Kinems Learning Games
This year, our Kindergarten is proud to launch the award-winning innovative educational programme "Kinems" (Kinesthetic Multi Sensory Games). Kinems has developed an innovative educational platform with interesting physical interactive games for preschoolers and elementary students to help them improve executive functions (memory, attention, concentration, visual-social coordination, spatial coordination, etc.), and at the same time acquire knowledge and improve Math and Language skills.
The innovative feature of this programme is that children interact physically with toys, engaging their hands and body. Each game is a combination of occupational therapy tasks and academic team activities making education efficient and effective. Here is a video about Kinems platform.
The platform includes innovative tools so that the teacher can easily:
- Modify the game settings (content, interaction), so that it is always adapted to the needs of the child, providing the right learning environment.
- Monitor each child’s progress while setting measurable goals and receive real-time reports with learning analytics and body performance visualization.
Since games help children learn, Kinems Learning Games educational platform includes specially designed, ground breaking movement-based kinesthetic games for special education having the following key features:
- They include cognitive subjects and concepts for young pupils with emphasis on Mathematics and Language.
- They contribute to the cultivation of higher cognitive skills and executive functions such as short-term memory, sequencing, attention, concentration, inferential thinking, visual perception, etc.
- They help to improve motor skills and visual-motor coordination within a pleasant learning environment.
Findings from peer-reviewed publications in the USA, England, Spain, Cyprus and Greece repeatedly show that Kinems has a positive impact on children’s academic performance and improves their cognitive, motor and academic skills. All the above-mentioned publications are available on the platform’s site.
In addition, a successful study on children with ADHD was conducted by Aglaia Kyriakou hospital & Agia Sophia Pediatric Clinic.
(S. Retalis, T. Korpa, C. Skaloumpakas, M. Boloudakis, M. Kourakli, I. Altanis, F. Siameti, P. Papadopoulou, F. Lytra, P. Pervanidou, Empowering children with ADHD learning disabilities with the Kinems Kinect learning games, in: The 8th European Conference on Games Based Learning, vol. 1, 2014, pp. 469477).
Kinems platform is used by many schools and centers in the USA (over 100 schools in 7 states) and in Europe (Greece, Cyprus, Spain and the UK).
Our school is the first Greek school that puts Kinems programme into practice at preschool age, following the way it is used in the USA (in 7 states). Our school launches Kinems in collaboration with the research team of Mr. Simos Retalis, Professor of the University of Piraeus and the following scientific groups:
- Excited (Center for Excellent IT Education) research center at NTNU in Norway https://www.ntnu.edu/excited.
- UCL, Institute of Education in England
- Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL) at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT)
- PACE University in NY.
Kinems platform has won various awards and prizes, such as the Microsoft New England Prize on Civic Engagement and Leadership in 2014, the New School Venture Fund Challenge 2016 and is a finalist for the MIT Solve Challenge 2019 in the Early Childhood Development category.