Assisted Jawi-writing (AJaW) software for children

Jawi is the writing script for the Malay language derived from the Arabic alphabets. Jawi letters are considered to be difficult for children to write as they require the use of fine motor skills in order to write them properly. This article will discuss the software development issues for children between the ages of 4 to 6 years old in learning to write the Jawi characters by focusing on the motor skills development in the writing process. The software has been developed using the Hannafin and Peck's Instructional Model [1] which is divided into three phases: needs assessment, design and, development and implementation phases. The design of the learning process focuses on the hand movements in the writing process which includes the demonstration on proper pencil-holding technique, the pre-writing activity, exercise and evaluation. The software has been tested on target users for its multimedia appearance, learnability and capability to scaffold learners' writing activities using graphic tablet. The results show that learners enjoy using the application for its multimedia appearance. The software has also been proven to have a high learnability rate as users are able to use the software easily. In addition, it is also able to assist learners in mastering the writing exercise.