TEST: the early screening tool for Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder related with reading as they have difficulties to identify speech, sounds and also to discover how to relate the letters and words. It is estimated that ongoing Malaysian school children are dyslexic, but very few receive a proper remedial program due to the poor screening process. The Early Screening Tool (TEST) is applied to overcome this issue. TEST is developed based on screening tools from Dyslexia Checklist Instrument and it is integrated with multimedia elements. TEST is a computer-based screening that is designed for students ranging from six to twelve years old and it is suitable to be used for pre-school children around six years old before they go through primary school. It is the first step towards a simple screening that could help teachers and parents to identify a child's symptom of dyslexia based on Dyslexia Checklist Instrument that have been applied in TEST. TEST is evaluated by conducting three types of testing which is heuristic testing, usability testing and user acceptance testing. There are twenty-eight respondents which consist of three experts, three teachers and twenty-two students from primary school. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that the respondents enjoy the screening session by using TEST computer based. The results indicate that screening method have an impact on how to identify the dyslexic. Further research is needed to discover other factors that could strengthen the effectiveness of this project.