16yo wins $10,000 to help dyslexic kids beat reading barriers.
A dyslexic teenager who struggled to read for many years has come up with a clever idea to help other dyslexic students – and has won a $10,000 prize package in a competition devised by children’s finance app, SquareOne, to bring it to life.
Ruby-Grace Miller, 16, devised a card-based game to help dyslexic youngsters understand prefixes and suffixes and how they are used to form words. The idea was inspired by an experience she had in Year 8, when a relieving teacher explained to her in detail how they work, which made a huge difference to her ability to read.
Called FIX, the resource designed for children in Years 5-8 has been chosen as the winning business idea in a nationwide young entrepreneurs’ competition run by SquareOne and radio station The Hits. Miller, from Christchurch, is thrilled that the $10,000 prize package includes operating cash and mentoring sessions to make her idea a reality.
“I’m super-excited at the thought of seeing FIX in schools and shops,” says Miller. “It’s made by a dyslexic for dyslexics; I wish I’d had something like this when I was younger.”
Relieving teacher “Mrs Campbell” changed her life at intermediate school. “She taught me what a prefix and a suffix was, and I started understanding things I hadn’t understood before. It was crazy, I went from reading at the same level as my five-year-old brother to being at the ability you should be for your age. I want to give other people the opportunity to do the same thing.”
Now in Year 12, Miller says dyslexia still presents challenges, but hasn’t stopped her from doing things like launching another business (making eco-friendly lip balm), being a member of the Christchurch Youth Council, and doing a couple of University of Canterbury papers while still at secondary school.
She came up with the idea for FIX last year and started work on creating multi-sensory cards that use phonics combined with prefixes and suffixes to make words.
“The idea is to continue the sound-based education children get when they are younger but stops when you are older,” says Miller, who also has an idea for a workbook that can help dyslexic youngsters. “I found that once I entered year 6, the educational support you got before then was gone. There was nothing for intermediate and high school students, which was really frustrating. I wanted to fill that gap.
“I’ve just started making a prototype. There’s not just a visual and physical part to putting the words together using the cards, but the cards are three-dimensional which helps people with dyslexia to feel and understand the word’s shape.”
The careful thought and attention to detail Miller has put into developing her product, along with its potential for growth, helped to win over the judges of the competition – was called Dragon’s Ben (in reference to the TV show Dragons’ Den and The Hits breakfast host Ben Boyce of Jono and Ben).
“We were so impressed with Ruby-Grace,” says SquareOne co-founder Jamie Jermain. “We had over 300 entries and there were a lot of amazing ideas but she stood out because of how much work she had put into it, and how she was thinking about promoting it going forward.”
SquareOne, which Jermain set up with business partner Jovan Pavlicevic in 2021, is a digital wallet that operates as a child’s first bank account. It allows youngsters to earn, save and spend, all under the supervision of their parents, who have real-time oversight of the account.
As well as coming with a debit card – that can’t be used at ATMs or over-18 retail outlets like liquor stores – it also has “pockets” where kids can deposit money and easily see their savings accruing through the app.
The educational element of FIX also appealed: “The whole premise of SquareOne is about teaching kids better money habits. We’ve had a lot of feedback through our app about how it has helped kids, including those with special needs and learning difficulties. So supporting a young Kiwi with a good business idea that can help kids with dyslexia is something we’re really keen to do.
“When we were kids, we had cash we could put into a piggy bank or a jar and you could see your savings building up,” says Jermain, who like Pavlicevic comes from a background in finance. “In the digital world where cash is less prevalent, it’s harder for kids to have that close association with money and understand about it going in and coming out. But if you can start good habits young, they will hopefully continue when they are older.”
SquareOne, which has almost 200,000 users, allows parents, with the tap of a button, to give their children pocket money or pay them for doing household chores. But it also encourages youngsters to do more than just expect financial handouts from family members.
“We want them to think about ways of bringing in money, so we support entrepreneurial spirit,” says Jermain. “For example, there are features like being able to print out your own QR code to stick on a lemonade stand so people can pay you with a card.
“Thinking about how we could encourage kids to get out and earn their own money was what led to us coming up with the Dragon’s Ben idea and we’ve been so impressed with the ideas we’ve seen. Ruby-Grace really has that entrepreneurial spirit and we can’t wait to start working with her to bring her great idea to life.”
For more information: getsquareone.app