Dictation practice – common questions
Answers for parents, teachers and anyone just getting to know Pippo.
All about dictation practice
What is the best way for my child to practise dictations at home?
Short and often rather than long and rarely. 10 to 15 minutes a day does much more than an hour at the weekend. What matters is that your child hears the text read aloud and writes it on paper – just like at school. Pippo does the reading aloud with clear pronunciation and marks the mistakes after writing. A small moment of success at the end – stars, praise, a treasure – helps more than any telling-off. And: practise the words that were wrong last time instead of starting from scratch every time.
In which year do children start writing dictations at school?
In Austria and Germany, the first short dictations usually start in Year 2 of primary school. In Year 1 it is still about spelling out words, syllables and first words. From Years 3 and 4, dictations get longer (about 40 to 70 words) and spelling rules come in: capital letters, double consonants, umlauts, long vowels. In Pippo you simply choose your child’s year – the dictations and AI suggestions adjust to it.
How long should a dictation be in Years 2, 3 and 4?
A rule of thumb from school practice: Year 2 about 20 to 40 words, Year 3 about 40 to 60 words, Year 4 about 60 to 80 words. For practice, shorter is often better than longer – two short dictations are better than one that is too long. For AI dictations in Pippo, you can set the number and length of sentences yourself and find the right amount for your child.
How can I help my child with spelling?
Most important: don’t treat mistakes as a disaster. Every mistake shows where your child can still practise. It helps to repeat the misspelt words on purpose – not simply the whole dictation again. Pippo remembers the words your child got wrong and turns them into learning games automatically: Word Quiz, Letter Jumble, Fill the Gap. That way exactly these words are repeated in a playful way, without it feeling like a punishment.
How many mistakes in a dictation are normal?
That depends a lot on the year and the length of the text. A rough guide from German and Austrian primary schools: up to 3 mistakes in 50 words often still count as “good” in Year 3. In Pippo your child gets 3 stars for no mistakes, 2 stars for a few mistakes, 1 star for more – and even 0 stars are not the end of the world, they just show: there is still something to practise. What counts is the direction, not a single try.
What does a dictation app offer compared to practising with parents?
Parents rarely have time to read a dictation aloud at the right speed three times a week. An app like Pippo reads every dictation clearly and evenly, corrects straight away and shows in colour what was wrong where. Your child can practise alone, you don’t have to sit next to them. And unlike many learning apps: Pippo is completely free, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no tracking.
Are there free dictations for primary school practice?
Yes – Pippo is completely free, with no ads and no subscription. There are ready-made dictations for every year (1 to 8), and you can have AI create as many new ones as you like. If your child needs to practise certain words from school, you enter these words, and Pippo turns them into matching sentences. English dictations are possible too.
Can my child practise with Pippo on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Pippo is a web app and runs in the browser on phones, tablets and laptops – no installation, no app store. Just go to pippo.app. For the dictation itself, your child writes on paper, not on the screen. That is on purpose: handwriting helps learning, and afterwards your child simply takes a photo of their work – Pippo reads the text and corrects it.
Does Pippo help with dyslexia (LRS)?
Pippo does not replace therapy and does not make a diagnosis. But for daily practice Pippo is helpful: calm pronunciation, repeating misspelt words, playful learning games instead of pure drill, and no time pressure. Children with dyslexia often benefit especially from practising at their own pace, without anyone standing next to them. If you think your child may have dyslexia, please talk to the class teacher or the school psychologist.
What does the 🤖 symbol on some dictations mean?
The symbol shows that the content was created with the help of AI – either by Pippo’s AI generator, ChatGPT or another AI tool. Pippo has its own AI feature for creating dictations: enter a word list or a topic, and the AI turns it into matching sentences. When you save a dictation, you can openly record whether AI was involved. Pippo’s own sample dictations were made with the help of AI and are marked accordingly.
Can I connect Pippo to ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes. If you use ChatGPT or Claude, you can add Pippo there as a custom connector. Then you can say in the chat: “Create these sentences as a dictation for Anna” or “Has Anna practised today?” and your AI does it directly in your Pippo account. Your AI writes the sentences for a dictation, Pippo saves them and reads them to your child. You set up the connection once, and it asks you first what the AI may do.
How do I set up the connection?
The easiest way is the page pippo.app/en/ki: it has the button “Connect with Claude”, which opens the connect dialogue with the right address already filled in. Often it is enough to ask your AI whether it can connect to pippo.app. In ChatGPT you enter the address pippo.app/mcp as a connector yourself; the steps are on the page “Pippo and your AI” (pippo.app/en/ki). Either way, Pippo opens, you sign in if needed, and you see what your AI may do. Click “Allow” and the connection is ready. ChatGPT and Claude only offer custom connectors on their paid plans.
What can my AI do in Pippo, and what can’t it do?
It may see your children (name and year), create new dictations for a child, find existing dictations and add them for a child, check which dictations are still to do and how the practice went, and which words your child often gets wrong. It may not delete or edit anything, go into the kids’ area or into other families’ accounts. Dictations made this way carry the “created with AI” sign. The AI never gets your password.
