Noticing early language needs, through play.
ABACA turns early language screening into short picture-book games that children aged 4 to 6 play at home. Families and speech and language therapists get a clearer picture, sooner.
The challenge
Language difficulties are common, and easy to miss
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) affects around two children in every class of thirty. It can affect learning, friendships and wellbeing, yet children with language needs are often quiet and cooperative, and can be hard to spot.
of children at school entry meet criteria for DLD.
children in a typical Reception class.
years of age: the window ABACA is designed for, before and around school entry.
Source: Norbury, C. F. et al. (2016). The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: evidence from a population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(11), 1247–1257.
Our approach
Short games, played often, at home
Instead of one long test in an unfamiliar room, children play a few minutes at a time, two or three times a week, in a place where they feel comfortable.
Playful
Helping, not testing
Children help friendly characters in a shop and other everyday places. Each task sits inside a small story, with no scores or wrong-answer buzzers.
Adaptive
Right level, every visit
Each visit adjusts to the child's age and recent play, so it is never too easy or too hard.
Private
Parents stay in control
Play records stay on the family's device. Nothing is shared unless the family chooses to send a report.
Games
Six language areas, seven places to visit
Each game looks at one area of language. A visit takes about three to four minutes. Games work best on a tablet held in landscape.
Play now→Fruit Shop
Customers ask for things they want to buy. The child finds each one on the shelf and puts it in the basket.
Play now→Teach Pip!
Pip has come from a faraway star to learn Earth words. The child names each picture, and a grown-up beside them marks the answer.
Following sentences
The child shows what a longer sentence means.
Say it back
The child repeats sentences spoken by a character.
Silly words
The child repeats made-up words of different lengths.
Yesterday
The child tells what a character did.
Remember it
The child holds a short list in mind.
Games 3 to 7 are shown with working titles.
For families
Play together at home
- Two or three short visits a week, on your own tablet.
- No scores or labels on screen. Your child simply plays.
- Once a game has loaded, it keeps working if the internet drops.
- If you decide to see a speech and language therapist, you can send them a report of your child's play.
For speech and language therapists
A clearer first look
- Repeated observations over several weeks, not a single snapshot.
- Item-level records: responses, response times, and non-responses kept separate from errors.
- Reports arrive only when a family requests one and chooses the recipient.
- Designed to support professional judgement, never to replace it.
The platform
Five sources of evidence, one picture
ABACA brings together what parents observe, what children do in direct language tasks, and how they learn over repeated sessions.
Parent questionnaire
Structured parent report on the child's everyday communication.
Direct language tasks
The games above, covering six language areas.
On-screen fine motor tasks
Short touch-based activities.
Sequence learning tasks
Activities that observe how a child learns an ordered pattern.
Broca's Pack
A physical play kit, read by on-device computer vision. Only piece positions are stored, never video of the child.
Behaviour Grammar: a proposed methodology
Most screening tools record only whether an answer is right. ABACA also records how a child learns: discovering a rule, adapting when it changes, and self-correcting across sessions. We call this Behaviour Grammar. It builds on research into procedural learning and language (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005; Lum et al., 2014). Whether it adds predictive value is an open research question that our validation studies are designed to test. The platform does not depend on it.
Development status
Where we are now
Available now
Game 1, Fruit Shop, and Game 2, Teach Pip!: working web apps with item-level records. Fruit Shop adds offline play and adaptive levels; Teach Pip! records answers with parental consent for later review. Technology Readiness Level 3–4.
In development
The remaining five games, the parent questionnaire, and a secure report flow to speech and language therapists.
Planned
Field validation with around 30 children in the UK and 30 in South Korea, led with qualified speech and language therapists.
Company
Paper Capers Ltd
ABACA is developed by Paper Capers Ltd, a UK company that has spent four years designing, manufacturing and distributing paper-based learning tools for children. All software and intellectual property are owned by Paper Capers.
| Registered designs | 139 UK registered designs, including 'Paper Link' (No. 6290137) |
| Alibaba.com CoCreate Pitch Europe 2025 | Top 30, London final |
| 2021 | Recognised by the Mayor of London and UCL Innovation & Enterprise |
Team
The people behind ABACA
- Hyekyung Choi · Founder & CEO
- Janghyun Lee · Core Contributor, digital platform and information security
- Chanho Park · Venture Partner, language education content and cognitive analysis