MA-Pencil

What it does

To study the problems faced by autism children in their learning activities. MA-Pencil is a multifunctional pencil set to guide children with autism to write independently. The design consists with the fun audio. Also, to correct their way to grip a pencil.

Your inspiration

The concept of my design was inspired by mammal animals. Mammal animals are a group of vertebrate animals. The reason to choose the mammal animals is because of the unique appearance and the coats of mammalian are variety colored. Some of the mammals have self-awareness and large brains. The ultrasound, alarm signals, echolocation, singing, and scent-marking are the methods of mammals to communicate. The sound will attract the attention of children initiative to grip the pencil.

How it works

Through MA-Pencil set, children with autism will learn how to grip a pencil by going through different stages. The innovation of the weighted gripper can be used in different stages which are beginner stage, adapting stage, and mature stage. The weighted gripper is curved so that it is ergonomic to the user. For the beginner stage, the surface of the gripper has two circles. The bottom one is wide with a circle texture while the top one is smaller with a few of line textures. The protrude texture of the gripper can lead the autism children to grip the pencil and improve their sensory-motor. After using a few months, autism children can go into the next stage which is adapting stage. The gripper can be turned clockwise 180 degrees into adapting stage. The gripper in adapting stage can support the finger to develop the correct way to hold the pencil. In the mature stage, the gripper can be taken out and the user may grip the pencil normally.

Design process

Brainstorming the ideation is the first step to the design process. The appearance of the pencil inspired by the mammals. After that, I had chosen some of the initial ideations to develop the ideas and improve the aesthetic of the design. The final ideation had remained the inspiration of mammals. The appearance of the pencil can be attractive to autism children. I used Autodesk Inventor Professional 2018 to draw the technical drawing and rendered the objects by 3ds Max 2020.

How it is different

The suggest of material are used silicone rubber to manufacture the grippers and caps. Silicone rubber is safe to use for children because it is resistant to heat and abrasion, insulation from electricity, and durability. The set of caps includes different shapes of mammal animals. The animals that inspired the design are the trunk of an elephant, the tail of a tiger, and the ears of a rabbit. Every cap comes with a built-in speaker. MA-Pencil set will provide the 2mm colourful lead relatively not easy to break because it is thick. For the built-in audio system that provide the different kinds of mammal animals audio. The audio can attract the attention of autism children to build interest in them and motivate them to hold the pen. The audio lasts for 10 seconds and then it will change to another sound automatically. The sound or audio will attract the interest of children with autism to grip the pencil persistently.

Future plans

I hope that my design can help more children with autism in their class activities. To improve their skills of gripping a pencil. Let them become more independent in writing, coloring, and drawing.

Awards