by dragana.maksimovic -

Choosing the right approach – Where to start?

After discussing my topic and thinking about what the first prototype could look like, I have decided to narrow down my approach. The goal is to create a simple learning experience from start to finish, that could be tested in a real life situation.

First step was to discover the struggles that children with cognitive disabilities face in traditional learning environments. After that, I looked into different curriculums for the first 3 grades of elementary school, as that would be the demographic that I want to address for the start. While doing my research, I came across an interesting observation. Children with cognitive disabilities, more specifically ASD, often struggle with subjects like math, but when approached carefully by their teachers, with special care and focus on the subject, they thrive and become very good.

Looking into existing solutions for interactive math learning platforms, I’ve realizes that there is a lot of online learning platforms that offer interactive and engaging experiences. Platforms like Starfall and CTC Math are popular choices among educators and parents for enhancing math learning. However, when it comes to catering to children with cognitive disabilities, there is room for improvement.

1. Starfall: A Playful Approach to Learning

Strengths

Engaging Content – Starfall is renowned for its engaging and visually appealing content that captures the interest of young learners. Its use of animations, songs, and interactive activities makes learning fun and helps to keep students engaged for longer periods.

Foundational Skills Focus – The platform emphasizes foundational math skills, such as counting, addition, and subtraction, which are crucial for young learners and serve as the building blocks for more complex math concepts. This is particularly beneficial for students who need to strengthen their basic math skills.

Accessibility – Starfall offers a user-friendly interface with simple navigation, making it accessible for young children and those with limited digital literacy.

Limitations for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

Lack of Personalized Learning Paths – While Starfall provides a range of activities, it lacks the ability to create personalized learning paths that adapt to the individual needs and progress of each student. Children with cognitive disabilities often benefit from tailored instruction that meets their specific learning requirements.

Limited Support for Higher-Order Skills – The platform’s focus on basic skills means it does not adequately support the development of higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for more advanced math learning. This can limit its usefulness as students progress to higher grade levels.

Minimal Sensory Accommodations – Starfall does not offer significant sensory accommodations such as adjustable audio levels, customizable visual settings, or alternative input methods that could benefit students with sensory processing disorders or other cognitive disabilities.

2. CTC Math: Comprehensive Learning with Room for Growth

Strengths

Comprehensive Curriculum – CTC Math offers a comprehensive curriculum that covers a wide range of math topics from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus. This breadth ensures that students can progress through the curriculum at their own pace and access material appropriate for their grade level and ability.

Interactive Lessons – The platform features interactive lessons with step-by-step video tutorials, which can be particularly helpful for visual and auditory learners. This format allows students to revisit and review lessons as needed, reinforcing their understanding of key concepts.

Assessment Tools – CTC Math provides extensive assessment tools, including quizzes and tests that allow educators to monitor student progress and identify areas where additional support is needed. This feature is useful for tracking the development of students with cognitive disabilities and tailoring instruction to their needs.

Limitations for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

Limited Customization – Despite its comprehensive curriculum, CTC Math does not offer significant customization options to adapt lessons to the unique learning needs of students with cognitive disabilities. Personalized learning experiences that cater to individual strengths and challenges are essential for these students.

Complex Interface – The platform’s interface can be overwhelming for students with cognitive disabilities, who may struggle with navigation and the multitude of features available. Simplifying the user interface and providing clear, intuitive navigation could improve accessibility for these students.

Insufficient Sensory Support – CTC Math lacks features that address the sensory needs of students with cognitive disabilities, such as adjustable contrast, text-to-speech capabilities, or interactive elements that cater to sensory preferences. Incorporating these features could significantly enhance the learning experience for these students.

3. Improving Math Learning Platforms for Everyday Classroom Use

Enhancing Personalization

One of the primary ways to improve math learning platforms for students with cognitive disabilities is through enhanced personalization. Adaptive learning technologies that tailor content to the individual needs, pace, and learning style of each student can provide more effective and inclusive educational experiences. Incorporating algorithms that adjust the difficulty of tasks and offer personalized feedback can help ensure that each student receives the appropriate level of challenge and support.

Simplifying User Interfaces

A common barrier to accessibility in existing math learning platforms is complex user interfaces. Simplifying these interfaces by reducing clutter, using clear and consistent navigation elements, and providing visual cues can make the platforms more user-friendly for students with cognitive disabilities. Features such as larger buttons, minimalistic design, and straightforward instructions can help these students navigate the platform more independently.

