ARDOWN

ARDOWN LEARNING PLATFORM FOR CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME

ARDOWN is a platform that provides quality and complete education for children with Down syndrome, empowers and stimulates comprehensive learning for the development of auditory, visual and kinesthetic skills; as well as fine motor skills. Our innovation is adapted to the specific learning needs of each user, it contains attractive colors and sounds, as well as a wide variety of activities in the areas of mathematics, Spanish and art as a base, since in these the children develop object recognition. and improve their visual and auditory perception. ARDOWN contributes to the personal development of children, achieving their autonomy to achieve a more equitable and inclusive social condition.

ARDOWN creates new and promising teaching and learning alternatives, since these allow flexibility and individualization of the instruction process, by being able to adapt to the personal requirements of each student. Such quality is particularly interesting when working with individuals who have specific needs for educational support, by favoring digital inclusion.

Technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds in various sectors but it is evident that they have lagged behind in specialized education since there is currently no digital tool that can provide a quality and complete education for children with Down syndrome.

It is not possible to think that in the 21st century with all the technological advance we have, it could continue to be one of the main problems that affects such a vulnerable sector of the population.
Worldwide, it is estimated that the incidence of Down syndrome in newborns is 1 in a thousand, in LATAM it is estimated that there are about 2 million people with Down syndrome and in Mexico about 250,000.
Because the syndrome is permanent, attention in children is focused on helping them develop their cognitive abilities (Secretary of Health, 2019). This can include speech, occupational, and physical therapy. Currently, the techniques used by specialists and parents to promote children's cognitive development indicate that educational inclusion in ordinary centers is the most appropriate way to school them; However, their physical presence in schools is not enough, it is necessary to adopt methodological and organizational measures that provide the necessary support; in addition to strategic adaptations for the learning process that affect all factors and points of view, with a comprehensive and systematic perspective.

Worldwide, it is estimated that the incidence of Down syndrome in newborns is 1 in a thousand, in LATAM it is estimated that there are around 2 million people with Down syndrome and in Mexico about 250,000 and only 3% have access to quality and complete education.
Children with Down syndrome are the ones who suffer directly from this technological lag in inclusive education. We know that education is a fundamental pillar in the development of different social and cognitive skills.
ARDOWN is a platform that provides quality and complete education for children with Down syndrome, empowers and stimulates comprehensive learning for the development of auditory, visual and kinesthetic skills; as well as fine motor skills.
Our innovation is adapted to the specific needs of children, contains attractive colors and sounds, as well as a wide variety of activities in the areas of mathematics, Spanish and art as a base, since in these the children develop the recognition of objects and improve their visual and auditory perception.
ARDOWN contributes to the personal development of children, achieving their autonomy to achieve a more equitable and inclusive social condition by being integrated into digital technologies with content suitable for their learning.

I was a language assistant for children with Down syndrome, collaborating with Fundación Down de Puebla A.C. and collaborator in cognitive development in children with Down syndrome supporting the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center Puebla Mexico.
We currently work in 4 states of the Mexican Republic Puebla, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Hidalgo where we have impacted more than 850 children with Down syndrome and more than 1000 people indirectly benefited. ARDOWN is endorsed and certified by these institutions as an innovative and efficient tool in the cognitive development of children with Down syndrome.
To measure the efficiency and effectiveness of ARDOWN we use metrics of pedagogical aspects and cognitive efforts required by the platform, these metrics are aimed at inclusive education specialists and therapy and language teachers, from this we can always provide a 100% adapted education to the specific educational needs of each child and always be in continuous improvement.
ARDOWN proposes a new model of technological learning for children with Down syndrome. ARDOWN focuses on bridging the gap between technology and specialized education, ARDOWN is a software developed on the J-clic Author platform and can be run on any operating system or browser, it is displayed predictively with each of the activities that allow the user to have a better experience.

We currently work in 4 states of the Mexican Republic Puebla, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Hidalgo where we have impacted more than 850 children with Down syndrome and more than 1000 people indirectly benefited. ARDOWN is endorsed and certified by these institutions as an innovative and efficient tool in the cognitive development of children with Down syndrome.

