This Malaysian Bagged The James Dyson Award by Creating a Pencil for Kids with Autism

Legal K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo made waves this year when its story unfolded about a genius young lawyer with Asperger’s Syndrome, bringing awareness and challenging assumptions about autism.

And now, despite graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Product Design from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) only this year, Penangite Chan Le Qi is already making waves by bagging a James Dyson Award 2022 by being the National Winner with the invention of her MA-Pencil for children with autism.

The James Dyson Award is an ‘international design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers’, running annually in 27 countries and giving aspiring inventors a head start.

Sir James Dyson, who founded the award, is of course behind the fancy bagless vacuum cleaner that has become a household name. Chan had the idea of creating the pencil for her final year project, and has won herself RM27,900 in the process along with the award.

While many autistic children are bright, some also struggle with fine motor skills like the act of gripping a pencil properly. Chan collected data from the children’s autism centre in USM before developing her design.

On the James Dyson Award Website, Chan said, “I hope that my design can help more children with autism in their class activities, (and) to improve their skills of gripping a pencil (as well as to) let them become more independent in writing, colouring, and drawing.”

Chan was inspired by mammals including the trunk of an elephant, the tail of a tiger, and the ears of a rabbit during brainstorming, which is incorporated into the design.

The MA-Pencil looks like a mix between a pencil and a toy with a unique ‘tiger’s tail’ that serves as a guide to help children with autism to grip pencil in the correct way.

The design consists of fun audio sounds emitting from the pencil that serves to attract the attention of the kids and a weighted gripper that can be modified to allow children with autism to learn how to grip a pencil by going through different stages ––– the beginner stage, adapting stage, and mature stage.

The weighted gripper is designed to be ergonomic with its curved body that allows the children to grip the pencil easily. At the adapting stage, the gripper can be turned 180 degrees clockwise to support the child’s finger. Finally, during the mature stage, the gripper can be taken off and the child can grip the pencil normally.

A special educator from Penang, known as Jay, lends her thoughts about this design, “I am glad to see how designers and product creators are now putting thought into products that meet diverse needs of children, because it allows for a more accessible and inclusive world.”

Sounds like such an important invention that can help many people for years to come. After all, writing exercises are such an invaluable learning tool!

See more information about Chan’s design here.

Image source: facebook.com/artsuniversitisainsmalaysia/, jamesdysonaward.org