Digital literacy technologies: Leveraging orthographic learning for maximum reading outcomes.

Learning to read is the single most important skill that children learn. In childhood, it is the basis for learning in school; in adulthood, it underpins participation in society. Yet more than 40% of Canadian adults do not have reading levels needed to contribute to our knowledge economy, which has broad financial consequences. TD Bank Financial Group's analyses show that each 1% increase in national average literacy levels results in a $32 billion boost to our annual GDP. We need to provide children with the best opportunities to learn reading skills essential to full participation in Canadian society. This project will do so by connecting researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, to provide evidence-based innovation designed to optimise children's reading success. EyeRead Inc, operating as Squiggle Park, has two principal software offerings designed to support reading skills: Squiggle Park and Dreamscape. Squiggle Park is for children in kindergarten to Grade 2; and Dreamscape is for Grade 3 to 6. These products have had remarkable success and remarkable uptake by schools around the world (with over 15,000 institutions and 150,000 users). The company Squiggle Park's next challenge is to bridge the gap between its two products because school districts want a single product across the elementary school years. The problem is that strong readers can complete Squiggle Park in late Grade 1, but are not yet ready for the Grade 3 level content of Dreamscape; similarly, poor readers in Grade 3 are not yet ready for the texts in Dreamscape. These gaps leave districts turning to other software offerings, and the company Squiggle Park losing market share. The company Squiggle Park and Deacon will work in partnership to overcome this challenge, utilising Deacon's scientific expertise to develop new content and to test the effectiveness of its inclusion. By implementing an intervention design, this project will also offer a causal prediction from a prominent theory of reading development. As such, it will meet important scientific, economic, and societal needs.