Sensotec and Lexima partnership

In addition to their shared history and vision, Sensotec and Lexima now also have a shared management.

Sensotec has long been a supplier to Lexima, the Dutch market leader in dyslexia tools and resources. Effective January 2020, Falk Beerten, owner of Sensotec, will take over Lexima’s management duties from former owner Harry Kleintjens. Harry considers Falk the right person to not only further develop Lexima’s vision of an integrated approach to addressing reading problems in the Netherlands, but also to introduce that same approach in Flanders. With this move, Harry can approach retirement with confidence.

17/01/2020: Harry symbolically hands over the first Lexima nameplate to Falk.

Lexima

Lexima was founded in 2002 by Harry Kleintjens and his wife Ria Janssen. At that time, the Netherlands was still in its infancy when it came to addressing and treating dyslexia. Driven by their strong combination of therapeutic knowledge (Ria) and economic training (Harry), Lexima grew into the leader in this segment on the Dutch market. Today, the company has more than 30 employees, including educational consultants, technical experts, product developers and communication specialists. The focus has gradually shifted from raising awareness and providing tools to developing a holistic plan for approaching dyslexia and functional illiteracy in collaboration with schools, government and the business community.

Shared vision: Stronger together!

Sensotec and Lexima will continue to operate independently, but will of course seek out synergies. For example, the Flemish R&D team can help support Dutch product development, while Flanders can in turn learn from Dutch efforts and expertise in the prevention, treatment and holistic approach to reading problems.

Prevention: uncharted territory in Flanders

The Flemish government recently made great strides in dyslexia policy with its LeesVoor Vlaanderen (Read Aloud Flanders) project, which provides pupils with free literacy software, such as Alinea and Kurzweil, they can use to read texts aloud to them. But Flanders still has a long way to go compared to the Netherlands. While individual schools are expending a great deal of energy and resources, many children and youngsters with reading problems continue to run up against barriers. The impact of these problems is huge, both personally and socially.

Enhancing prevention in Flanders by transferring a great deal of knowledge and a number of powerful software tools from the Lexima portfolio is key to the early detection and even prevention of many reading problems.

Prevention alone is not enough

The range of products focusing on treatment (remediation) will also be further developed. By offering an online reading platform, we aim to form a foundation that makes reading fun for pupils, thus motivating them to read more. To that end, we will soon be offering the right kind of support for every age group, the aim being to kick off the positive spiral of making reading fun for pupils, which in turn motivates them to read more, ultimately improving their reading skills!