Incorporating Sensory Accommodations

To better serve students with sensory processing issues, math learning platforms should incorporate a variety of sensory accommodations. Options like adjustable audio settings, customizable visual themes, and the ability to use tactile or kinesthetic inputs can create a more inclusive learning environment. Additionally, providing alternative input methods, such as speech recognition or switch access, can make the platforms more accessible to students with a range of physical and cognitive disabilities.

Providing Real-Time Feedback and Support

Platforms should include features that offer real-time feedback and support to help students understand their progress and areas for improvement. Interactive elements that provide instant feedback on tasks and offer hints or explanations for incorrect answers can facilitate learning and prevent frustration. Incorporating a help feature that allows students to ask questions or seek assistance can also be beneficial, particularly for those who may struggle with certain concepts.

Encouraging Collaboration and Social Interaction

Math learning platforms can benefit from incorporating features that encourage collaboration and social interaction among students. Tools such as shared problem-solving activities, collaborative projects, and discussion forums can help students develop important social skills and learn from their peers. For students with cognitive disabilities, these features can provide valuable opportunities for social engagement and support.

References:

Starfall. (2024). https://www.starfall.com/h/index-grades123.php

CTC Math. (2024). https://www.ctcmath.com/

https://www.adinaaba.com/post/teaching-math-to-students-with-autism

https://autism.org

by dragana.maksimovic -

Challenges of traditional learning environments

To better understand how to approach my idea next, I wanted to look closer into what challenges children with cognitive disabilities face and which methods could be used to create a more inclusive and supportive environment.

When asked which struggles they encountered while in school, people with autism and ADHD gave some of the most common challenges:

  • Difficulty with Social Interaction – Struggling to understand social cues and engage in typical social interactions, as well as working in groups and speaking in front of people
  • Difficulty Processing Information – Finding it hard to focus on tasks, getting easily distracted and needing time to process new information
  • Communication Difficulties – Being misunderstood, seen as rude when using blunt language which often leads to feeling overwhelmed and anxious
  • Sensory Challenges – Sensory overwhelm from loud noises, lights and bigger crowds
  • Rules, Routines, and Expectations – Often not understanding instructions or expectations, as well as having trouble understanding inconsistent rules and changing routines

There are many ways in which these issues can be addresses. After doing some research I found a couple of suggestions that could help children with cognitive disabilities, while also keeping the learning environment motivating for all other children:

  • Using Concrete Language and Visual Aids –Clear, concise instructions and visual aids can help autistic children understand what is expected of them. Demonstrations and visual schedules can provide the structure they need to succeed
  • Step-by-step instruction –Breaking down lessons into sequential steps allows students to grasp each component before moving on to the next. This approach reduces confusion and builds a solid foundation of understanding.
  • Repeated practice and reinforcement – Providing opportunities for students to practice and reinforce their skills ensures mastery and retention of concepts.
  • Sensory Accommodation – Identify sensory triggers and find ways to reduce them. This might include providing noise-canceling headphones, creating a quiet corner in the classroom, or using dim lighting to create a calmer environment.
  • Consistent, Calm Communication – Use a steady, calm tone of voice when addressing children, especially when giving feedback. They can be sensitive to changes in tone, which can affect their understanding and response.

References:

https://lighthouseautismcenter.com/blog/why-autistic-children-have-difficulty-learning-regular-classroom

https://www.authenticallyemily.uk/blog/challenges-autistic-and-adhd-children-face-at-school-and-what-can-help

https://www.autismconnect.com/blogs/challenges-faced-by-kids-with-autism-in-classrooms

by dragana.maksimovic -

Fonts designed for dyslexia

“Every child and adult should be able to realize their reading potential. By dedicating our resources towards awareness and considering different and complex studies on Dyslexia, we’re always evolving to make the user-friendly font accessible in today’s digital and print landscape.” – Christian Boer

Fonts designed for dyslexia aim to improve readability and reduce visual stress for people with dyslexia. These fonts typically incorporate specific features to enhance the reading experience for dyslexic readers. To design the dyslexia-friendly typeface, all typography rules and standards were ignored. Here are some common characteristics of dyslexia-friendly fonts:

1. Open and unique Letterforms: Dyslexia-friendly fonts often feature open letterforms to make it easier to distinguish between letters. This means that letters have distinct shapes and are less likely to be confused with one another such as „b“ and „d“.

