Tag Archive for: social learning software

Our Social Learning Software Listed as a Favorite App by My NYC Tutors

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We are happy that our social learning software was included in a list of favorite apps for children with special needs! The teachers from My NYC Tutors wrote a great review about The Social Express.

Our social learning software app was described as one of their 3 favorite apps for special needs children! The 3 apps discussed in the article were all recommended by their special education teachers.

The myNYCtutors.com blog article says in part,

Children who suffer from an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties with social situations and may have significant social skill problems.  This makes it difficult for those with an ASD to form meaningful relationships.

Since ‘social rules’ are largely unspoken, those with an ASD often have to learn these rules as opposed to picking them up naturally. This is where the Social Express really shines.

You can read the complete My NYC Tutor’s review by clicking here: http://mynyctutors.com/?p=2449

We are so honored when special education teachers who like using The Social Express with their students, take the time to write about us.   The article states that our social learning software app is a great way for children to pick up on social cues. We also like that the review notes that children with autism seem to really enjoy it, “The graphics are top-notch and most children seem to really enjoy it.”

Thank you, My NYC Tutors!

You can read more special education and education articles on their blog. Like this one that explains how to use cooking to teach math. How cool is that? http://mynyctutors.com/?p=1961

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New Autism Social Learning Software Takes Top SIIA Ed Tech Summit Award

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 23, 2012—Brighten Learning, creator of social learning software for children with autism, was voted the Most Likely to Succeed at The Software & Information Industry Ed Tech Summit on May 9, 2012.  The company’s first autism education software program, The Social Express, took home the coveted SIIA Ed Tech Summit Innovation Incubator award. The 350 conference attendees also voted the company a Runner Up in the Most Innovative category.

“We’re honored to receive these awards from the SIIA Ed Tech Summit,” said Marc Zimmerman, Founder and CEO. “We value this recognition and the feedback from parents about how The Social Express has helped their children.” Zimmerman continued, “Moms have told us they credit The Social Express with helping their kids with autism to begin forming friendships with other children. That really makes it all worthwhile!”

Parents and teachers of autistic children have given The Social Express, a 16-lesson interactive video modeling program, high marks for focusing on the right social skills. They also value the high-quality, Hollywood-style animation that holds children’s attention without over stimulation and the scenes that reinforce the best choices for kids to make in social situations.

Children find the characters appearing in The Social Express really engaging and many kids ask to work with The Social Express everyday. Users of the program say that it increases social awareness and learning in students with autism and promotes both social interaction and play.

When Zimmerman’s 10-year-old identical twin autistic boys joined mainstream classes, he realized that social learning was going to be key to their ability to interact well with classmates. That was the catalyst for Zimmerman to recruit the expert team that developed The Social Express. The company was bootstrapped from its founding through development and rollout of the first product. The company recently received its first seed funding which will be used to develop additional social learning software products.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California.  The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

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How Our Social Learning Software Helps Your Child

Social-Learning-Software-Autism-Help-for-ParentsThe Social Express is a 16-lesson social learning software program designed to provide autism help for parents of children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD.

Autism Help for Parents

Children diagnosed on the autism spectrum do not learn the skills needed to be effective adults in the same way that other children without the autism diagnosis do.

Our program provides autism help for parents by making it easier for you to work with your child with autism between therapy sessions.  The Social Express helps you to reinforce the social skills that your child may be learning in classes or therapy sessions.

The Social Express introduces many skills that are needed for your child to become socially competent. Improved social skills may help your child with autism to make friends more easily.

Children with social learning challenges require direct instruction, with each facet of every skill broken down into small pieces. The Social Express addresses the areas of social skills needs by providing a highly animated, interactive and visual presentation.

Here are a few of the social skills included in our 16-lesson learning program:

– Being With the Group: Keep Your Body Facing the Group

– Pick the Feeling: Use Your Eyes and Brain to Figure Things Out

– Say the Right Thing: Talk About What the Group Is Talking About

How Our Social Learning Software Benefits Your Child

The Social Express is mainly developed to help elementary school age children with autism, Asperger’s and ADHD.  Here are three suggestions for working with the program:

Work through the program along with your child. It is best if you work with your child when using The Social Express learning software. Instead of letting your child interact with the program alone, it’s key to work through the lessons with your child. This way you can more easily reinforce social skills with your child between therapy sessions.

Pause the software to discuss what he or she is learning. When using The Social Express with your child, stop the software in between each lesson. That way you can discuss the social skill being presented by the program with your child. This becomes a “teachable moment” for you with your child.

Review each lesson with your child.  Revisit each lesson and allow your child to select the “wrong” answer. Then you can explain to your child what happens in social situations with other children when someone makes the “wrong” choice.

Join our free newsletter! Get insider updates from The Social Express, click here to join us!

