboard, and it appears on the child's home screen as a separate task, outside the regular sessions.
HyFo splits the poem into parts of four lines. The child reads each part aloud and taps "Next", and with every round more of the text disappears. This is the vanishing-cues method: the words are taken away step by step, so the child recalls more and reads less each time. Here is how one part changes, using the first verse of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Rain":
- Full text, read twice: The rain is raining all around, / It falls on field and tree, / It rains on the umbrellas here, / And on the ships at sea.
- Half of the last word hidden: The rain is raining all aro___, / It falls on field and tr___ …
- Last words hidden: The rain is raining all ___, / It falls on field and ___ …
- Only first letters: T___ r___ i___ r___ a___ a___ …
- Only the first word of each line: The ___ / It ___ / It ___ / And ___
- Everything hidden: the child says the part from memory.
If a word won't come, the child taps the gap and the word shows for two seconds. After two peeks on the same step, the app goes one step back and the child reads that version once more. After each new part, the child reads all the parts learned so far together, then moves on, and decides how many parts to learn in one sitting. When every part is done, the last task is to recite the whole poem.
Parents see facts, not scores: which parts are learned and how many hints were used. HyFo doesn't listen to the child or rate the recitation. The exercise is for children who can already read on their own; with younger children, read the poem aloud together and let them repeat it line by line. Poems can be in English or Ukrainian.
Designed for short attention spans
Every exercise follows the same rules:
- One task on screen. No side menus, pop-ups or animations competing with the text.
- Short. Each exercise takes one to three minutes.
- Clear instruction, read aloud. Children don't have to read the instruction to start the reading.
- Gentle feedback. Mistakes are normal; the response is "try again", not a buzzer.
- Step-by-step difficulty. The next exercise is slightly harder than the last. Going back is allowed and never penalised.
- No ads, no in-app purchases shown to children.
These are the same principles specialists recommend for children with ADHD and other attention differences; see our page on HyFo for kids with ADHD. They also simply make reading practice easier for any child who finds it effortful.
What parents see
Each exercise feeds the parent dashboard: accuracy across exercise types, words per minute from checked reading, current level, and "what to review", which names the exercise type your child found hardest this week. Details on the for parents page.
Languages
Exercises are available in English and Ukrainian, with separate word lists and texts for each language, so bilingual families can practise both.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does a HyFo session take?
- Three exercises, about five to ten minutes in total. Each exercise takes one to three minutes.
- What age are the exercises for?
- Ages 4 and up. Your child should already know the alphabet and be able to read syllable by syllable. The first exercise types (find a pair, read the word) work at letter and word level; the later ones (lost word, checked reading) work with sentences and short texts.
- Are the exercises games?
- They're short, game-like tasks with quiet rewards, but there are no timers, streaks or leaderboards. The aim is calm practice, not competition.
- Does HyFo teach phonics from scratch?
- HyFo practises letter sounds, decoding and blending, but it is a practice tool, not a complete phonics curriculum, and it assumes your child already knows the alphabet. It works best alongside what your child learns at school.
- Can my child choose which exercise to do?
- The app picks the three exercises for each session based on your child's level and recent results, so practice goes where it's needed. Children can stop at any point.
- Can HyFo help my child learn a poem by heart?
- Yes. Parents add the poem's text in the dashboard; HyFo splits it into parts of four lines and hides more of the words each time the child reads a part aloud, until the child can say it from memory. The app doesn't listen to the recitation; parents see which parts are learned and how many hints were used. It suits children who already read on their own.
HyFo is an educational tool. It does not diagnose, treat, or replace medical, psychological, or educational support from qualified professionals.
