dysTalk Laptop Design - Dyspraxia - Forum - dysTalk

Hello, my name is Chris and I am new here. I attend the Rhode Island School of Design, and for one of our product assignments, myself and another student have chosen to focus on a product that would assist children with Dyspraxia.

Part of the concept that we are currently discussing involves the use of a laptop computer, as it provides a better ease of access as far as motor is concerned when compared with writing.

Because this product would be designed for children, my partner and myself are having trouble deciding an appropriate size for the keyboard. We want to eliminate unecessary space where possible so that the laptop will be small enough for a child, however, we understand children with dyspraxia often have a hard time controlling their fine motor and need space to work with things like keyboards.

So I wanted to know, do you prefer larger keys on a keyboard? Are the sizes of the keys important? How important? If you were a kid again, would you want the keys of your keyboard to be the size of the keyboards you use now?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, and I thank you all for your time.

10/05/2011 03:08:48
reddcarp (Member)

I forgot to mention the emotional value of this project. The reason we have chosen to focus on dyspraxia is because my younger brother has dyspraxia, and while he is high-functioning, he still experiences a lot of frustration with so many necessary things, such as handwriting. The impact that this has had on my brother and my family are the reasons we want to pursue a solution.

10/05/2011 03:13:11
reddcarp (Member)

Hi Chris

That’s an interesting question. My dyslexic, dyspraxic daughter has used a laptop to word process all her school/ homework since 9 years old, she’s 15 now and the laptop is a great success.

My thoughts on the ideal keyboard for a dyspraxic student;

Keys that require fairly firm pressure to operate, maybe an adjustable pressure control. We encountered quite a lot of frustration when the wrong keys were pressed accidentally particularly in the early days of mastering keyboard control.

Keyboard skins that could be incorporated into the keyboard in some way and could be peeled off and laid on top of the original keyboard. One of the skins could be blank - this would be good for when the student is practicing touch typing. The other skin could have lower cast letters on, which could help with letter confusion.

On the standard keyboard there is a slightly raised line of plastic on the j and f keys these could be made more obvious and it could be useful to do something similar with other keys, maybe the shift and full stop?

Adjustable height legs to give more control over the angle the keyboard.

A memory foam strip or texture wrist rest to make typing more comfortable and encourage a good hand position for dyspraxic students.

A standard key size and layout seemed to suit her and since using a keyboard her fine motor skills have improved immensely.

I hope my comments are useful and that your brother finds using a laptop as successful and as liberating as my daughter.

Good Luck with your product.

10/05/2011 14:43:36
arepol Leibniz

Hi Arepol,

I wanted to thank you for your input. While the pressure issue had occasionally come up in discussion amongst my peers and myself, we did not even think to consider skins to make more out of the keyboard. I really appreciate the feedback and will discuss it with my fellow peers currently working on the project.

Thank you so much for your time.

Chris

10/05/2011 20:39:43
Chris

For my 5 year old dyspraxic daughter she would benefit from a keyboard that didn't contain just capitalised letters, she finds the transition from lower case letters in books to the upper case letters on a laptop very confusing.

She would also benefit from a more tactile experience with the keyboard.

11/05/2011 12:21:56
Nikki R-J

Chris, your project is fabulous! My son's life has completely turned around since using a laptop. May i suggest a good size keyboard with a notebook size. Also a cool outerskin to the laptop. Thes kids are clumsy by nature so netbooks that bounce would be fabulous. My son learned with colour coded keys for each finger so a skin for this might help. I think skins could be the answer - could definitely help Nikki and her 5 yr old.

Good luck in your venture!!

Amanda

20/06/2011 23:03:06
Amanda Harris