Enhancing Digital Learning for Special Needs Children: A Study on Customized 3d-printed Styluses

Research Objectives: To investigate the challenges school-aged children, especially those with special needs, face during the transition to primary education, focusing on adapting to digital learning media using tablet styluses, guided by TRIZ principles and 3D printing technology (Chen et al., 2018; Cibrian et al., 2021; Colliot et al., 2024; Kelway et al., 2018; Roda-Sales et al., 2019; Wong, 2020).

Design: Pre-experimental design.

Setting: A medical center's outpatient service for special-needs children

Participants: Seven children aged 6-9 years with diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Interventions: Based on the results of the ACCESS-FM questionnaire to assess school-aged children's needs for tablet styluses, coupled with TRIZ methodology, a modular 3D-printed stylus prototype was developed. This modular prototype features four designs, each with configurations of one or two holes, with or without angles, tailored to meet diverse user requirements. This design was then evaluated after a five-day home trial, where participants practiced tasks from their textbooks for ten minutes daily.

Main Outcome Measures: Performance parameters include tablet operation (accuracy, transcription time, and handwriting recognition), user satisfaction measured through the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST), and any adverse reactions.

Results: All seven participants (average age 7.09 years; 2 with ASD, 5 with ADHD) demonstrated significant improvements in transcription time (p = .018) and the accuracy of handwritten text recognition (p = .018) after using the 3D-printed stylus for five days. Additionally, the word width-to-Height ratio significantly changed (p = .043) to approach a 1:1 ratio. Although one participant reported discomfort due to restricted finger movement, the others expressed high levels of satisfaction.

Conclusions: The TRIZ-designed, 3D-printed stylus significantly improved writing tasks. This study highlights the potential of 3D printing for creating customized assistive technologies, which justifies further research involving a larger sample size and more comprehensive testing.

Author(s) Disclosures: Fen-Ling Kuo, Chieh-Yu Pan, and Tien-Yu Kuo contributed to the conception, design, execution, and manuscript preparation of this study. Fen-Ling Kuo and Tien-Yu Kuo facilitated the measurements, with Fen-Ling Kuo overseeing the project's findings. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.