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SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology

Education-for-autism-software-SIIA-recognition

We were excited this week that our autism software for social learning received two education technology (ed tech) awards. The Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) Innovation Incubator Program recognized The Social Express with a first place honor as as being the Most Likely to Succeed. We also received second place for Most Innovative technology.

Below is the official SIIA news release:

For Immediate Release:
SIIA Communications Contact: Laura Greenback, 410.533.1943, lgreenback@siia.net
PR Contact: Charlene Blohm, C. Blohm & Associates, 608.216.7300, charlene@cblohm.com

SIIA Announces Top Innovators in Education Technology
Three technology solutions receive honors in SIIA’s Innovation Incubator Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 9, 2012) The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, this week recognized three ed tech solutions with five awards for their originality, innovation, and industry promise.

During SIIA’s bi-annual Innovation Incubator program held in connection with this week’s SIIA Ed Tech Industry Summit, Language Express and Filament Games were voted by 350 conference attendees as being the Most Likely to Succeed (first place and runner-up, respectively). Filament Games and Language Express were also voted as the Most Innovative (first place and runner-up, respectively.)

The Innovation Incubator Program supports innovation in the education technology industry by raising the profile of promising new technologies while connecting these innovators with captains of industry for mentorship, expert advice, investment opportunities, and partnerships to support growth.

Overall, 73 applicants were assessed for the Innovation Incubator program on a broad range of criteria, including the education focus, end-user impact, market need for the innovation, representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels, and the level of originality and innovation. Ten finalists and two alternates were selected for the program and their participation was subsidized by program lead and co-sponsors Blackboard Partnerships and Texthelp Systems.

“It has been an incredible experience to see more than 100 presentations from the ten innovation incubator program cycles we have now hosted,” said Karen Billings, Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA. “The number of applicants increases every cycle. We are thrilled to support so many original and exciting products and, just as importantly, to provide SIIA members with early access to these technologies.”

In addition to the recognitions announced above, Blackboard Partnerships™ continued its tradition of identifying the Innovation Incubator most aligned with their own initiatives, providing Smart Science Education Inc. with a complimentary year-long membership as a Blackboard Building Blocks™ partner in the Blackboard Partnerships program. Among the many benefits, partners have access to the thousands of clients using the Blackboard Learn™ platform. Program membership also includes a developer copy of the Blackboard Learn software, a product listing on the Blackboard Extensions online directory, personalized guidance and mentorship on the partnership, and participation at members‐only events.

“We’re honored to have teamed up with SIIA for the sixth consecutive year to sponsor the Innovation Incubator Program at the Ed Tech Industry Summit,” said Ted Hopper, Vice President, Business Development at Blackboard. “Each participant showcased original developments aimed to enhance personalized learning, but we think the online labs developed by Smart Science Education Inc. best align with our continued efforts to enrich our content repository for K-12 and Higher Education. We’re excited to welcome Smart Science Education Inc. into the Blackboard Partnerships program.”

About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education, and intellectual property protection to more than 500 leading software and information companies. The SIIA Education Division serves and represents more than 180 member companies that provide software, digital content and other technologies that address educational needs. The Division shapes and supports the industry by providing leadership, advocacy, business development opportunities and critical market information. For more information, visit www.siia.net/education. To learn more about the Innovation Incubator Program and the Ed Tech Industry Summit, visit http://www.siia.net/etis.

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Autism Software Wins First Place at SIIA Ed Tech Summit

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our autism software, The Social Express won first prize today at The Ed Tech Summit!

The Ed Tech Summit is an an educational tech event!

If you’re on Twitter, here is the Summit hashtag, #ETIS12

Our autism software was named: Most Likely To Succeed Educational Technology Product or Service

It was so exciting yesterday at the SIIA Summit in San Francisco! The photo above is me pitching yesterday during the Summit’s Innovation Incubator after we made it to the finals.

Double bonus. We also won Second Prize – Most Innovative Ed Tech Product or Service – Runner Up. We are so honored and enjoyed meeting all of the other companies and speakers at the event.

Social Learning Software Submitted

A few months ago, we entered our social learning software, The Social Express, in the Innovation Incubator. The SIIA stands for the Software Information Industry Association.

The SIIIA Education Division supports innovation in the ed tech industry (education technology) through the Innovation Incubator Program. The Incubator Program is an initiative that raises awareness of the most innovative ed tech products and services. We entered in our social learning software using our company name, Brighten Learning.

Autism Software to Help Your Child Make Friends

The whole reason my wife Tina and I started our company was to help both our twins with autism and the larger autism community. We know firsthand how many challenges there are for families with children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Especially when it comes to helping your child with autism make and keep friendships with other children.

It was seven years ago when our boys were first diagnosed on the spectrum. I was wondering what to do to help them. They weren’t very social. And I am, on the other hand, very social. That made it very difficult for me, especially.

