INVENTALES: Creating storytellers for 0-3 children

The lack of an adequate care for the needs of the child in the early childhood to develop the potentialities of very unequal societies generates negative indicators in life, related to the low development of language, reading, and socialization with fragility of family ties, growing under the stigmas exclusion and socioeconomic inequality. The Clinton Foundation's "30 Million Initiative" emphasizes that the low number of words learned by the child is much more related to differentiated quantitative levels of language exposure than to socioeconomic differences. "INVENTALES" is an educational, interactive and playful digital mobile application that seeks to meet these challenges, contributing to reduce inequalities. With a focus on language development, it aims at creating original imaginative and culturally- bound narratives, awakening the child's creativity, and strengthening family ties, by providing tools for parents and other caregivers to become empowered as storytellers - regardless of their level of schooling.

Brazil has about 203 million inhabitants (IBGE / 2019); more than 20 million are children from zero to six. Yet, 1/3 of the poorest are out of daycare houses, due to lack of vacancy. Besides, marked regional inequalities: in the north, 3% of infants up to 1 are in daycare and 31% only from 3-6;in the south,18% and 61%, respectively.17.2 million people are of extreme poverty - a 44.1% reduction that directly benefits children, with a better quality of life.Besides, the chances of living in poverty are much higher for blacks and for those living in rural areas.In this context, investing in inservice training for parents, caregivers,as storytellers, is a strategy for QUALITY AND QUANTITY levels of word exposure to overcome inequalities. Children less stimulated in their language development may be exposed to 600 words/hour, whereas those with higher stimulation may be exposed to 2000 words/ hour. In 3 years´time, there will be 30 million words difference between them - impacting on school development, as well.

We work with 2 TYPES OF  TARGET PUBLIC: vulnerable communities served by some intersectoral public policy; a brief quantitative diagnosis was made in two vulnerable areas: a kindergarten and an NGO. The school has 38 families with children from 0-3, 18 from nursery to 2 years old and 20 from maternal 1 ("How many households have cell phones?" And "How many have access to some internet network / Lanhouse? 2-3 years). ALL have cell phones and the internet. The AMUE NGO has 500 families,  out of which 350 (70%) have internet access.Awareness raising and community mobilization began in May. The second type of audience: families that have access to the internet and technology, as potential buyers of the  INVENTALES. We create an MVP: the WHATSAPP "PROJECT CriaCONTOS/INVENTALES" to mobilize VOLUNTEER STAKEHOLDERS and check the degree of scalability of the proposal, through the link: https://chat.whatsapp.com/GXbV...  In 11 days, we were able to gather 195 people from 11 states of Brazil.), one from Germany and 2 from Canada.Currently, 84 remain as voluntary stakeholders and  first future  "Guinea Pigs" to download the application. 

“INVENTALES” has as reference the Sied Field Manual, to elaborate the structure of a story, starting from three components of basic structure (Beginning - Act 1, Act - Act 2, and End - Act 3) Act 1: presentation of the story, composed of a short narrative as opening followed by sequence of images (presentation and a catalytic event; Act 2, the confrontation occurs and can be characterized as a promise of premise and a crisis; Act 3, the resolution, with the climax and  the closure.These components of Acts 1, 2 and 3 are the detailed structure of the story.For example: three small narratives to introduce the story of a "monkey and a jaguar": " In a distant forest ... "There was a very nauty monkey who preached parts to other animals". "Once, he pulled the jaguar's tail, but the game did not go as planned." At the point of the 50th upset of the story: "The jaguar, fast, cornered the monkey, who fled to the top of a tree". But the tree was slippery!The monkey could not hold it right and safely. " Very smart, the jaguar put a bowl of boiling oil under the tree, and kept waiting for the monkey to fall ". As climax, resolution and closing: "Unable to hold himself, the monkey fell off the tree into the vessel, burning its tail and buttocks". "The monkey ran out into the forest, screaming " Arrgh!!,while the jaguar burst into  laughter". "They say that up to these days you may hear painful shouts of the monkey in the woods ".The types of "Interaction cards" - narrative guides that players receive to create their  own stories. The player is dealt randomly and must construct the narrative by connecting the images displayed in the cards.and the sequences of sounds provided to the original story in progress. There are many ways to approach the items in the cards, which may include different interactions and stories. Four types of cards are thought: introductory cards (initial cards that will set up the scene from which the narrative may begin); narration cards (they have narrated audio, creating a situation in which participants will link their narrative), and the closing cards. 

