What is LukuLab’s approach
LukuLab is a special reading program for struggling and dyslexic learners aged 6 - 11. Our web-site offers an array of practical tasks that lead struggling readers towards reading proficiency.
We are Finland-based team, LukuLab in Finnish means Reading Laboratory. Our program is, in fact, a laboratory for cutting-edge linguistic and educational technologies.
We believe that learning is driven by curiosity. We teach through guided tasks rather than through explanatory presentation. The tasks themselves become the child’s teacher.
Our research has identified more than 50 small skills that a child needs to read fluently. Our program tests each child’s skills and creates a “learning portrait” that shows how good the child is at the skills we evaluate. This portrait is constantly changing as the child learns. Looking at this portrait, our program draws a personal path for each child from skill to skill, from level to level.
At the most basic levels a child echoes the models they hear. At the highest level they solve tricky word puzzles. Our program takes into consideration that a child may be advanced in one skill and struggle with another. With the help of LukuLab the child receives a set of tasks that perfectly match their needs.
It is important that struggling readers work a little at a time but very often. Every day the child receives a task that consists of 9 exercises. Each exercise will take them 2 - 3 minutes, so even children with attention deficits can complete it easily.
All tasks prepare children to read stories. These stories are engaging and relatable, they are written specifically for LukuLab with our educational goals in mind. Through these stories the child works on all the skills that they learned that day.
We believe that the children are the masters of their own studies. They decide the order in which they complete the tasks by themselves. They can choose what to do first, and what to do later - read, complete oral exercises or play.
Some tasks children can do alone. In some cases they need the help of an adult - a parent, an older sibling, a volunteer. To help a child, adults do not need to have special training or to prepare in advance, because each exercise has clear instructions and an answer key.