How do I remove the connection?
In ChatGPT or Claude, remove the entry for Pippo under Connectors. From then on, the AI has no access. You don’t need to do anything in Pippo itself.
What data goes to ChatGPT or Claude?
Only what you ask about in the chat: your child’s name and year, titles and results of dictations, frequently misspelt words. Pippo itself never sends anything to an AI on its own. With every question you decide what your AI sees, and you can disconnect at any time.
Pippo’s hero language
Your child sees a world of adventure. You see the usual words.
| Your child sees | What it means |
|---|---|
| New adventure | Start a dictation to practise |
| Pippo’s got mail! | Dictations sent by the teacher |
| Hero treasure | Reward after 5 dictations (story, joke or colouring picture) |
| Hero Deeds | All finished dictations and results |
| My awards | Collected stickers |
| Learning games | Three games for practising words from dictations in a playful way |
| Stars | Rating for each dictation (0–3 stars) |
| My week | The days your child practised |
| Look what I’ve done! | Overview: streak, best day, total |
| 🤖 after the dictation name | An AI helped to write the dictation |
How it works
Does my child get something to practise straight away?
Yes! As soon as you add a child, Pippo automatically puts together suitable dictations – matched to the year. So your child can get started right away.
What are spelling words?
Words your child is learning at school. You enter them, and Pippo automatically builds a dictation from them – with AI-written sentences that contain exactly these words.
What is a model answer?
The correct text of the dictation. After the dictation, your child sees the correct spelling right next to their own work – differences are marked in colour. That way your child can practise alone too.
How do I create my own dictation with a model answer?
“Add” → “Write it yourself”. Enter an instruction (e.g. “Read the text slowly”) and the model answer – that is, the text your child should write. Pippo does the rest: reading aloud, correcting and stars. That way you can also create longer or more difficult dictations, just like at school.
Can my child practise in English too?
Yes! When you add or edit a child, you choose the dictation language – German or English. Pippo then adjusts the AI dictations and suggestions to that language. The search for existing dictations starts in your child’s language; you can change it under “Filter”.
How do I create an AI dictation?
Choose a child → “Add” → “Let AI create it”. Then choose the year, language, difficulty, number of sentences and sentence length. If you like, enter spelling words.
What do Easy, Medium and Hard mean for an AI dictation?
The difficulty tells the AI how demanding the sentences should be for the chosen year. “Easy”: simple everyday words and simple sentences – children who are only just learning the language can manage these too. “Medium”: the way a child in this year writes in their first language. “Hard”: above the level of the year, with more spelling traps and more complex sentences. For English, “Easy” is selected at the start, for German “Medium”. You can change this at any time – what matters is what your child needs right now. The difficulty is then shown with the dictation and helps you search for it later.
How does an existing dictation get onto my child’s list?
Choose a child → “Add” → “Choose existing”. The search shows your children’s dictations, Pippo’s dictations and what others have shared. Each tile says where the dictation is, for example “with Anna · on the list”, “with Ben · in the archive” or “Pippo original”. “Add for Anna” puts a separate copy on Anna’s list straight away. The copy belongs to Anna: you can change it freely, the original stays as it is.
I change a dictation for one child. Does it change for their brother or sister too?
No. Each child has their own dictation, even if the text is the same. If the change should reach the other child too, change it there as well, or add the changed dictation to the other child again.
The dictation list keeps getting longer. How do I tidy it up?
Tap “Select” above the list, tick the dictations you want to remove, then “Move to archive”. They disappear from the list – for your child too – and are kept below it under “Archive”. With “Back on the list” they are back. Stars and results stay, archiving deletes nothing.
Archive or delete – what is the difference?
“Move to archive” takes the dictation off the list. With “Back on the list” it is back, stars and all. “Delete dictation for good” removes the dictation itself and cannot be undone. Practice results and stars stay in the overview either way. You will find delete on a dictation’s detail page under “Danger zone”; everyone who looks after your child may use it.
How do I share a dictation by link?
Open the dictation and tap “Share link”. Pippo creates a link that you can send by WhatsApp, email and so on. Anyone with the link can practise the dictation – even without an account. This works for private and public dictations. Everyone who looks after your child may create a link and end it again, and so may your child’s device if “Manage dictations” is switched on.
What happens when someone opens my dictation link?
Without an account: the child can practise straight away and sees their result – but stars and progress are not saved. With an account: everything is saved, just like with their own dictations.
Rewards
Can I add more than one child?
Yes! You can add as many children as you like – each with their own profile, their own dictations and their own progress.
What is the hero treasure?
After every 5 dictations, your child may choose a treasure: a story, a joke or a colouring picture.
Why does Pippo sometimes ask for a language when choosing a treasure?
For jokes and stories, Pippo asks for a language if your child has practised in more than one language since their last treasure (for the first one, since they started) – they can choose from exactly those languages. If they practised in only one, the treasure comes in that language. Colouring pictures have no language.
