EasyLexia: A Mobile Application for Children with Learning Difficulties

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities experienced by children and adults. A large amount of research is currently being conducted in exploring the benefits of using Information & Communication Technologies as a learning platform for individuals and especially children with such learning difficulties. Given the potential benefits, we focused on developing a mobile application which could foster learning and help children improve some of their fundamental skills, such as reading comprehension, orthographic coding, short-term memory and mathematical problem solving. We attempted to design a stimulating and interactive experience for children, which could encourage the learning process. Our main focus was to assess the usability of the technology, evaluate how it affects the learning experience, its consequences and the benefits it offers to each user. In this paper we present the methodology, environment setup, design choices, implementation and the results of our preliminary evaluation and assessment of “EasyLexia”, a mobile application for children with learning difficulties. Preliminary results show the promising prospects mobile learning holds in such contexts. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Programme Committee of the 5th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAI 2013).