Launched in September, Talamo is a dyslexia screening test that is affordable, scalable and accurate – it could be a gamechanger for earlier diagnosis
Jamie Wace had a patchy time in education and then, at 15, he got a private dyslexia screening test at the suggestion of his school and discovered he had dyslexia. He says this was a “Genesis moment” that changed his own approach and educational outcome. “My motivation was really poor, so I didn’t work very hard,” he says. But once he knew he was wired a bit differently, it changed his mindset. “I took charge of my own learning.”
Fast forward a few years and Jamie Wace was thriving in Fortune 100 companies working in technology. Then he stumbled back across dyslexia as a topic and, when he looked at the technology still being used in the field, he felt there was potential to do things differently and improve outcomes for young people and their parents, while also supporting hardworking schools and their SENCO teams.
One huge problem identified was the cost and availability of testing – waiting lists are long and assessment tests typically range from £350-£1,000. These two factors mean many children don’t get checked as early as they should, and this affects self-esteem, and school success. There are also those who may be harder to spot – as Jamie Wace could testify from his own late diagnosis. “One statistic jumped out at us – which is that 80 per cent of dyslexic students don’t have their diagnosis before they leave school,” he says. “This was a bit of a lightbulb moment.”
He and co-founders Sophie Dick (an entrepreneur with a background in designing for companies such as Delta Air Lines and BMW) and Leo Dick (design, data and product whizz with past clients such as Dyson and the British Museum), then began the process of redesigning screening to be faster, cheaper, accurate and scalable.
The process has taken two years and, on the way to launch, Talamo was tested on 1,400 UK children across 18 partner schools, including two specialist dyslexia schools. Results so far show a 94% accuracy rate. Schools that have been part of the pilot include Moon Hall, a dyslexia specialist school in Reigate, whose Head of SEN & Assessment Centre Lucy Pelling describes it as “a game changer”.
The Talamo screening tool is fully digital and uses content adapted from formal assessments, including Riverside Insights Woodcock-Johnson, with whom Talamo developed a strategic agreement, plus proprietary assessment material. “We’ve adapted a lot of that test and included some of our material as well as it has to be used in a fully automated session.” AI plays a big part, enabling fast personalised recommendations at the end of the test.
The ideal, says Talamo, is for the test to be taken in a whole-class session led by a school under exam conditions to ensure accurate results (and no cheating). With this approach, the cost of the test is typically around £12 per child. Some parents may wish to get the screening test outside a school setting with their child – currently, this is £69 but Talamo aim to reduce an individual test to £50 over time.
“Talamo was tested on 1,400 children across 18 partner schools – including two specialist dyslexia schools – and showed a 94% accuracy rate”
The test is ideally taken in Year 3 or 4. “We’d test even younger, but we wouldn’t feel confident with those results,” says Jamie Wace. Senior school entry at 11 is another obvious testing point, but the screening can be undertaken at any age from 7-16. What’s important about the design of Talamo is that it’s easy for the children to use – clear and engaging screens and instructions, also not too long a test – and the report generated is aimed at the lay person, not specialist. “We describe it in plain English.” The aim is, of course, to make it clear for parents, as well as teachers and SENCOs and, while highlighting the dyslexia risk is the critical thing, the report generated also includes useful learning profile information – visual reasoning, verbal reasoning, processing speed, and so on – and easy-to-follow guidance on what to do if a learning need is flagged.
“Most children will get something and, even if they’ve scored really highly, they still get some metacognitive guidance,” says Jamie Wace. He believes this is really important, as many of the elements in the cognitive profile and follow-on recommendations are areas where small adaptations and more awareness may make a sizeable difference. Just as important, children get insights into their own style as learners. Instead of feeling stupid when they can’t seem to grasp something everyone else in class gets, a child can recognise that it’s just a specific need they have as a learner – such as a working memory issue – and then they can be helped (and help themselves) to find a workaround. “I see it a lot of the time when the kids take the test. A lot of the time it’s a motivational issue, and a lot of that is tied to their self-esteem.”
Talamo is still in post launch phase, so Jamie Wace says he and his co-founders are looking forward to feedback from children and teachers so they can further improve the test. He believes it’s the scalability that’s important, and the fact that it may potentially make life a lot easier for children and SENCOs. “The main thing for us is the accessibility aspect of it, it’s trying to take something that was previously reserved for the few and try to put it across as a universal right for everybody.”
Talamo talamo.co.uk
Further reading: Tune in, turn on – the amazing power of subtitles to boost literacy
You may also like...
