We are a Finnish company bringing together universities, game developers and educators to create fun, evidence-based literacy innovations for young children in every major language.

Our innovation, GraphoGame, is designed to be available offline, on any type of touch-screen device where audio can be played for the user. The best results have been found in children aged 5 to 8, although - in practice - it is useful for struggling readers of any age and children as young as 4. Players create their own customizable avatar and set off to train their first and most fundamental skills in literacy through phonics (connecting letters and sounds). After mastering letter-sound connections, players move on to blending (combining sounds into syllables) and, finally, to challenging syllables and complicated words. This sequence is known as the synthetic approach to reading instruction. With adult or teacher supervision, GraphoGame becomes more effective than business-as-usual instruction in achieving basic literacy for all kids.

The methodology was originally gamified in 1992 for the early-identification of dyslexia by Prof. Heikki Lyytinen, UNESCO Chair on Inclusive Literacy Learning for All, and colleagues at University of Jyväskylä and Niilo Mäki Institute in Finland. Since then, 35 language versions were developed.

In the past decade, GraphoGame was successfully adapted to Nyanja language in eastern Zambia, where researchers found that “children who were exposed to [it] performed better than the control group on all literacy measures.  Furthermore, parent’s performance on tests improved after the intervention.”