The Innovative Educational App that Supports SEN Children

The Innovative Educational App that Supports SEN Children | AD

Here in the UK, more than 1.5 million children are identified as having special educational needs (SEN). Due to the diversity of their needs, there’s a demand for learning resources that help address the varied abilities and challenges of SEN children. Read on to learn about the innovative educational app that supports SEN children.

Introducing the EDURINO Educational App

EDURINO is a digital learning app for children with amazing educational games. The games work with physical character figurines that unlock different worlds of games and character-led stories.

The EDURINO digital learning app is becoming a valued educational source for parents of many SEN children. The content includes classic school skills – reading, writing, and maths. Additionally, it includes other important skills – logical thinking, creativity, and understanding of the environment.

A team of expert educators, including primary school teachers and speech therapists, have designed EDURINO’s content. Together, they have developed games and challenges that meet age-appropriate learning objectives for children aged 4-8 years.  

How EDURINO Can Help – An App that Supports SEN Children

EDURINO games are great for all children but for SEN children especially there are a few benefits that I want to highlight in this article.

– Encourages independent play, at your child’s own pace.

The EDURINO app encourages independent play which fosters a child’s imagination and helps build problem solving skills. It also helps encourage patience and resilience. However, for some SEN children independent play can be challenging. The play-based learning games within the EDURINO app include various difficulty levels. Additionally, children have the freedom to choose which games they want to play. They can freely explore within the app with no rigid demands or instructions. This lets them enjoy the game at their own pace, whilst feeling empowered to use the app independently. 

– Predictability of content is great for SEN children.

EDURINO provides a structured approach to learning. The content is organised into specific subject areas and children are guided along a progressive pathway. The environment is supportive and accommodating so that children with SEN can enjoy confidently acquiring new skills and knowledge at their own pace. EDURINO offers a predictable and systematic learning experience which is very important to SEN children. With the different characters, children can choose what they are in the mood for that they and know what they’ll have the kind of experience that they are expecting. The current selection of character figurines includes games around the following six topics: literacy, numeracy, coding, creativity, nature, and the body.

– Multi-sensory engagement.

Sensory stimulation is important for SEN children. This means that they can benefit from non-traditional learning methods. EDURINO involves physical use of an ergonomic pen to use on the screen and the physical figurines as well. These tools encourage digital learning in a fun and engaging way, as well as a multi-sensory experience. Also, the developers designed the games to not overstimulate children. Specifically, the games exclude rapid, repetitive, intensive and prolonged visual and auditory stimulation which can be distracting.

– Promotes fine motor skills.

The digital game incorporate the use of the ergonomic pen, the Magic Pen and the physical figurines. This helps encourage children to perfect their fine motor skills as they practise correct pen grip and their handwriting skills too. 

– A Focus on Positivity.

Children with SEN thrive on positive feedback and reinforcement to motivate their learning interests. When they are playing EDURINO games, they’ll have lots of positive experiences, for example the opportunity to collect rewards and receive real-time praises. Additionally, the newly learnt skills are then reinforced to extend learning benefits. Although the games automatically get harder as the child progresses, the game doesn’t say that what the child has done is wrong. Instead, the game tells the child that it’s not right yet. That is to say that the language in the app is positive and encourages children to try again, making playing EDURINO games a positive experience for children.

– Limits screen time without tears. 

The EDURINO app features a parent’s area that enables parents to set screen time limits as well as view their child’s progress. To help manage expectations and avoid disappointed children, the app will let the child know how many games they have left to play and remind them when it’s their last game. Consequently, this gives children a feeling of being in control over their play and makes them more likely to accept that the screen time is over when it is.

– Boosts engagement and focus.

Many parents of SEN children report that their children are particularly drawn to tablets and phones. Specifically that they show a level of engagement and focus through screen time that is hard to maintain elsewhere. EDURINO can make this screen time a positive and educational alternative.

Tips for introducing children with SEN to EDURINO

1. Introduce your child to the figurine/figurines and the Magic Pen first and let them play with these offline without the app. This will offer them familiarity before playing the games on the app which will benefit SEN children especially.
2. Download the games (once they are downloaded, there’s no need for the device to be connected to the internet which is great) and finish the parental set-up before showing your child the app. Doing this will ensure that there’s no extra waiting time so that your child can dive straight into the fun games. 
3. Allow your child to complete the games at their own pace and encourage them to replay games too. The games are designed for independent play but children can also benefit from having a parent accompany them during the play session. This will allow you to give your child in-time feedback and encouragement which they’ll love.

Conclusion – Our Favourite Educational App that Supports SEN Children

EDURINO quickly became my youngest daughter’s, aged 5, favourite app to use on the tablet. The games are so much fun and she loves using the pen and the figurines too. From a parent’s point of view, it’s an excellent game too – so educational and very well designed. My older daughter, aged 7, loves EDURINO too. It’s great that the app support SEN children – as a parent of a child on the spectrum, I can see how all of the above features are exactly what she needs.

You can read our full review of EDURINO here. You can purchase EDURINO directly from the brand’s website or via Amazon.co.uk.

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