Many parents say they aren’t exactly sure of how good their children are at Chinese. It’s likely that the only idea they have of their children’s skill level is the marks they get on tests and homework, especially if they haven’t made it a habit yet to practise Chinese with their children at home.

It may even happen that a child could be a lot better at Chinese than their marks might lead their parents to believe. Because of this, it follows that parents might have a hard time choosing the difficulty level of the books. Like parents, teachers also have to find out just how good their students are at Chinese for them to be able to hand out reading assignments.

It matters a great deal to know how hard or easy the Chinese children’s books are, whenever we give them to our children. If the words are too hard, or if the stories are written at too advanced a level, the children are likely to give up almost immediately.

The same holds true for stories that are “too easy”—after all, if you gave a Primary 4 student a storybook meant for a preschooler, we shouldn’t be surprised if the Primary 4 student puts the book down without even getting past the first few pages.

When children read stories at just the right level for them to understand, and to encourage them to understand more, they become eager readers.

How to choose Chinese children’s books automatically

To help you choose storybooks, you can use an adaptive online reading platform like Dudu.

When we say “adaptive’, we mean that the platform is programmed to adapt or adjust to the skill level of your child. Dudu knows what your child’s skill level is when he takes the adaptive placement test, which is a set of short tests that automatically finds out how well your child comprehends Chinese text.

Once Dudu knows the skill level of your child, it can make recommendations for stories he can enjoy and learn from at the same time. The recommendations comes with a balanced mix of stories that will allow your child to read with fluency, as well as stories with slightly more challenging words and sentences.

The e-storybooks you’ll find on Dudu come with features that are designed to help your child when he encounters challenging words.

• Pinyin
• Audio narration
• Dictionary
• Illustrations
• Animation
• Games

Thanks to Dudu’s adaptive system, parents can become more confident about the skill level of the books they choose for their children. Why not try it out together with your own child? Get started when you sign up for Dudu, today.