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Ten million grade-school-aged children grapple with reading, according to StudyDog, a Beaverton-based startup, and guiding them from sound-it-out reading to devouring a paperback is no small task.
But that, in fact, is the purpose of StudyDog, an internetbased instruction program, and one of the finalists in The Business Journal's Business Plan Competition.
About 50 years of research has gone into understanding the student with reading trouble, said Deme M. Clainos, StudyDog's president and CEO, and yet the number of kids with difficulties has remained steady.
These are children who are not learning disabled, but still are having trouble grasping basic reading skills.
"We have a problem with struggling children, struggling to read," said Clainos, whose resume includes Apple Computer and Portland-based Unicru Inc., a provider of hiring management systems.
StudyDog is a technologist's solution to the reading-problem puzzle, based on research from the National Reading Panel and the fact that many parents cannot afford the kind of instruction needed to supplement their child's education.
Clainos' daughter is an educator. Years ago, the CEO said, he realized the need for a cost-effective program based on the research and advice of educators.
A December 2000 study by the National Reading Panel found that "explicit and...