What are stickers?
Awards for special achievements – e.g. the first star, a streak record or the first dictation with no mistakes.
How do stars work?
Every dictation gets 0 to 3 stars, depending on the number of mistakes. Stars count towards the hero treasure.
What is the streak?
Under “My week” your child sees on which days they practised. No pressure, nothing is lost after a break – just a small motivation trick.
What are the learning games?
Three games that use words from real dictations – especially the ones your child got wrong. Word Quiz (which spelling is right?), Letter Jumble (put the letters in the right order) and Fill the Gap (find the missing word in the sentence). No time pressure, no score – just playful practice.
Child on their own device
How can my child use Pippo on their own phone or tablet?
Open your child’s page in your parents’ area and tap “Connect a device”. Pippo shows you a 6-digit code (valid for 2 minutes) and a QR code. On your child’s device: open pippo.app/pair, enter the code or scan the QR code – done. The device stays connected until you unpair it. No password, no email address, no installation.
What can my child do on their own device?
By default, your child can only practise the dictations on their list. You can switch on two more areas: “Manage dictations” (create and add dictations, change them, share them by link, move them to the archive and delete them) and “Play learning games”. You will find the switches on your child’s page in the “own access” section. The settings apply to all your child’s devices – and you can change them at any time.
How do I unpair a device?
On your child’s page, in the “Paired devices” section, every connected device is listed with its “Last active” date. A click on “Unpair” signs this device out straight away. Handy when an old tablet is sold or your child gets a new phone.
Can several devices be connected at the same time?
Yes. Your child can be signed in on a phone, tablet and laptop at the same time – all devices see the same progress. But each device needs its own pairing code (each code works only once).
How do I invite my partner as a caregiver?
In the parents’ area, under “Family & access”, tap “Invite a caregiver”. Choose which children the access is for (you can add brothers and sisters in one go) – Pippo shows a 6-digit code and a QR code, valid for 2 minutes. Pass the code on. The other person opens pippo.app/invite, signs in or creates a Pippo account, enters the code – and from then on sees the shared children in their own dashboard.
Where can I see who has access to which children?
In the parents’ area under “Family & access”. At the top you see yourself and below that all other caregivers – each with the list of children they can access. Tap a person to act for each child: hand over, leave or remove. Your child’s page also shows a short “Cared for by…” note with a link back.
Can a child have several parents (blended family)?
Yes. Each child has their own caregiver entries – independent of the rest of the family. You can share children 1 and 2 with one partner and child 3 with another partner, without the access overlapping. The person who created a child always stays, but can hand over the creator role and then leave.
Who may remove other caregivers?
The person who created the child can remove all other caregivers. Every caregiver can only remove themselves (“Leave”). The creator has to hand over their role to someone else before they can leave the child – otherwise the child would have no creator. You will find both actions in the Family & access card on your dashboard.
Can I add another child for an existing caregiver without a new code?
Yes. In the parents’ area under “Family & access”, tap the person and you will see a list of your children. For children you created where the caregiver has no access yet, there is an “Add” button – no new code needed. The condition: you have already connected once with a code (or you already look after another child together).
What happens when I click “End connection”?
You both disappear from each other’s caregiver list, and both lose access to the other’s children (so: the children you created, the other person loses; the children the other person created, you lose). Other connections with further caregivers stay as they are. You will find the link at the bottom of the action menu on the person’s row.
We have one family tablet for several children. Does that work?
Yes. In the parents’ area, open each child’s page in turn and create a pairing code for each. Enter every code on the same tablet at pippo.app/pair. After that the tablet knows all the children. A profile switcher appears at the top right: the active child’s avatar + a small arrow; click on another child – and Pippo switches over. No new pairing, no parent password.
What happens when a child taps “Sign out” on the family tablet?
If only this one child is paired: the tablet goes back to pippo.app/pair and waits for a new code. If brothers or sisters are paired too: the tablet automatically switches to the next child. You need to pair the signed-out child again if needed – the others stay connected.
For teachers
How do I create a class?
In the teacher dashboard: “Create class” → enter the name and year → done. You get an invitation code (e.g. “TIGER-42”).
How does the invitation code work?
Parents enter the code in the parents’ area. You see the request on the class page and take the child in with “Accept”. From then on the child practises the dictations on the class list, and you see their progress.
What do pupils see under “Pippo’s got mail”?
The dictations you have sent – wrapped in hero language, so it doesn’t feel like homework.
How do I keep a class’s dictation list tidy?
Move finished dictations to the archive: tap “Select” above the list, tick them, “Move to archive”. With “Back on the list” they come back. Each class has its own dictations: if you add the same dictation to the 2a and the 2b, each class gets its own copy. What you archive or change in one stays as it is in the other.
What data do I see?
Mistake profiles, progress for each child, problem words and a class summary.
Want to know more?
The detailed pages for each group.
Go deeper
Detailed guides with tips, examples and background knowledge.