They are whipping up tasty concoctions in their kitchens and hoping for something to click with early adopters who are label-reading at Whole Foods and Fresh Markets.
This was a small-scale study, but Prof Nicolson says the results are on a par with those achieved by the large-scale reading recovery scheme in the early 1990s.
But look who it has appointed to carry it out: Jim Rose, former Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools in England - knighted this summer following his 2006 report into the teaching of early reading, with its emphasis on synthetic phonics.
Both UK-based services will be launching "early next year, " and will likely be huge upgrades from that lamentable lip-reading contraption currently available.