Swiss graphogame: concept and design presentation of a computerised reading intervention for children with high risk for poor reading outcomes

Developmental dyslexia is found in 30 to 65% of the children from high risk families (parent or sibling affected). The computerised GraphoGame training program aims to improve reading acquisition for children with a high risk for developing reading and spelling problems. GraphoGame® is a learning platform developed at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland to support poor reading children during reading acquisition. Here, we present the concept and design of the new Swiss GraphoGame, which at a linguistic level has been developed to especially suit the needs of children speaking an orthographically semi-transparent language (German). The efficacy of this computerised intervention is currently being evaluated with (Swiss) German speaking children at risk for reading and spelling disabilities in the middle and the end of first grade. Upon successful evaluation of this intervention, the computerised training game may be used by parents, teachers and therapists to help children with special needs with regard to reading acquisition.