How technology helps integrating neurodivergents
There was a time when students with different cognitive abilities — dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, autism or attention disorders — were taken care of by specialised schools or at home. But now that the diagnosis has made tremendous progress, and that this group of children represent a fifth of a classroom (TDAH France), it has become impossible to ignore them, and integrating them into neurotypical classes is not an option anymore.
The French Government recently reacted to this challenge with two interesting initiatives.
First, the Government revealed a 680 million euro budget to strengthen early detection, care and support, as well as the opening of 400 000 adapted classes (Source). Edtech solutions have a key role to play in this matter, and represent a great opportunity to deliver social impact at scale. That’s why the topic has been on top of our minds at Educapital for a while.
Here is a quick snapshot of our most insightful findings!
It all starts in the classroom, during childhood
There is no cure without a diagnosis, and we come from no diagnosis to an underdiagnosis of our children (at least for dys pupils). This is partly due to the fact that understanding brain dysfunctions affecting oral speaking, reading, computation and writing has taken a giant step as late as the early 2000s with the impact of big data on cognitive research.
The diagnosis’ costs and lack of specialized professionals are still strong hurdles to good detection coverage of our children. Indeed, a recent Senate report revealed that out of the 430 000 children with disabilities enrolled in French schools, 288 000 of them require individual support. However, only 125,000 qualified individuals are available to provide such support. Moreover, diagnosis for dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, autism or attention disorders range from 300€ to 500€ in France.
Hopefully, famous neurologist Hervé Glasel demonstrated with practical experiences that well-supported neuro-divergent children have the potential to thrive just as much as their peers (Le Monde). His studies show that children whose parents have opted for customized programs for 2 to 4 years before reintegrating them later into the regular system demonstrate performance levels on par with their counterparts (see IFEA Education applying those principles).
That’s where adaptive learning, specialized toolkits, pre-diagnosis and digital therapy solutions come in ! But first, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of grown-ups neurodivergents to understand the pain they felt later on in life.
The corporate word that is still generating a lot of exclusion
Learning disorders do not stop with school. People struggling with written and oral language disorders represent a large part of the population — 7 million in France — and are quite integrated in the workforce (Les Échos). Indeed, among those who are working, 80% are in full-time positions and 70% hold permanent contracts.
But people are still hiding their neuro-divergence. For instance, less than a quarter of individuals with dyslexia mention it on their resumes. It has also been shown that older individuals are less inclined to discuss these disorders than younger generations.
This reluctance to share demonstrates a need for a more inclusive workplace. Creating such an environment is not only a question of work ethics, but also a question of productivity and well-being. The more those challenges are shared, the more employers can provide adapted tools mitigating the productivity effects and empowering those employees.
Studies have shown that most active workers with learning disorders do not require help with their work but rather appropriate tools and schedules, as well as human support to help them prioritize. A study shows that a disability referent is able to manage 90% of needs expressed by those employees. Implementing solutions such as MerciApp — a powerful writing assistant solution — does not only bring progress but also confidence to people suffering from dyslexia or dysorthography. This also gives them a better chance to secure a job or and internal mobility opportunities.
Finally, the challenge would be to shift from seeing neuro-divergence as a handicap but rather a difference — and a difference from which big talents can emerge as well. Indeed, a few people know that many great successful entrepreneurs and C-levels are neuro-divergent. One surprising story is that Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad was dyslexic and gave each of his products a distinct Swedish name because working with typical inventory numbers was difficult for him (we are all different difficulties then!). Mentra — a Sam Altman backed company — addresses this issue. The company redefines hiring by considering neuro-divergent traits and employing advanced algorithms, ensuring a precise match between individuals and job role descriptions.
EdTech helps neurodivergent from pre-diagnosis to therapy — or as co-pilots
As we can see above, pre-diagnosis and therapy tools are plentiful.
- Reading focused solutions providing personalized and gamified exercises increasingly leveraging AI — such as GoLexic, Maneno, and Early Bird Education.
- Generalist cognitive focused solutions — from pre-diagnosis marketplace Kanjo to gamified therapy apps Poppins for speech therapy or Lusha, Joon for emotions management.
Regarding daily companions, three value propositions are particularly relevant.
- Daily school companions — to increase children’s autonomy and progress — especially during class. Cantoo offers an all-in-one workspace environment equipped with a variety of tools, while Kardi operates as a software and hardware marketplace. LearnEnjoy specializes in developing educational software that allows children to grasp knowledge at their own pace, ensuring a strong foundation.These tools not only benefit students but also help teachers maximize their impact in the learning process.
- Writing and reading assistants — Mobydis, Glaaster, and MYDys by FACIL’iti are tools that aim to improve access to written materials. Mobydis focuses on providing a diverse range of books and textbooks tailored to the specific needs of dyslexic children, offering materials suitable for different reading proficiency levels and various formatting options. In contrast, Glaaster and MYdys utilize OCR technology to instantly adapt different types of content, such as textbooks, newspapers, menus to accommodate the preferences and requirements of individual users.
Coaching tools — helping adults improve their mental health and productivity. Startups are dedicated to assisting both diagnosed and un-diagnosed individuals. HelloSelf and Inflow, for instance, provide accessible and affordable coaching coupled with educational content when Numo serves ADHD gamifies daily tasks.
The mental health solutions for the workplace, like Unmind or Moka.care, but also meditation apps like Headspace can also be helpful tools for neurodivergents to clear mind and reach mental sharpness and thrive.
That’s all good, but what about the market perspective?
We believe that the market of neurodivergence is still largely untapped.
For tools addressing neurodivergent workers, the path should not be so difficult. By having a direct impact on the talents’ well-being and productivity, they should be on top of the HR and DE&I agendas in the years to come.While coaching tools as well as writing & reading assistant leaders are already emerging, there are still very few lifelong therapy tools — at least on the European market.
As for cognitive therapy tools, being at the frontiers of EdTech, Gaming and HealthTech, they face the challenges of both medical validation to access reimbursement and large R&D costs — without yet benefiting from dedicated state budgets in education. In France, the recent decisions made regarding neurodivergent pupils is a good first step to foster innovation. But a real market opportunity will only come from recurring dedicated budgets at state level.
Special thanks to our readers, as well as Thomas Kamdem for the cowritting. You are a founder addressing neurodivergent people and you would like to reach out ? Contact me at gf@educapitalvc.com or on Linkedin. 📥
