Kiko's ThinkingTime

Each year, millions of children in the US begin kindergarten. Many factors account for how successful they will be in school, but the latest research points to one foundational factor: executive function (EF). EF skills are defined as “the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.” They are strongly linked to larger gains on tests of literacy development and math during the preschool years. We have developed a tablet-based program called “Thinking Time” (TT) targeting EF and other key cognitive skills. It adapts to each child’s performance and is based on neuropsychological exercises that have shown benefits in lab research. We turn these exercises into fun games and monitor children’s progress. Our project goal is to provide this tool to the children who need it most. We are partnering with Head Start to provide this tool for free, including teacher training, to children of low-income families.

We are applying to additional foundations to help expand the scope of our project during the award period. Our goal is to double the amount raised via the Battery Powered grant either in money or in-kind donations (e.g., tablets) in order to take our target number of children to 10,000. During the award period, we will also be expanding the scope of our product. Apart from building additional EF and cognitive training content, we are also adding content around literacy and math aligned to the Kindergarten Common Core State Standards and informed by science research. Our product goal over the next 2 years is to provide a comprehensive Pre-K/K curriculum based on cognitive science that comprises the complete school readiness toolkit for every child. The additional content will be delivered via the same learning framework. After the award period, our plan is to refine and scale the program nation-wide. From our learnings, we will determine if there exists a model where we can serve the Head Start community at scale at cost. If not, we will look at creative options through a combination of grants and underwriting part of the expense through a BOGO model.

Vision

Every child’s school readiness toolkit

Our big vision is to build a comprehensive digital PreK/K curriculum that children love to play. We started with foundational skills (EFs and cognitive skills) to close the gap for early learning programs, and are tackling literacy and math next. Our tenets: -Personalized learning paths -Design informed by scientific research and aligned to CCSS -Highly engaging games accessible via any platform

Kiko Labs

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Grace Wardhana

Tim Lopez