Software to help children with dyslexia

Max Lipman's company, Sally Systems Ltd, has produced a computer program aimed at helping children overcome the problems of dyslexia, based on his observation of the tutoring methods that enabled his son to overcome dyslexia and to move from bottom of the class to three A levels and a place in university. 'There are two underlying ideas,' Mr Lipman says. 'One is that you simply have to get the eyes to move in the right way, and the second involves dealing with hand-to-eye coordination. Then you have to find ways of going over things again and again, hopefully so that it doesn't become boring to the user. Most of the work is done using the mouse - it's very important that you can transfer the visual image from the screen into a physical act by moving the hand.'

The program Dyspell costs £411 incl. VAT (or is available for £20 per month rental, plus £30 initial fee, with a one year minimum rental period), comes on 16 diskettes and requires an Amiga with a hard disk (this hardware can also be rented from them). A new version is imminent for IBM compatibles and Acorn machines and will have improved digitised speech, illustrations and the definition of words (for use with teaching English as a second language) - it will however be cheaper, as copies will be made in quantity. Several dozen programs have been sold to date.

Max Lipman's work was in the computer industry, but he sold his business and this is now his retirement project.

Sally Systems Ltd, Upper Bumbles, Saxon Gardens, Taplow, Maidenhead, SL6 ODD (tel 0628 24626).