Fresh from an international toy fair in the US, Howe is full of enthusiasm for his latest projects. He's working on books, DVDs, electronics, and maybe even a TV show, all based around the idea of making reading easy for children.

"At the moment, I'm working on a game that will teach different languages, " he said.

"I started with Irish, but because our sales are so big in the States, and there's such a large Spanish-speaking population there, I've started focusing on a Spanish-based game. I'll be travelling to South America in the next few weeks to do some research."

While Howe is busy with his Spanish venture, his partner and co-founder of the Magictaxi company, David Conn, is working on electronic versions of the original Mentalogy game. "We're developing the character of 'Professor Mentalogy', who we think is a really fun character for kids, " said Conn.

"We're in talks with a company in the States to develop an interactive DVD using the professor's character, as well as a Vtech version of the board game which will also be interactive" Magictaxi is also preparing to launch a French-language version of Mentalogy, to cater for buyers in Canada, France and Belgium. "It's a slow process, but we're working towards catering for all the European countries too, " said Conn.

The original version of Mentalogy is a high-speed board game that requires players to use their shortterm memory to remember words, numbers and symbols. Howe, who did not learn to read until the age of 27, devised the game when helping his daughter with her learning difficulties.

"She just wasn't picking up anything, and her teachers were at a loss, " he said. "I brought her home, and over 12 weeks I developed a technique to teach her how to think, how to learn, and how to remember. She's now 22 years old, with a degree in biochemistry, and she's going on to do her PhD. It just proves that there's no such thing as a stupid child, just children who don't know how to learn."