Innovation

ReadON is a software-based cognitive therapy platform designed by Orange Neurosciences for students who have some learning disabilities or differences which make it difficult to read, learn, and comprehend things. It is beneficial to anyone above 5 years of age to adulthood but more specifically beneficial to vulnerable students with diagnosed or undiagnosed Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, ADHD, or Autism Spectrum Disorders and association stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies. It is the most advanced solution designed to support children and adults with reading disorders and associated mental health issues. Simply put by Dr. Vinay Singh, CEO of Orange Neurosciences during our interview, ReadON is a software-based cognitive therapy where students interact with the software by performing certain activities in a gamified manner that can be played either on a desktop or a laptop. It is a 45-hour program that needs to be completed within 4 months. It includes 15 one-hour sessions of cognitive therapy which needs to be completed within 5 weeks. It also includes 30 hours of reading therapy- reading exercises and games which are to be completed in the next 10 weeks.

This innovation has emerged out of the care and love of a teacher for his students. Dr. Vinay Singh during the interview quoted “Teaching is his first love” and this emerges for this innovation. Being an educator, he has witnessed the problems the students face during their learnings very intimately. He has seen his students go through anxiety and being stressed for their education and various examinations and tests. This ultimately causes learning difficulties among students which leads to students dropping out of school. Learning difficulties significantly contribute to multi-generational poverty, unemployment, mental health issues, and criminal behaviors. Dr. Vinay also being a researcher and entrepreneur took notice of this global problem. He along with his team noticed the fact that 1 in 10 people face learning difficulty and this population of 780 million people in the world is known as the “neurodiverse population”. Though there are traditional approaches to deal with these problems such as tutoring, one on one special education teachers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, and psychologists, it is very difficult to deal with this huge neurodiverse population due to high cost and inability and no access to these professionals. Thus Dr. Vinay along with his team founded “Orange Neurosciences” in 2017 with its headquarters in Kingston, Canada.

The company was founded on a vision to provide an option to improve the ways that people with learning disabilities work and live and to support the creation of a more equal and inclusive society by challenging the barriers to learning. The goal has been to empower people with learning disabilities to change their lives and solve cyclical societal issues like illiteracy, school pass-out rates, unemployment, multi-generational poverty, mental health issues, incarcerations. And for the past 4 years, the company has been able to contribute to doing so. They are constantly working with children with learning disabilities and/or diagnosed with ADHD, cerebral palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Polio, etc, and try to empower and change their lives for good using the ReadON platform. ReadON has helped people to improve reading fluency, comprehension, math skills, focus, attention, communications, and behavior. This program has provided significant benefits to schools/colleges and workplaces by increasing the school pass rates, preparing better employment opportunities, increasing the working potential of people with learning disabilities, and providing a boost to the economy. This has also helped to reduce several mental health issues caused by learning differences in school and the work-places. Not only this, the organization has been able to align its goals with UN SDGs goals and has directly contributed to SDGs goals of no poverty, good health being, quality education, and reduced inequalities and also indirectly to the goal of economic growth. Though these goals are as important as any other goals, what motivates Dr. Vinay and his team and gets them going is much more trivial such as a client dyeing her hair, or just going to a restaurant, or a client with autism spectrum disorder catching a ball. These things would seem very small in the eyes of others but for Dr. Vinay and his team, these are the stories that motivate them and make them proud of what they have been able to achieve through their innovation.

Inspiration

While teaching at the university, Dr. Vinay found many students who were struggling with reading-writing disabilities or mental health. And he realized that these are some topics that are not really talked about or are lightly discussed in society. He came across many students who were diagnosed with anxiety disorders but were never even given a chance to get diagnosed with learning difficulties. So, as a professor, he identified that problem, and then, as a researcher and an entrepreneur, he started to look at it as a global problem. When he found the connectivity and layers of the same problem around the world, Dr. Vinay realized that someone who was not diagnosed with learning disabilities in an early stage will fall under the umbrella of mental health conditions and will always seek accommodation. They’ll find it tough to finish their education or find a job or excel in any area.

This whole vicious cycle of education, school dropout, mental health, unemployment, and multi junctional poverty was something that Dr. Vinay wanted to break. And he realized that one way he could do that is by creating a difference in the education of these people.

Overall impact

Brain imaging has shown that typical readers use the left side of their brains in an interconnected and highly efficient way, whereas poor readers use both sides of their brains in a disconnected and inefficient way.

ReadON is an unprecedented and engaging, process-oriented program that uses fast-moving graphics, differential sound, and a multisensory approach to building phonemic awareness, graphophonemic knowledge, and language structure. The exclusive game-based platform keeps students engaged and motivated for the duration of the program.

How ReadOn Works:

•Leverages the power of engagement

With exciting gameplays, points system, and fun graphics.

• Boosts phonemic awareness

By separating words into individual sounds and gradually introducing blends.

• Uses a targeted multisensory approach

To create connections between the auditory and visual pathways required for fluent reading.

• Process-oriented

Gameplays specifically designed to strengthen coding and decoding skills.

• Improves eye movement control

With gameplays designed to strengthen eye tracking in all directions.

• Helps improve executive functioning skills

Through multiple simultaneous demands, performance feedback and problem-solving

“My son Rowan is 9 years old and in his 10th week of the ReadON Program. When we first came to this program Rowan use to have total meltdowns when it came to reading. He would scream that he didn’t know how to read and refused and cried the entire time we were trying to read a book. Since starting the ReadON program his self-esteem has improved as well as his confidence, and he no longer gets as frustrated with things not just reading-related. Now he enjoys reading a book and will read other things as well, instead of having someone do it for him. He never wanted to read out loud in front of anyone, now he is proud of his reading skills and will read to anybody.”

-Heather

Business benefit

The company visions to improve the ways people with learning disorders work and live and create a more equal and inclusive society, by challenging the barriers to learning. The innovation of ReadON supports the company’s vision by accommodating the neuro-diverse population into society.

Solving cyclical societal issues like illiteracy, school pass-out rates, unemployment, multi-generational poverty, mental health issues, incarcerations is something that the company aims to do. The innovation brings them one step closer to their goal

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Social and environmental benefit

ReadOn is an innovation which is software-driven and helps to drive the learning ability of people having challenges such as ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder-this causes challenges with social skills, communication, and thinking), ADHD(is a neurodevelopmental condition which makes it hard for kids to concentrate, pay attention, sit still). This software has benefited society by extending a useful tool to therapists for enhancing the cognitive skills of kids from 6-year-old to older people. This thus empowers the people who extend a helping hand to the differently challenged people, which is hugely beneficial for the societal environments. This innovative software gives power and a ray of hope to the learning challenged kids in terms of their learning ability, self-confidence, and self-esteem. It can sometimes provide confidence to the elderly who were diagnosed later in life with dyslexia (difficulty in reading). In a nutshell, it gives them the power to link their brain to learning. It's a large undefined benefit as this helps parents to find social acceptance of kids suffering from learning disabilities. This innovative software brings improvement in the overall reading and grasping ability by giving them control through a gamified experience. This increased the overall environment of being a part of society. The testimonials are a true attestation to the change this software has brought into the lives of the families. Satisfied parents have endorsed the product that directly defines the level of benefit it is transferring to society at large. In the long run, this gamified version of the software can be moduled to different requirements of teaching skills of varying nature thus leading to extending the joy of learning and growing up.

Interview

Dr. Vinay Singj, CEO of Orange Neurosciences

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