What is the name of your organization?
Finnegan the Dragon
What is the name of your solution?
Finnegan the Dragon
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
AI-Driven Insights for Better Reading Readiness
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Portland, OR, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
USA
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
The growing dependence on screens in early childhood has created a language and literacy crisis, impacting millions of children during their most critical years of brain development. This crisis is two-fold: First, the steady rise of passive screen time consumption has significantly reduced the amount of active language use in young children. Today, the average three-year-old spends over three hours a day watching passive content, resulting in approximately 1,700 fewer words spoken daily. Second, this dramatic reduction in verbal interaction is contributing to a developmental lag that leaves children less prepared to acquire literacy skills once they reach school age. In 2023, the CDC lowered language development benchmarks for the first time in 30 years, reflecting a troubling national trend. Each year, more and more children under the age of six are experiencing language delays—currently numbering in the millions—and by third grade, 6.5 million are not reading at grade level, a milestone that strongly predicts future academic and economic challenges. As passive screen time rises, so does the urgency for targeted, data-driven interventions to ensure children develop the speech, language, and early literacy skills essential for lifelong learning.
What is your solution?
The solution is a two-fold, blended learning system designed to directly address this developmental lag and reshape how families and educators engage with young children around language and literacy. First, the system delivers targeted, speech-to-print instruction that supports the development of speech, language, and early literacy skills. This approach can be implemented offline or in the classroom, providing flexible, evidence-based support for children during their most formative years. Teachers track language and early literacy benchmarks through the LMS Teacher Hub, entering observational and assessment data to monitor progress and guide instruction. Second, it includes a digital, family-facing tool that extends learning beyond the classroom. This tool helps families stay connected to offline and classroom instruction, increases the number of words spoken in the home, and reframes screen time as a tool for continued learning—not as a service for silencing children. In addition, we use AI to synthesize information gathered by educators and offline instructors, along with data collected through the game-based platform, to create personalized learning plans. These adaptive plans identify patterns of strengths and weaknesses in children ages 2.5 to 7, allowing for early detection of delays and timely intervention during the most critical window for brain development.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
We are working to directly and meaningfully improve the lives of young children from underserved communities, particularly those living at or below 250% of the federal poverty line. Our team has deep experience supporting these populations through previous collaborations with Head Start programs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)—translating early literacy science into accessible, equitable tools for families and educators.
Despite this support, children in these communities remain among the most underserved. Many rely on Head Start or Preschool for All as their sole access to early education, and increasingly, they are exposed to 7–8 hours of passive screen time per day. Large telecommunications companies and streaming services aggressively market screen-based products to low-income families, promoting screen use as a substitute for meaningful human interaction and developmentally rich learning. These trends have contributed to significant developmental delays in language and literacy. We aim to reverse this by providing tools that meet families where they are—bridging home and classroom learning, increasing verbal engagement, and ensuring that all children, regardless of income, have a strong foundation for lifelong success.
