DIagnosis, Monitoring and MANagement of Dyslexia using digital technologies (DIMMAND)

Dyslexia, a learning difficulty and a disability as defined in the Equality Act 2010, has serious short and long-term effects from the start of education of a child. It is estimated that between 5% to 10% of children in the UK may be suffering from dyslexia. It is generally agreed that the earlier dyslexic difficulties are identified the more effective treatment will be. Our project will significantly improve the early diagnosis, monitoring and management of dyslexia by assessing a user's reading ability across the spectrum, and a range of other non-linguistic skills such as visual perception, visio-spatial attention and fine auditory perception. This will be delivered using a game-based mobile app aimed at young children (years 4 to 8), parents and teachers to firstly assess, and then monitor and manage the progress in a convenient, cost-effective and private environment. The purpose of this feasibility project is to define the digital dyslexia health app and its underlying components with all its variants and characteristics. The specific objectives are: (1) to design interactive reading, visual and auditory games, (2) to design the user-interface and present mock-up screens, (3) to outline the complete specifications and architecture of the mobile app, (4) to finalise the business case.