Difficulty with learning to read may be associated with various diagnoses such as dysphasia, dyslexia or autism, as well as common abnormalities. The Visual Reading software is the brainchild of a team of skilled Slovaks under the supervision of Dušan Baranec. It is essentially an educational application to assist the process of learning to read.
The software is intended to be used in the teaching process of reading, comprehension development, listening comprehension differentiation not merely for kids with special needs, but also as reading education and speaking comprehension for kids from underprivileged environment, as well as adults with speech disorders and kids and adults originating from geographically remote regions, such as Africa or Asia. It also serves as a pre-school reading exercise. The software assists kids with learning to read speech sounds, syllables and words in 12 levels by means of a visual approach. This is not a game, though. This software requires a professional supervision of psychologists, pedagogists and information technology experts. Since sales started back in 2016, the software has been appreciated hundreds of times by special teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, teachers in healthcare as well as parents of kids with special needs who gave this unique educational method a try.
„Children with special needs attend various therapy-focused professionals on a regular basis such as speech therapists, special education centers, psychology centers. The attendance is rare, though – it varies from one attendance per week to one attendance per eight weeks depending on the child’s condition and the country they live in. The gap between these attendances provides therefore an ideal opportunity for a form of home schooling which is supervised and monitored by professionals. We are establishing a multilingual system which suits most diagnoses and most educational processes, “ Dušan Baranec casting light on the process.
The project has also taken the first place in this year’s Slovak round of the Chivas VENTURE competition for entrepreneurs and startups. The jury was certainly impressed because it picked Visual Reading as the most sophisticated one out of 65 registered projects. So Dušan Baranec along with his team is ready to represent Slovakia in the world finale in Amsterdam, Holland next May where the team will have the chance to get their project off the ground and compete against the best startups from all around the world for the tempting grand prize of up to $1 million.
Matúš Kollár, the Chivas Regal Brand Manager added: „The project Visual Reading has impressed us especially with its social impact as well as a high international potential. We are absolutely positive that our competition will serve as a stepping stone for the project to get established on the international market hitting the ground running and assist underprivileged kids all around the world.“
Find the latest updates on the Chivas VENTURE competition on the webpage, Facebook, the Chivas Regal official webpage or YouTube Channel.