Dyslexia is a lifelong neurological disorder that causes difficulty decoding a language's phonological components. Kids with dyslexia struggle with word recognition, spelling, reading, and decoding. Children will begin to show signs of these difficulties around the age of 5.
While dyslexia is a lifelong condition, proper teaching and intervention methods can help strengthen an individual's ability to process sound-symbol relationships and language. However, the standard method educators use to teach phonological components is a method known as print-to-speech, where a written word is then sounded out. The issue that commonly arises is that the human brain is not wired to understand written languages in a phonological context. For kids with dyslexia, it requires extra effort to connect sounds to letters. Luckily, several alternative methods can be used to teach kids with dyslexia.
Teaching Stratgies
Speech to Print
A teaching method that introduces verbal cues, such as sounds, and then translates them into written words and letters. This approach aligns with how the brain naturally understands spoken language.
High Leverage
A teaching method that simplifies the English language. For example, it uses lowercase letters and emphasizes the sound of each letter rather than its name.
Mulit-Sensory
This method engages all the senses so the kid sees a visual representation of the word, hears, spells, and reads it. It is considered one of the most effective approaches.
It can be seen that the toy market lacks phonic awareness toys that cater to the most effective methods for teaching kids with dyslexia.
Ideation: Sketches
Choosen Concept
Several concepts were presented to an elementary school teacher who specialize in working with kids who have dyslexia to gauge which concept would be the most beneficial. Overwhelmingly, the response was in favor of the concept pictured here. The reasoning is that most of the available tools are for stationary desk work, and kids who find spelling difficult will be unwilling to sit down and engage with toys based on a challenging and often frustrating activity. The full-body movement aspect would be more engaging and would distract from the challenge.
Ideation: Panels
A series of low-fidelity prototypes determined the best layout and spacing of the panels.
Final Design
