This article is from page 17 of the 2011-06-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
A QUIN woman has won an award for her new business, which develops learning support computer games for children with reading difficulties.
Linda O’Sullivan’s company Footbridge Interactive won first prize at the LEAP Business Awards at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) last week and earned a prize of a € 50,000 investment from AIB’s Seed Capital Fund.
Footbridge Interactive games are aimed at improving reading fluency and comprehension for children with dyslexia. It is integrated into fun stories, which makes it appealing for children. It is aimed at seven to 12-year-olds, initially in Ireland the UK and possibly further afield at a later stage. The games are designed for children to play independently, at home or at school.
Linda established her company in 2010, as she felt there was an opening in this area. She won the award after she did a 12-month (LEAP) Enterprise Acceleration programme at LIT.
“I set it up last year. Jennifer Keane joined the company in January of this year. Jennifer has a background in animation and design. My background is in developing content for kids TV. I worked with a number of companies in Galway (including the Galway Film Centre),” said Linda.
“There wasn’t a huge choice of products. We have worked very closely with dyslexic experts and educational experts in all of this. We have worked closely with Limerick Dyslexia Support Centre as well,” said Linda, whose 14-year-old son Oisin Mac Criostail is dyslexic.
She explained how the new game works. “The child logs in and plays with the game. The game progresses the child. The child’s strengths and weaknesses are tracked. It is very good for learning resource teachers in schools. It is for the child when relaxed at home. In a computer game environment, they are quite happy to repeat things which they need. It compliments the work they do in school,” she said.
Linda has enjoyed the path to setting up her own company.
“My first step was I got a feasibility grant from Clare County Enterprise Board. It allowed me to look into the feasibility of it. I got an innovation voucher from Enterprise Ireland. We got further Enterprise Ireland funding from there,” she added.
“Everybody was very enthusiastic about it. It will be available from September. It will be a subscriptionbased production,” she said.
In advance of the final touches being put on the games, Linda will have a few very busy months ahead. “We are going to be working very hard over the summer to get the product released for the start of September. We will have a big launch in the UK and here,” she said.