I really wanted to help them improve their social skills. Things like making and keeping eye contact and knowing the right distance to stand from others.

It was important to help them to develop and work on other basic social skills. Like, recognizing other kids’ facial expressions. That would be key for my boys to make friends. Especially when they left special education and joined the mainstream classroom.

I looked long and hard to find a social learning software program that would help them. But I couldn’t find any kind of autism software to help them with social skills.

Then I had an “aha!” moment one day when the therapist was at our house working with the children. She took out a laptop. They were interested at first. But the autism software  on the laptop was old, outdated and it didn’t hold their attention for very long.

That’s when the idea for The Social Express began. I wanted to make social learning software for children and young adults that was really fun. Animated. Interactive. My main goal was to develop social learning software that would hold their attention.

It took us about three years from the time we came up with the concept for our autism education software. But now it’s finally out in the world.

Winning the Innovation Incubator awards is a wonderful honor.

But helping your kids with autism to improve their social skills so they can make friends. That’s why we get up every day and work to bring The Social Express to the global autism community.

Thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes!

– Marc[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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New Autism Social Learning Software Startup Receives Seed Funding

San Diego, CA (PRWeb) May 3, 2012—Brighten Learning, a developer of social learning software for children on the autism spectrum, received its first round of $750,000 in seed funding from a private investment firm. The company’s initial product, The Social Express, is a 16-lesson autism app that’s receiving enthusiastic reviews from parents, therapists, educators, and bloggers.

Launched in November 2011, The Social Express is now used in thousands of classrooms across 65 countries.  One special education teacher using the program’s 30 interactive scenes describes it this way: The Social Express is an interactive, engaging app with amazing graphics covering many social skill topics Autism Spectrum Disorder students need to acquire.

Children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and ADHD have difficulty interacting with others due to deficits in social skills. According to teachers using The Social Express, “It teaches kids how to read facial expressions and body language and how to choose appropriate actions in varying social situations.” The Social Express is a finalist in the Software and Information Industry Association’s Ed Tech Industry Summit Innovation Incubator.

A Speech Language Pathologist with over 30 years experience in working with children on the autism spectrum wrote the curriculum. One mom using The Social Express describes it as “a real gift” for her family. She explains that when her son selects a good coping choice to deal with a social situation, she can see the sense of accomplishment in his face. This app truly supports what he’s learned in his social skills class, she tells us.

According to Marc Zimmerman, Founder-CEO, “We’re so excited by the overwhelming response from parents, therapists and educators of autistic children to The Social Express.”  He continued, “They tell us kids love the characters and the interaction! They ask to use The Social Express every day.”

When Zimmerman’s 10-year-old identical twin autistic boys joined mainstream classes, he realized that social learning was critical. That was the catalyst for Zimmerman to recruit the expert team that developed The Social Express. The company has been bootstrapped since its founding.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California.  The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

 

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Social Learning Software, The Digital Problem Solver, Gets Great Review

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When we introduced our new social learning software, we hoped it would be a popular and helpful education for autism app. The Social Express, currently a 16-lesson social learning software program, has been so well received! We are gratified and extremely humbled.

We’re hugely grateful for the wonderful support shown to us by the autism community. Gary James, founder of the apps review and community website, Apps for Children with Special Needs is one of the many autism community members that have provided helpful reviews of The Social Express to assist parents. These reviews also help with our mission to help kids on the autism spectrum improve their lives with social learning software.

According to a recent article in the Washington Daily News about Gary James,

“Gary is committed to helping the families of children with special needs and the wider community of educators and therapists who support them by producing videos that demonstrate how products designed to educate children and build their life skills work from a user’s perspective.”

The Washington Daily News article reported how Gary helped one mother and her young son with autism. The mom applied for a free iPad to Apps for Children with Special Needs for her son. As a result, James Pollard, a young child with autism, was overjoyed when he received an iPad from Gary James’ company, Apps for Children with Special Needs.

Please visit the Apps for Children with Special Needs and join his supportive community. You can find it here, http://a4cwsn.com/

The Digital Problem Solver (DPS) originally appeared in The Social Express™ as a tool for the characters to use to identify emotions and coping strategies.

Parents quickly requested a real DPS to use outside of the social learning software. So we did just that!

This practical device allows the user to identify how they are feeling by choosing from a selection of emotions. Once they have made a selection, the self-regulation process continues, as they then select a coping strategy.

We have taken the DPS one step farther by allowing you to insert your own photos. Gary demonstrates how to customize My Digital Problem Solver for your child in his video review.

You can watch the A4CWSN.com video review of My Digital Problem Solver social learning software by clicking here: http://a4cwsn.com/2012/04/the-social-express/

You can also join the amazing A4CWSN special needs community on Facebook. Today it has well over 13,000 fans! Just click here: http://www.facebook.com/a4cwsn

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