Startup Mantra: Science-backed skills for small hands

According to the National Institutes of Health, handwriting is a complex neurophysiological process that integrates motor, cognitive, and emotional components. And the more laptops are used among young school-going kids, the deeper will be their impact on cognition, etc.

Pune: Covid-19 has changed our lives in many ways. According to the Unified District Information System for Education under the Ministry of Education, 64.7% of schools now have access to computers. What was meant to be a temporary solution to the pandemic has stayed, becoming a more permanent concern. There’s no denying that computer literacy is a good thing. But there is also a major downside. A child with a laptop or a tablet is less likely to write, choosing instead to use the keyboard. While this may be much faster than handwriting your homework, it has a significant impact on learning.

Avinash Bartakke, founder of thetrainermom app (HT)

According to the National Institutes of Health, handwriting is a complex neurophysiological process that integrates motor, cognitive, and emotional components. These neural mechanisms that underlie handwriting are intricately linked to perceptual, motor, and cognitive functions, providing a rich substrate for the expression of thoughts and emotions. And the more laptops are used among young school-going kids, the deeper will be their impact on cognition, etc.

Says Avinash Bartakke, founder of thetrainermom app (founded in 2023), “Pre-Covid, laptops were not in use as much in schools. However, approximately 64% of schools have access to digital tools; one can only assume that handwriting is slowly being relegated to near redundancy. I worry that this younger generation will lose out on the several skills that handwriting provides.”

Problem area

Avinash has been involved with training for learning disabilities ever since he found out that his daughter had problems with Math. He says, “I soon realised that the school’s solutions were not working. Even the people who were into helping people with learning disabilities would expect you to learn online, which was not working. So eventually I got in touch with Learning Rx in the USA and then started a company called Eava Neural Space that offers services for children with learning disabilities.” This was in 2013. Being associated with people with learning disabilities made him more sensitive to issues connected with it. Over the years, he has worked with thousands of kids. “But after Covid, I saw the way laptops were slowly replacing handwriting and got concerned. I seriously don’t think that this problem should be ignored any longer. But how does one do that?

Solution

According to Avinash, “To acquire any skill, the best way is one-on-one coaching. So I thought that the school teacher was the best bet. I met a few school principals, but unfortunately, they operate under so many other mandates that they were not too keen to add more to an already challenging job. Moreover, it is not possible to give individual attention to a class full of 50 kids.”

In Avinash’s opinion, “We have 20 crore children going to school, where can we find so many writing coaches? So, if the school teacher is not in a position to work on a child’s handwriting, I thought that the next person involved in the learning experience of a child is the mother. Or, someone in the family. So I shifted my focus to mothers. Every mom supervises her child’s homework. She is the child’s first coach.

“Writing forms the basis of cognitive development. In addition to that, it helps with the presentation of a child’s work throughout their educational life. Their grades are directly impacted by their handwriting, even if the child is a bright student. Delegating it to someone else is probably not the best way. So we thought that we needed to come up with a solution that could train the mother and empower her with proper guidance to teach her child to write in a technically correct manner.”

Work on app begins

Avinash realised that the mode of instruction had to be videos. Simply showing diagrams would be futile. One has to show how the letters are formed. So he drafted the structure of these videos and built an app that could provide access to a larger number of people. He got in touch with a Learning Management Systems company that provides such platforms to develop one’s own app. Says he, “This made it infinitely easier since I did not have the issue of hiring tech people; you simply create your data and follow the instructions to make your own app.” Still, he hired seven people who wrote the content, shot videos, and edited them before uploading on the app.

“In the method we use, the child does not have to write too much. He has little to write, but he has to get the process right: from the way he holds his pencil, where he keeps his idle hand, and how he places the book. We start with a video that shows how to write the letter C correctly. This letter forms the basis for other letters that are written. For example, if you get your C right, it forms the basis for the letters A, O, Q, J and E. It is the base font. If a child gets this right, writing five other letters correctly becomes easy.”

Cost

Whilst developing the videos, Avinash found that writing personally helped him immensely, even though he is now in his sixties. Says he, “Before I began my work, I would just write for five minutes, write anything—either what I thought or copy from some book. That simple act would clear all the clutter in my head.” After defining the structure, it took him seven months to create 15 one-hour videos that train a mother to teach her child writing. He invested ₹9 lakh of his own funds for the app, shooting, editing and some animation and other effects.

To the market

It’s been two years since he developed the app. Initially, he used social media and some Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to communicate about the solution. So far, he has managed to sell to 200 customers.

“The cost of our writing app is ₹4,000, and I know we need to sell much more. But I know that selling is not my forte, so I am actively looking for a co-founder who can take over this task. Once I have a co-founder, we will be better placed to reach out to a wider number of parents.”