A Mobile Application to Improve Learning Performance of Dyslexic Children with Writing Difficulties

A neurological learning disability, termed as Dyslexia, is characterized by difficulties in various aspects of writing skills making the individuals unable to develop age-appropriate and ability-appropriate functional skills. In Pakistan, lack of dyslexia awareness and remedial education training restrains the remediation of dyslexic children at early stages. There also exist noticeable affordance and accessibility issues concerning the remedial help and assistive technology adoption. In this research, we have developed a mobile learning application for android-powered devices that targets developmental progression and usability requirements of dyslexic children with writing difficulties. Our center of interest was to improve introductory writing skills of dyslexic children along with consistent evaluation of their learning performance to highlight the weak areas of learning process. To achieve this objective, we have designed a Writers Learning Algorithm (WLA) based on computational model of learning. We assessed the effectiveness and usability of the developed application in collaboration with dyslexic students as well as remedial teachers at selected dyslexia institutions in Pakistan. The preliminary assessment results concluded that application has justified its role in terms of representation, evaluation and optimization of writing proficiency of young dyslexic writers.