The mobile phone is one of the most used communication devices in this world of globalization. Recent studies point to the care of their handling by children in early childhood and also by adolescents, in the processes of literacy and reading printed texts, both by exposure to electromagnetic waves, but mainly by the misuse that parents and caregivers have been doing, such as a "toy that soothes and distracts small children". This misuse may be reversed: instead of the children of 0-3, their caregivers are responsible for their handling, but with a specific purpose: to awaken children's imagination and curiosity, thanks to the power of telling invented, constructed stories, from elements of narratives, images and sounds. It is possible to use the power of storytelling in the whole child development, because, in this way, our children can bring more powerful and strengthened learning tools to school. At 9 months, inequalities in the development of cognition have already been evidenced, and distances in vocabulary acquisition only tend to increase during early childhood. A mobile application, such as INVENTALES, adds value to the device itself by offering an interactive, educational, caregiver empowerment application to promote the development of children's imagination, with a wider reach to families and communities, and the concept that "being human is being a storyteller".INVENTALES, therefore, would be more  of  a humanization tool to our children,rather than of "robotization".

INVENTALES is a mobile application, consisting of sequences of small audio narratives (to give access to all, regardless of the level of schooling), daily images suitable for different age groups of 0-3, in the form of letters, with a  SURPRISE component  to each change of images, alternating with sounds or sequences of sounds, so that the construction of stories is creative, interactive and provocative with respect to the children's imagination level. The construction of the narratives follows a theoretical model of reference, as well as the quantity and the quality of the speech will be two important indicators, besides contemplating the cultural diversity. The more the storyteller for children uses their cognitive strategies, relating the images to their own childhood experiences, the truer the stories become for children and, in turn, it will be enriching their minds with differentiated words. The timing of storytelling and the chice of words is also fundamental in this communicative construction with young children. Questions that provoke verbal or non-verbal responses, dramatizations, simulations, are resources of the "make-believe" that the storyteller can use to awaken the spell of the story, as well as the desire for its repetition - so common among of 3-4 year olds.

Participation in the management of two large-scale State public policies in Brazil - the Better Early Childhood Program (PIM / RS) and the Programa Criança Feliz (PCF), showed that: parents and caregivers need quality guidance to develop their paternity and responsible and committed motherhood.For infants, according to Brazelton, readiness for learning depends on two conditions: the baby's perception of an adult caring for him and howt he or she is important to the adult. Caution, a speech with alternating sounds and emotions, touching, storytelling, exchanging looks will leave marks on these children for lifelong. Parents report the lack of knowledge about the importance of these aspects; the absence of affection and storytelling in their infancy; verbal abuses and segmented speech in their talks to babies; and the lack of creativity to imagine and invent stories. IIn the home visits, the frequency of visits, the quality of the games and interactions,  the quality of playfulness and imaginative interactions are factors that contribute to changes in attitudes, reduction of violence rates and neglect, and a greater frequency of dialogue. INVENTALES is another strategy of prevention and promotion of children's whole development in this intersectoral network of the two public policies, as well.

As INVENTALES is a mobile prototype, we do not have an exact number to report. Yet, we do plan to serve in a year´s time the percentage of population  with mobile phones from our state as follows:( Source :SINASC/DATASUS) 14,789 pregnant ladies and parents/caregivers  of (Source:SINASC-FEE, 201 5): 0-1: 144,638, specially 87,463 placed at risk (60,5% of this population). Age 2 :142,459, specially 87,188 placed at risk (60.5% of this population). And  age 3: 138,758,specially 84,630 (59% of the population). By focusing on the most in need of such application in our State, that would be about 60% from 0-3, totalling  14,789 pregnant ladies plus 0-3 in vulnerable conditions (259,281), equals 274,07 thousand people, hopefully. The other target groups are from the 11 Brazilian States, whose representatives are voluntary stakeholders. The expectation is to work out with the same percentage (around 60%) of the same population from 0-3, so that, in 5 year´s time, we may cover the whole target population, not to mention the other target group that are not as vulnerable as those, but are also willing to have access to the application - the potential stakeholders that may support the project with some funding/donation. Brazil has 26 states plus Brasilia, the Federal District. We cannot figure out now, how many people from Germany and Canada that may benefit with such application.

