Chennai college team develops module to help dyslexic kids

CHENNAI: Spelling simple words, recognizing a word and connecting it with its meaning or a pictoral representation may be routine tasks for most but for millions of dyslexic children it is a significant step in their ladder of learning. It is for such kids that a team of city-based KCG College of Technology students developed a learning module.
‘Lexi Check’, which bagged the top prize in the Smart India Hackathon finals in June under ‘Smart Communication/Education’ category, is like a game and is meant to help children in the 5-14 age group overcome learning difficulties.
It comprises plywood slabs arranged like a hexagon and embedded with an electric circuit with LED lights that can be manipulated with a microcontroller. “Different letters are flashed on each of the slabs using the microcontroller while the child is instructed to step on the slabs that will form a word. A pressure sensor detects if the child has stepped on to the right slab. We didn’t want it to become boring for a child hence we felt it would be better in the form of a game. With this we are trying to see if motor movement and visual/auditory responses can be checked and track the child’s learning levels,” said Tulasi Bai, ECE department head who mentored the team.
Words comprising 2-7 letters can be formed at this stage as the team is targeting students in younger age group. The team felt playing with words would be more useful to screen brain coordination with motor movements of the child and wanted to adopt a multisensory approach.
“There are different kinds of learning difficulties – auditory, visual and kinaesthetic which deal with motor movement. We have so far tried English and Hindi letters in the hackathon but when we take it to rural schools, we also hope to incorporate Tamil letters,” said Jemi, a team member who said they were reaching out to schools. One kit per school would be enough it can be used for multiple children, says the team.
With the prize money of Rs 1 lakh, the team now hopes to build more kits and is now trying to make the kit more long-lasting or come out with lighter slabs similar to mats.
The team was among the 106 which reached the grand finale of the hackathon where more than 50,000 students from 752 institutions from across the country participated.