Trademarks & Attribution

Jolly Phonics®

Jolly Phonics® is a registered trademark of Jolly Learning Ltd (United Kingdom). The 7-group, 42-sound synthetic phonics sequence that our Reading Journey follows was developed and popularised by Jolly Learning.

Little Story Bear is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or otherwise connected to Jolly Learning Ltd. We use “Jolly Phonics-style” or “Jolly Phonics-aligned” language descriptively to help educators identify the pedagogical framework our app follows. We do not reproduce, redistribute, or license any Jolly Learning copyrighted materials, assets, or branding.

Jolly Learning's official materials, curriculum resources, and products can be found at jollylearning.co.uk.

NGRT (New Group Reading Test)

NGRT (New Group Reading Test) is a trademark of GL Assessment, a standardised reading assessment used widely in UK schools.

Little Story Bear does not use, administer, or reproduce NGRT. Where we reference NGRT, we do so only to position our own (internal, non-standardised) oral-reading check-in as a complement to NGRT and similar standardised tests — not as a substitute. Our reading levels are derived from Hasbrouck & Tindal fluency norms and Betts accuracy thresholds, and are not norm-referenced in the same way NGRT is.

GL Assessment's official NGRT information is at gl-assessment.co.uk.

Methodological references

Our reading assessment mechanics and pedagogical scaffolding draw on established published research:

• Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. (2017). Oral reading fluency norms for grades 1 through 8 — used as our words-correct-per-minute (WCPM) benchmarks.
• Betts, E. A. (1946). Foundations of Reading Instruction — the 95/90/<90 accuracy thresholds distinguishing independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels.
• DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) — progress monitoring principles that inform our adaptive re-check cadence. DIBELS is a product of the University of Oregon and Acadience Learning.
• Chall, J. S. (1983). Stages of Reading Development — informs how our three tiers map to developmental phases (pre-alphabetic, full alphabetic, consolidated).
• IB PYP Language Scope & Sequence (Phase 1-3). The twelve-type grammar colour-coding for ages 6-8 (noun, proper-noun, plural, verb, past-verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, article, contraction) is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme Language scope. Little Story Bear is not an IB-authorized programme; “IB” and “PYP” are trademarks of the International Baccalaureate Organization.
• Rasinski, T. V. (2014). Fluency as the foundational bridge between decoding and comprehension — the guiding rationale for Journey 2 (fluency programme).
• Hudson, R. F., Lane, H. B., & Pullen, P. C. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction — informs the prosody / repeated-reading steps in Journey 2.
• Kuhn, M. R., & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Fluency: a review of developmental and remedial practices — justifies our WCPM-target progression.
• Bowers, P. N., & Kirby, J. R. (2010); Carlisle, J. F. (2010). Morphological awareness as an under-taught, high-yield literacy skill — informs the per-book morphology flag introduced in Tier-2 stories.
• Ehri, L. C. (2005). Phases of word reading — guides our Tier-1 phonics sequencing and the decision never to introduce a sound before its Jolly Phonics group.
• Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Reading Rope — the word-recognition / language-comprehension framework that shapes how our stories weave vocabulary, background knowledge, and phonics together.
• Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2013). Bringing Words to Life — the Tier-2 high-utility vocabulary framework used in our ages 6-8 story scaffolding.
• Duke, N. K., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Comprehension research — informs the 5-item last-page reflection (literal / inferential / personal / tier-activity / re-read) that every learning story ends with.
• Orton-Gillingham and the broader Science of Readingtradition — influenced our explicit-systematic-cumulative approach to phonics instruction. Orton-Gillingham is not a branded product; it refers to the approach developed by Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham in the 1930s.
• American Academy of Pediatrics. Research on shared reading benefits cited in our marketing materials (“15 minutes of shared reading a day”).

Little Story Bear is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the authors, publishers, organisations, or institutions listed above. These citations exist to be transparent about the research base our product draws from.

Other attributions

• Story text generated via OpenAI GPT-4o; history-mode fact-checking via the Anthropic Claude API.
• Illustrations generated via Flux Kontext Pro on Replicate. Images are hashed + cached, then stored on Vercel Blob (permanent CDN) so books never lose their pictures.
• Story narration via Fish Audio and OpenAI TTS.
• Voice transcription via OpenAI Whisper.
• Database hosting via Neon Postgres; app hosting via Vercel.
• Body typeface: Outfit (Rodrigo Fuenzalida, SIL Open Font License 1.1). Display typeface: Fraunces (Undercase Type, SIL Open Font License 1.1). Both served via Google Fonts.
• Iconography by Lucide (ISC License).
• All third-party product names and trademarks referenced on this site are the property of their respective owners.

AI-generated content disclosure

Stories and illustrations on Little Story Bear are generated with the help of AI models and reviewed against age-appropriateness filters, Jolly Phonics decodability requirements (for Tier-1 phonics stories), and — for History Mode — a structured fact-check pass before they appear to the reader. AI-generated content can still contain errors; we encourage parents and teachers to read each book alongside the child.

Fair use statement

Where we refer to third-party trademarks (Jolly Phonics, NGRT, DIBELS, etc.) we rely on nominative fair use — using the marks only to the extent necessary to identify the frameworks our app is compatible with or inspired by. If you are a rights-holder with a concern about how your mark is referenced, please contact us at supportlittlestorybear@gmail.com and we will respond within 5 business days.