Initially, the focus is Brazil, starting with the 11 states where those people came to join us as voluntary stakeholders of INVENTALES, during its design, contributing preliminarily through WhatsApp. Subsequently, since there is a great deal of interaction between Brazil and countries such as USA, China, Jamaica, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, on child development policies, we believe that it will be possible to disseminate and commercialize the final product in those countries as well. INVENTALES should empower parents and caregivers in the art of storytelling, which will be an important gain for language development of babies from the mother's belly, especially for families who are willing to strengthen familyties.If we have the necessary resources for the development and production of INVENTALES, this application will be of interest to  more recent early childhood  programs, including those of the abovementioned countries, under the influence of the Brazilian  Criança Feliz Program (Happy Child Program- HCP ). It been currently considered a good international case study, due to the results it has been achieving in a continental country like ours. We expect that INVENTALES will become another important tool, integrated into the Support Networks and the back-up of the intersectoral public policies for whole and integrated child development in Brazil and abroad.

Overcoming technical difficulties when working with a multidisciplinary team located in more distant cities and states will require the use of other technologies (SKIPE) to continue the work of monitoring and evaluation, dissemination and insertion of this application in partnerships with the  public policies agencies, as well as with public and private government bodies; those of a social nature, in the search for formal agreements and partnerships in different states of the country (the question of scalability); the culture of registration, developing follow-up  tools to register language acquisition progress of children with the incorporation of storytelling in family and school routines. Bureaucracy and local legislations regarding digital media such as INVENTALES - especially related to copyrights. In this sense, INVENTALES should provide mostly originally designed images and unpublished sound tracks,  or those legally agreed materials in partnership with other publishers. Overcoming the bureaucratic barriers for signing official agreements with municipal, state and federal government may delay some of the implementation of INVENTALES in different govenment settings and services.

The alignment and strengthening of the INVENTALES technical team is the crucial starting point, even prior to any building up of partnerships and covenants. People  prepared to teamwork, with a sense of empathy,very concerned wih praising common goals, with skills to deal with strong inequalities  and willing to work in a collaborative way. We will have to be the very model of collaborative management that we are preaching, as we believe that that will certainly make a difference every time we will be called for dealing with inclusion in governmental projects/issues. INVENTALES  may contribute to a better understanding that the implementation of a large-scale, parenting, intersectoral and socio-educational policy goes beyond the offering  of good quality services in general - which still characterizes some current traditional management models already consolidated, hierarchically embedded, with vertical leadership.Developing Monitoring with indicators register the positive impact of INVENTALES is another strategy for convincing both public and private institutions to invest on such application.  

Detalhes

A multidisciplinary team, composed of 11 professionals of intersectoral and multidisciplinary expertise, with diverse generational experiences in early child development and  from differentiated cultural and regional backgrounds, from 11 Brazilian states, comprising teachers, specialists, masters and a PHd in 
Education as the coordinator of the group. It also counts with  84 voluntary stakeholders, including  four international ones, who interact in the WhatsApp Group.

COORDINATION: Maria da Graça Gomes Paiva, PhD in Education; Eisenhower Fellow,1996; Visiting Professor of UFRGS (2019); former Deputy Municipal Secretary of Porto Alegre; former Director of the Department of Human Rights and Citizenship.Vera Maria Simoni Nacif -Pedagogue and Sociologist; Specialist in Social Sciences at IUPERJ - University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro; Researcher of the Jones Santos Neves Institute, of the Government of Espírito Santo since 1976;2-Carolina Aguirre da Silva-Pedagogue and psychopedagogue; Director of the School of Early Childhood Education TOPO GIGIO, Porto Alegre, RS;3- Cleci de Souza Lima Martins - Teacher and Technical Advisor of Better Early Childhood Program (PIM), State Health Secretariat (SES / RS);4-Nathalie Medeiros de Azevedo Balcazar - Sociologist and Specialist in Public Management;Natal, Rio Grande do Norte;5- Josiane Gomes Paiva -Foreign Trade Administrator and Master in Economic Development and International Project Management in France; 6-Lilian S. Gomes -Social Assistant and Coordinator of Intersectorial Social Policies in the State of Amazonas (2014-2018);7- Maira Leiliane Oliveira Almeida -Degree in Arts Education and Art Teacher. Technical advisor of planning and budget of SEDUC of Rio Grande do Norte for 10 years;8-Milton Pacheco Dornelles Filho - Counter-CRC / RS 079110 / 0-8;9- Lucas Corrêa - Artist and Designer (NAPEAD / UFRGS);10- Gabriel Machado Figueiredo - Undergraduate on Computer Science, Unity Developer (NAPEAD/UFRGS)   

Currently, we have been working with the Department of Long- Distance Education and New Technologies, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), whose Coordinator has officially nominated two technical undergratuates  and one graduate as voluntary stakeholders for the prototype design and final edition of INVENTALES. They have also designe the LOGO and an email for INVENTALES, in Portuguese: CriaContos186@gmail.com