2. Increased Letter Spacing: Wider letter spacing prevents letters from merging into one another, reducing the chances of misreading.

3. Weight Variation: Some dyslexia-friendly fonts use variations in stroke thickness to make letters more distinct.

4. Clear Descenders and Ascenders: Descenders (the parts of letters that extend below the baseline, such as in ‚g‘ or ‚y‘) and ascenders (the parts that extend above the x-height, such as in ‚h‘ or ‚b‘) are often more prominent in dyslexia-friendly fonts, making it easier to differentiate between letters.

Several fonts have been designed specifically for people with dyslexia over the years, and some of them are:

– Dyslexie: Developed by Christian Boer, Dyslexie is a typeface that incorporates many of the aforementioned features. It has gained popularity for its efforts to enhance readability for dyslexic readers.

– OpenDyslexic: This font is open-source and freely available. It emphasizes distinct letter shapes and increased letter spacing to improve reading for individuals with dyslexia.

– Lexie Readable: Lexie Readable is a font designed by Lexie Dyslexia Institute. It focuses on clarity and simplicity, with open letterforms and increased spacing.

San serif fonts are also a great way to help someone who has dyslexia. San serif fonts create more visual separation between the letters which helps readers read and comprehend texts more easily. Here are some standard san serif fonts that would be good options when designing for people with dyslexia:

  • Helvetica
  • Verdana
  • Arial
  • Century Gothic
  • Tahoma
  • Trebuchet

There is no hard research that proves that fonts designed for dyslexia improve reading speed. However, a master thesis by Renske de Leeuw of the University of Twente found that fonts like Dyslexie had an overall reduction in reading errors.

It’s important to note that while these fonts may be helpful for some individuals with dyslexia, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Different people may find different fonts more or less helpful based on their individual needs and preferences. Additionally, other factors such as background color, text size, and line spacing can also influence readability for individuals with dyslexia.

References and relevant links:

https://dyslexiefont.com/en/typeface/?_ga=2.246587012.1697522350.1702816263-1541481720.1702816263

https://medium.com/codex/accessibility-fonts-and-dyslexia-3cc495795127

https://www.dyslexia-reading-well.com/dyslexia-font.html

https://www.k-type.com/fonts/lexie-readable/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwuMhDNi1_w&ab_channel=Seeker

by dragana.maksimovic -

Understanding dyslexia

“Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.” ( Rose, 2009.)

Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder. It is estimated that 1 in 5 kids has dyslexia and they often show signs even before starting school.

Signs of dyslexia (Martinelli, 2023)

A young person with dyslexia may:

  • Struggle with learning even simple rhymes
  • Have a speech delay
  • Have trouble following directions
  • Repeat or omit short words such as and, the, but
  • Find it difficult to tell left from right

In school, children with dyslexia are likely to:

  • Have difficulty sounding out new words
  • Lack fluency compared to other children their age
  • Reverse letters and numbers when reading (read saw as was, for example)
  • Find it difficult to take notes and copy down words from the board
  • Struggle with rhyming, associating sounds with letters, and sequencing and ordering sounds
  • Stumble and have difficulty spelling even common words; frequently they will spell them phonetically (hrbr instead of harbor)
  • Avoid being called on to read out loud in front of classmates
  • Become tired or frustrated from reading

Dyslexia affects children outside of school as well. Kids with dyslexia may also:

  • Find it difficult to decode logos and signs
  • Struggle when trying to learn the rules to games
  • Have difficulty keeping track of multi-step directions
  • Struggle with getting the hang of telling time
  • Find it especially challenging to learn another language
  • Become incredibly frustrated, which can effect their mood and emotional stability

A dyslexia diagnosis is not linked to child’s intelligence and does not mean that the child will never be able to learn. There are many ways to help dyslexic children overcome their difficulties. Dr.  Matthew Cruger, a Neuropsychologist from Child Mind Institute believes these are some of the techniques that could be useful in teaching a child with dyslexia:

  • Multi-sensory instruction in decoding skills
  • Repetition and review of skills
  • Intensity of intervention — that is, more than being pulled out of class once a week for extra help
  • Small group or individual instruction
  • Teaching decoding skills
  • Drilling sight words
  • Teaching comprehension strategies, to help kids derive meaning from what they’re reading

Dr. Cruger states that traditional approach in teaching can be counter-productive for children with dyslexia:

“If the child hates the experience of reading help, it’s not helpful and it’s not treating the source of the problem, the decoding weakness.”

