DOST funds i-SULAT project that can assess handwriting problems in children

The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) recently announced that it has allocated PHP 3.2USD 0.05INR 5EUR 0.05CNY 0.40 million to fund the i-SULAT project that can assess handwriting problems in children.

i-SULAT stands for Intelligent Stroke Utilization, Learning, Assessment, and Testing. In a report by Manila Bulletin, DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” de la Peña said that the project aims to create a system and unified handwriting tool that could help solve the problems of inter-tool scoring variations, inconsistency, incongruence, and assessment time.

According to de la Peña, handwriting is still the most immediate form of graphic communication, and that failure to attain handwriting competency during the school-age year results in far-reaching negative effects on both academic success and self-esteem. He also added that the prevalence of handwriting problems in developing children has been estimated to range from 5 to 25%.

The project will define a reference normative database of Filipino school-aged children’s handwriting using the traditional tools: test of visual-motor skills (TVMS), Minnesota handwriting assessment (MHA), and evaluation tool of children’s handwriting (ETCH) which can be used to assess and evaluate handwriting with or without impairments.

The project also aims to determine significant handwriting parameters for a quantitative assessment of children’s handwriting, as well as develop an intelligent pen with a software-based handwriting assessment system.

The DOST said that the project can also be used in assessing the handwriting of individuals with medical conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and even early onset of depression.

The i-SULAT project will run from April 2022 to June 2024 and is headed by Edison Roxas of the Electronics Engineering Department of the University of Santo Tomas.

sources: Manila Bulletin, PNA