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Our business model aims at motivating  children from 0 to 3, through the empowerment of their parents and caregivers as storytellers. By providing language development with daily activity narratives and sharing imaginative elements, it also enriches the increase in the quantity and quality of vocabulary exposure and positive expressions - through a mobile phone application that stimulates, elicits, awakens curiosity to become protagonists of their own stories. The content is of images, figures, drawings, sounds and sequences of sounds to stimulate the talent of those who invent the stories. INVENTALES will focus on cultural diversity  through the choice of images and sounds, in order to contemplate different cultures, as well as intersectoriality, by being one of the socio-educational tools  to promote  whole  and integrated children development as a positive tool that becomes part of families routines. As free download, there are two types of target audiences: those of social vulnerability and potential stakeholders. In this way, INVENTALES is also the concrete possibility of breaking  up with the current use of the mobile phones as  tools that aproach people who are far away and puts those who are very close apart, by qualifying the time of family reunion with their children and strengthening healthy play activities and interactions between adults and children. The telling and retelling of the stories provides opportunities to go beyond the intellectual, cognitive and socio-affective development;  it strengthens respect for the rights of children. Children who hear stories will be happier, more creative, and safer adults.

For financial sustainability of  INVENTALES as a mobile application, we hope to raise fundings through public-private partnerships, with private companies, incentive of public investments, partnerships with companies and state policies on early child development whose goals is to invest their products of images and sounds in  the INVENTALES  to expand the repertoire of the bank of images and sounds , and who understand the potential of INVENTALES as a resource for reading stimulation, with the future goal of forming a new generation of readers who are passionate about books. Along with the large-scale parental public policies in Brazil - especially in the eleven states that are already part of this proposal, so that the scale of INVENTALES is effective, thanks to the institutional and financial support for the inclusion of the INVENTALES as another component in strengthening  family ties, especially with families in social vulnerability. In a global dimension,  it is much expected to look for international partners  willing to invest in INVENTALES  as a social marketing tool that may  contribute to improve reading skills and litteracy in subsequent school years.

Solve aims at developing innovative technologies and is open to the entire community in search of creative solutions to global problems. It seeks the meritocracy of proposals by selecting and opportunizing new ideas to become global solutions to make this world better - by strengthening ties of contacts and promoting a culture of peace. As mentors, they offer support and feedback to their candidates, making SOLVE a large and broad incubator in encouraging candidates to think big when making proposals. We discovered SOLVE by the end of March, which brought us to a greater challenge; to compete for SOLVE CHALLENGES  2019, even though we had a very short time to build a prototype. SOLVE is enabling us to revise our TIME conception, insofar as we succeeded in making it into our ally, for all that we have been able to build up, but in a short time. We are working with SOLVE,  and the design of our project,  as a model of  leadership and collaborative management - especially in this historical context of conflicting ideas and tensions in our country. In choosing SOLVE CHALLENGES  2019 (child development), it allows us to rethink and mobilize for new  investments in early childhood, especially in strategies that promote the reduction of social, ethnic and cultural inequalities at the early ages (0-3).

Detalhes

We look forward to organizations that deal with pre-seed and seed projects on educational technology, particularly focused on children under the age of 5.We would very much like to visit  The Bill Clinton Foundation to learn more about the impact, the monitoring and evaluation of "The 30 million Initiative" and how that Initiative helped children to narrow down the gap between vocabulary learning related to low and high language exposure below the age of 5. We would also need to get mentoring from organizations that develop educational materials or devices for people with special needs but with potentials for language development through a mobile application such as INVENTALES.Finally, we would like to share expertises with former SOLVE CHALLENGES  Alumni who developed similar projects for early child development and how they  managed to overcom barriers in the long run. 

We would like to apply for the Dubai Early Childhood Prize, as INVENTALES is a low-cost, large-scale use, motivating mobile phone application to help overcome inequalities among children at an early and most important moment in children´s ever long life. With the prize, we will invest on international humanitarian network initiatives to make a global world a more inclusive, less prejudice and violent world to our children, by respecting and promoting their rights - specially in poor and developing countries. When a child is asked: " What is your dream?" and her anwer is :" I have no dreams" (Source:https://ocomecodavida.com.br/filme-completo/), that is a testimony of how much we have failed as society on neglecting or designingd poor public  policies on early child development, by depriving  children from one of the most vital human rights: the right to dream, to develop their imaginative talents.

Detalhes

Detalhes