Patent Application
20240265824
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention pertains to the field of endeavor related to section B43L, Articles for Writing or Drawing, in the Cooperative Patent Classification system. This invention can be classified under Writing or Drawing Aid as noted in B43L 13/20. It can be classified as a Non-circular-curve-drawing instrument with stencils as noted in B43L 11/043 because some of the design of some of the letters. This invention may also pertain to Lettering Device Drawing Accessory B43L 13/004 as its purpose is defined.
In my experience as a therapist for 14 years, working with various age groups in the Special Needs & Disabilities population, I have seen many persons struggle with the fine motor skill of drawing letters, and while they succeed with assistance from I the therapist or another adult, the independence is lacking. Strong visual-motor integration skills are displayed in eye-hand coordination. Guidelines and resources are given to caregivers and families on the necessity of tracing and eye-hand coordination by the Niagra Children's Centre Occupational Therapy department.
This invention is a tracing/writing tool to be utilized with students of all ages learning the writing skill and learning the English alphabet, and most effectively but not limited to, the Special Needs population who often require adaptations to learn skills. It can be employed by anyone in the Education field, Therapists in any therapy environment, and even in the home. The importance of writing and drawing for children of any level is confirmed in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Statute and Regulations handbook.
Other materials that currently exist to assist with learning the alphabet by tracing are problematic. Tracing letters by dotted/solid lines directly onto paper does not provide any type of boundary for the writing utensil, so the student can trace the lines but, in their efforts, may extend their utensil too far past the spacing of the letter, thus canceling what was receptively learned about the letter and prolonging the acquisition of the skill. Plastic alphabet letters already exist that have been useful in teaching visual recognition of the objects, however, they do not teach how to draw the objects themselves.
All 26 letters will be made from clear, transparent material: this is to avoid confusion with other colored items that may be in the environment, and limit the variables that will be presented with this tool. All products of this same nature that exist in the market today are colored different colors, which can be helpful for children learning color recognition, though that skill is a distinct skill from the tracing/writing skill. According to an article abstract in The Journal of Genetic Psychology, children display distinct color-emotion associations. If the letter tools are colored, as most of them are today, the student/child will have an emotional response to the letter based on the color, pulling their focus away from the tracing/writing skill to be learned and towards their emotional response. For instruction of the tracing/writing skill the student/child needs to have their full attention on this. The article mentioned above can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1994.9914760.
Additionally, the letters in the A-Z Mark in the Middle! Tracing Tool will all be uppercase in form, rather than lowercase. This is due to the fact that children learn to write uppercase letters before they do lowercase, which, according to the article Dimensionality and Reliability of Letter Writing in 3- to 5-Year-Old Preschool Children published in The National Library of Medicine, may be because writing lowercase letters are more difficult that uppercase. (Puranik C S, Petscher Y, Lonigan C J. Dimensionality and Reliability of Letter Writing in 3- to 5-Year-Old Preschool Children. Learn Individ Differ. 2013 December; 28:133-141. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2012.06.011. PMID: 26346443; PMCID: PMC4557880).
The A-Z Mark in the Middle! Tracing Tool is a set of alphabet letters in uppercase, that can be used to assist in the teaching of letters and the learning of their shapes by means of tracing the lines of the letterform strokes while simultaneously feeling the shape of the letter. This adaptive equipment can be most helpful in the education of those persons with Special Needs or those with learning deficits who need focused assistance in fine motor skills and motor memory.
All 26 letters will be made from transparent material. The letters of the A-Z Mark in the Middle! tool will be clear in appearance to ensure the most possible amount of attention may be placed on the skill.
Visual-motor integration will be better addressed with the use of this adaptive equipment, as the user sees the shape of the letter and feels the shape as they guide their utensil (i.e. pen, pencil, permanent marker, dry-erase marker, crayon, or colored pencil) within the provided boundaries of the letter's ‘channels’. The ‘channels’ will conform to the shape of the letter, and be present within each letterform stroke or curve. The ‘channels’ will be wide enough to accommodate most writing and drawing utensils, at a width of ⅛″. The number of ‘channels’ present will be determined by the shape of the letter and how many strokes or curves make up each letterform.
This adaptive writing equipment will not only teach letter recognition, but it will also aid in teaching the actual shapes of the letters for writing purposes. The user will place their utensil (examples above) in one of the ‘channels’ and mark on the writing surface, beginning the tracing of the letter by following the ‘channel’ boundaries with the utensil. Once all ‘channels’ within the letterform strokes have been traced through the user has completed the tracing of the letter, and their drawing on the writing surface underneath is visible; an even clearer view can be seen by removing the letterform off of the surface.
In each alphabet set, there will be provided uppercase letters. The letters will be easy to clean and durable to withstand rough handling and constant use. Each letter will be magnetic for use on magnetic surfaces.
The user will place the letter on a writing surface. They will use writing utensils to place inside the ‘channel’ of the letter. They will follow the ‘channel’ with their utensil throughout the letter until they have drawn all the ‘channels’. They can lift the letter off the surface to see the lines drawn for that particular letter in the exact form of the letter. They will learn the exact form of the letter and how strokes/curves create each letterform.
Each letter in the set of the A-Z Mark in the Middle! tool will be composed of clear, non-toxic plastic for easy cleaning and transparency to the lines drawn underneath.
Each letterform will be uppercase. Each letter's specifications will consist of being ¼-inch thick, 2 inches wide from the widest point on the left to the widest point in the right, and 2 inches in height from lowest point at the bottom to the tallest point at the top. The front views of the drawings for each letter reference these specifications.
Every stroke and curve of each letterform will be ⅜-inch wide. This will allow for the ⅛-inch channel to be housed in between material of ⅛-inch width on either side of the channel. The channel in each letterform will be ⅛-inch wide. The number of channels for each letter will be dependent on the shape of each letter. The channels will pass through each stroke or curve of each letterform, thus the number of channels will differ for each letterform. The front views of the drawings for each letter reference these specifications.
Magnets will be approximately 3 mm in thickness and will be mounted to the reverse side of each letterform attached by non-toxic adhesive, to the backside parts of the structure. The number of magnet pieces used will depend on the strokes and curves that create each letterform: a piece of magnet can be placed near the top, bottom, left, or right sides of the structure. The amount of magnetic material used for a curve will be ⅛ inch in width and ⅛-inch in length; a ⅛-inch width piece and a 2/8-inch length piece of magnet will be used on strokes. The magnets will not necessarily be flush with the structure's backside, rather they may protrude outward from the backside surface. However, the magnetic material pieces on each letterform will be flush with each other, resting on the same plane, ensuring the letter will sit flat against the surface when in use. The backside views of the drawings for each letter indicate the magnets.
