Children are the most curious of all age groups. Curiosity is an essential component of their brain development and learning process. Curiosity drives them to ask questions and seek answers as they grow, allowing them to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Children usually learn new things from books, teachers, parents, and digital mediums such as cognitive skill-based brain games, informational videos, and e-learning material.
News, widely accepted as an excellent source of information is generally not included in children’s curricula; however, it can be a great source of information for curious minds if presented in an appropriate child-friendly format.
This is what Newsahoot is attempting to achieve. Anmol Malhotra, a 24-year-old lawyer from Chandigarh, founded Newsahoot, which is marketed as a dedicated news-reading platform for children. The platform promises to introduce children to real-world news through the language they understand and appreciate.
Doesn’t that sound intriguing? Let’s take a closer look at one of the most intriguing Ed-tech startups we had the opportunity to examine in Techarc’s AppSight feature section.
What Is Newsahoot?
Newsahoot is a bootstrapped Ed-tech startup owned and controlled by Anmol Malhotra. The founder mentions that neither he nor Newsahoot is affiliated with any political party and the content it delivers can be verified and fact-checked. The e-learning platform aims to provide real-world news to kids to help them develop cognitive development and critical thinking skills. Newsahoot brings news from six different categories in the form of daily updates. The content is specially curated for children above eight years of age.
How To Sign-up On Newsahoot?
Newsahoot is available on Android devices and PC via the official website- Newsahoot.com. You need to sign up on the platform to get started with the news reading. As you set up your profile, you can choose the difficulty level for your kid. Newsahoot recommends beginner level for children studying in classes 3-4, intermediate for classes 5-6, and advanced for children in classes 7 and above. The word count of the articles increases with the difficulty levels.
You are also required to choose your plan to start reading the news articles. The free-to-use trial plan offers six articles. The annual plan costs Rs. 749 at the time of writing this feature and offers unlimited articles for your kid, which seems like decent pricing for a platform that can help a child in multiple ways.
App User Experience
Since the app is designed for kids, the user interface is kept fairly minimal on both the PC and the mobile platform. It is easy on the eyes and doesn’t complex things unnecessarily. The articles are displayed in the tiles format on the home page (both mobile and PC), and the left side shows the list of the different topics such as world, India, Health, Environment, etc. Newsahoot offers one article each day, thus allowing children to read and understand without any burden.
One of the best things about Newsahoot is the fact that you won’t see any advertisements or sponsored content on its website. The focus here is on quality rather than quantity. We didn’t feel that the platform is bombarding us with new information from an endless list of topics. Lastly, news posts are accompanied by read out loud feature, which adds value to the reading experience and also helps with pronunciation.
How Newsahoot Can Help Children?
Since newspapers and TV news channels cannot be considered appropriate for children under 10 years of age, a platform such as Newsahoot with child-friendly news seems like a well-thought initiative. We analyzed the platform’s content library for young minds.
The news content and language seemed age-appropriate and is presented in a manner appropriate for children’s level of comprehension. For instance, Anamitra Swarupa beautifully explained the recent budget announcement in one of his recent posts on Newsahoot. The writer ensured that the language is child-friendly, unbiased, and contained easy-to-digest words and sentences for kids.
And this goes for every post on the platform. The language is kept neutral, thus allowing a reader to formulate his/her own opinion on a variety of topics, which is another appreciable aspect of this child-friendly platform. Each post also contains highlighted words with their simplified meanings, thus making it easier for children to grasp useful information.
Benefits of News Reading for Children.
- First and foremost, the platform can help children build a reading habit, which is of utmost importance for people of all age groups, especially children in today’s digital age. Reading can help kids improve their vocabulary in the longer run.
- A platform such as Newsahoot can help children develop their attention span, which has gone for a toss in the age of Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. It’s better for kids to spend time reading news blogs than spending time on YouTube or any other video platform.
- Child-friendly news articles for young minds can help kids stay updated with current events and global issues, develop critical thinking skills, and learn about diversity and different points of view.
- News reading can help children develop a good general knowledge of various topics and subjects. Such knowledge can come in handy to make them confident and aware of what’s happening in the world of science, sports, current affairs, geopolitics, arts, and so on.
Techarc’s Verdict
Given how difficult it is to limit your child’s screen time in today’s technologically driven society, the least you can do is steer it in the right direction. With Newsahoot, your child won’t waste time and will learn something new every day, along with developing skills that will be useful later on. If your child spends time reading something informative on Newsahoot, it is a far better option than watching videos on YouTube or Instagram.