References and relevant links:

https://childmind.org/article/understanding-dyslexia/

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia

https://childmind.org/healthyminds/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH5Ds4_0lO8&ab_channel=Vox

by dragana.maksimovic -

Inclusive educational content for children

Students with disabilities are increasingly spending most or all of their school day in general education classes. Accessible educational materials and technologies are essential to the independence, participation, and progress of these general education students who function in highly varied ways — physical, sensory, and learning (AEM Center).

There are different types of conditions that impact cognitive functions, which include abilities related to learning, memory, problem-solving, attention, and general intellectual functioning. These disabilities can affect a child’s ability to process information, acquire new knowledge, and perform various cognitive tasks, especially in early childhood, which is why it’s important that interactive materials and technologies used for learning are accessible to all children with disabilities.

The idea would be to create content, such as printed or digital book or an interactive platform that is inclusive for children with cognitive disabilities, in a way that encourages engagement through tasks and exercises. While being accessible to those children with cognitive impairments, it should also be alluring to other children and encourage them to interact with the content. The task would be to try and find the middle ground, where the content is exciting enough to keep children interested while also having their possible disabilities in mind.

Ensuring that children with disabilities can participate in a range of activities in early childhood is very important if these children are to benefit from learning environments.

Examples / existing solutions

  • Multisensory learning tools

Multisensory learning involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways to enhance memory and learning of written language, which can be very helpful for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dyslexia, or learning difficulties: https://mein-kleines-baby.de/products/sensory-book-board-erforschen-und-lernen-durch-fuhlen-filzbuch?variant=46486197797202&gclid=CjwKCAiA6byqBhAWEiwAnGCA4PAO3BxCz9ok_h2uLY0IwbjNJTHUfQjN2VnaYXrNJFGHMTfqt2o9IhoCwXUQAvD_BwE

  • AAC devices

For children with communication difficulties, AAC devices, including communication boards and speech-generating devices, can facilitate expression and interaction:

  • Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

Immersive experiences can make learning more engaging and help children understand abstract concepts in a concrete way:

Personal motivation

As someone who has struggled with dyslexia my whole life, I am really passionate about this topic, because I was never treated any differently than my peers in school, even though they didn’t face the same difficulties as me. This obviously affected my learning ability and I was forced to find means of dealing with these issues on my own, which was not an easy task. Thankfully, this didn’t affect my ambitions to continue my education, since my disability was not that severe, but that is not the case for everyone. Young children often struggle a lot to find a way to first understand their disability and then learn how to cope with it.

By creating content that is inclusive for all children, we avoid singling out people with disabilities, while providing them with helpful ways of achieving everything they want and more!

Relevance of design fields

Design fields play a crucial role in creating a positive and effective learning environment. The design of educational spaces encompasses a variety of elements, including architecture, interior design, graphic design, and instructional design.

There is an educational framework called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The goal of UDL is to remove barriers to learning and provide multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression to meet the varying needs and preferences of students. UDL is based on the premise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and that instructional design should be adaptable and accessible to a wide range of learners.

Expected challenges

The term „cognitive disabilities“ is extensive. The research of cognitive disabilities is a multidisciplinary endeavor that involves contributions from various fields, such as psychology, neuroscience, special education, genetics, educational psychology, etc. This might be really challenging and input from a lot of experts as well as people who have experience on the topic will be extremely necessary.

Approach / upcoming research

My next step would be focusing on specific disabilities I would like to address and doing more research on what they represent and how they are traditionally approached in the educational field.

I would also like to learn more about the existing solutions, their pros and cons, and also choose which media channel would be the best to address the problems.

References and relevant links:

https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

https://aem.cast.org/create/creating-accessible-websites

https://uxdesign.cc/universal-design-for-learning-for-students-with-autism-a7d12c0d35f7

https://www.ldau.org/multisensory-teaching-for-dyslexia#:~:text=They%20need%20specialized%20instruction%20to,engagement%20of%20all%20learning%20modalities.

https://4experience.co/vr-ar-teaching-for-students-with-adhd-and-asd/#:~:text=Visual%20Cues%20Help%20a%20Lot,to%20real%2Dworld%20situations%20difficult.

https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/teach-your-child-to-use-an-aac-device/