Getting started
What Zen Reader does, who does what in a family, and the first thing to try.
Watch it done
A tour of what happens in your first ten minutes — your library, a book at the right level, your child's first read, and the report you get back.
Zen Reader listens to your child read a book aloud, then shows you — page by page, word by word — what they read correctly and what they missed. You do not need to read or speak Chinese yourself. That is the whole point of it.
What you can do with it
- Reading practice. Your child reads a real book aloud; the app records, transcribes and scores it against the book's text.
- Spelling. School spelling lists, practised by writing, by saying, and by a dictation test — with the handwriting marked from a photo.
- Word lists. Flash cards that listen and coach, a speed card game, a spoken test and write practice, over any list.
- Homework. A list of what has been set for a child, by you or by their teacher.
- Homework help. Photograph a worksheet and get a tutor that guides your child to the answer rather than handing it over.
- Reports. Every session is kept, so you can see progress over weeks rather than guessing.
Who is who
A Zen Reader household is a family, and everyone in it has a role. The role decides what they can see and change.
- Family Manager — the person who signed up and pays. Can do everything, including inviting others and managing the subscription. A family can have more than one.
- Parent — another adult, invited by the manager. Sees the children's work and can add books, but does not control the subscription.
- Reader — the child. Has their own login and sees their own work only: their own portfolios, their own suggestions, and never another child's results.
- Teacher — a school or tuition teacher, linked to one child by that child's family. Sees only the children they were linked to.
If you signed Zen Reader up on this website, you are the Family Manager. If somebody sent you an invitation, the invitation email says which role you were given.
Your first ten minutes
- Sign in on the device your child will use. See Signing in.
- Add a book. Open Library, tap + New book and import a PDF — or start with one of the example books already on your shelf. Mark the title and copyright pages as not part of the reading while you are there. See Adding and preparing a book.
- Read it. Open Reading, pick the book, turn to the page, tap Start recording and let your child read it aloud. Tap Stop & check when they are done.
- Look at the result. The score and the page-by-page detail appear on the same screen. See Understanding a reading report.
If a first attempt feels like too much pressure, switch the mode to Practice page — identical, except that nothing is saved.
You will be asked one question along the way. The first time Zen Reader needs to send something off your device — a page to be read, a recording to be checked, a photograph to be marked — it asks the Family Manager's permission and names exactly who receives what. Saying no does not break the app: it does what it can on the device instead and says so. The switch lives in Settings → AI features. See Settings.
That is the loop. Everything else — spelling, word lists, homework help — sits alongside it.
Getting help without leaving the app
Press F1 on a computer, or tap Help in the menu, and Zen Reader opens the help page for the screen you are on — already signed in, so there is nothing to type. On a phone or tablet the Help menu item is the way.
Ask Jas is the other route: a chat that answers questions about how the app works, in plain language. It is in the app's menu, and in the corner of every page on this site.
Still stuck? Ask Jas with the button in the corner, or email support@zenreader.co.