Background research

Before we begin creating the personas, we conducted a small background research to see exactly which groups of children would be the potential users of our product.

The typical age that children begin to understand letters and numbers is 4-5 years old. At kindergarden, children learn how to draw letters and numbers by joining dots and lines together with the help of their teachers. This is their first step to letter recognition and understanding. At this stage teachers can read a book to them and give emphasis to the image than the text in order to help children express their oral skills.

At reception children learn how to "create" words by joining letters together (5 years old). They learn how to write their names and some simple words like “mum”, “dad”, “dog”, “cat” etc. At this stage children are ready to start writing numbers and letters. They can see a letter or number and copy it without following any lines or dots. Teachers give emphasis to the text rather than the picture helping children to recognize sounds in words. In addition children are encouraged to find specific sounds in the words.

The difference between the first class of the primary school and the reception class is that in reception they give emphasis to the sound of a specific letter rather than to spell the specific letter. They are trying to write words using the sound of the letters. This helps them to put letter ”sounds” together to shape a word or a small phrase. This is the area where the most difficulties of this age are raised. Children confuse sounds, which most of the times is different from the letter as appeared in the alphabet. Apart from this, the most familiar problem children face are for example the way children hold the pencil. In addition more extraordinary cases include children that confuse the letters, write them in the wrong way or the other way round. In addition instead of reading a book starting from left to right, they start from right to left. Some of these symptoms are normal but there are occasions where this can be characterized as dyslexia.

On the other hand children introduction to numbers is easier. The majority of children are more acquainting to numbers than to letters. This is explained with the fact that children from very young age start count their fingers. At this age children need help from teachers and from parents. Research shows that children who have additional help from their parents at home can improve more than those who haven’t.