To measure the efficiency and effectiveness of ARDOWN we use metrics of pedagogical aspects and cognitive efforts required by the platform, these metrics are aimed at inclusive education specialists and therapy and language teachers, from this we can always provide a 100% adapted education. to the specific educational needs of each child and always be in continuous improvement.
From these indicators we were able to observe improvements in the children's cognitive development such as cognitive stimulation had improved their visual recognition memory, attention, self-control and adaptive behavior or autonomy in day-to-day activities, and that these changes could correlate with biological changes in their brain connectivity.

ARDOWN is a software developed on the J-clic Author platform and can be run on any operating system or browser, it is predictive in each of the activities that allows the user to have a better experience and teachers to have better control over the progress of each student. It provides a quality and complete education through cutting-edge technological tools. Its attributes are a wide variety of activities by area, consecutive and related to reinforce knowledge, the contents have been validated by specialists, its use is intuitive and allows the child to interact safely and independently with the software.

ARDOWN is specifically based on intelligent tutorial systems, it provides an ICT-based teaching tool that determines the sequence and presentation of content focused on the performance of each student; that is, through algorithms, the following activity or content is recommended to be shown, betting on PERSONALIZED EDUCATION with an iterative process that considers the characteristics of each student, the result of the automatic psychometric evaluation, the characteristics of the content and/or activities and adaptive tests. Due to the above, the project focuses on children with Down syndrome; however, it can be applied to any child or adolescent of intellectual age from 3 to 15 years.

We currently work in 4 states of the Mexican Republic Puebla, Morelos, Tlaxcala and Hidalgo where we have impacted more than 850 children with Down syndrome and more than 1000 people indirectly benefited. ARDOWN is endorsed and certified by these institutions as an innovative and efficient tool in the cognitive development of children with Down syndrome.

With ARDOWN we have been able to validate each learning block with the help of inclusive education specialists where I denote the importance of technology because through images, sounds and gifs the attention span in each activity of children with Down syndrome is greater by 50 % compared to a didactic activity. The creation of a new technological learning model allows for greater efficiency and effectiveness in education by 30% compared to traditional learning.
We will continue to scale in more states of the Mexican Republic for the year 2022-2023, having implementation estimates with 1000 new users

With ARDOWN we have created different initiatives with institutions and foundations to give scholarships to children who do not attend school and thus generate an increasingly larger value network. We have carried out different campaigns in rural areas on raising awareness and accompanying parents on the education of children with Down syndrome.

We want to develop 3 areas and multidisciplinary programs where they can put into practice and develop their acquired knowledge and generate a greater impact.

Down Action: In this area, the aim is to have a direct impact on the education of children with Down syndrome, reducing the digital gap that exists with specialized education. It is proposed to generate strategic alliances with governments for the development of a social program focused on the education of children with Down syndrome reaching more people focused on rural areas.

Social Down: We will carry out campaigns, webinars and presentations with information on Down syndrome focused on parents and society in general, reaffirming equal rights and participation as citizens.

E-DOWN: We will create strategic alliances with different government and private institutions to generate a job bank for adolescents with Down syndrome and accompany them in the process of training and integration into the world of work.

To measure the efficiency and effectiveness of ARDOWN we use metrics of pedagogical aspects and cognitive efforts required by the platform, these metrics are aimed at inclusive education specialists and therapy and language teachers, from this we can always provide a 100% adapted education. to the specific educational needs of each child and always be in continuous improvement.
From these indicators we were able to observe improvements in the children's cognitive development such as cognitive stimulation had improved their visual recognition memory, attention, self-control and adaptive behavior or autonomy in day-to-day activities, and that these changes could correlate with biological changes in their brain connectivity.
Regarding indicators of realized capacity, only 28.3% of the total working age is employed and 3 out of 10 companies hire people with Down syndrome.
In the long term, perhaps in 5 years, these numbers should increase with adequate intervention and social dissemination of ARDOWN.

A first challenge refers to the democratization of technology; since it is known from visits to educational institutions and / or associations for children with down syndrome, that the market is found in parents of children in private institutions; since families that go to public institutions seek educational assistance in them due to the scarce resources they have. There are two totally different scenarios in Mexico, people who have sufficient financial resources to send their son or daughter to school in a private or public institution, to develop their cognitive skills according to a learning plan.

The other scenario that Mexicans live is that of living in a rural area where there is no internet or schools that can give the necessary education to children where the clear difference in possibilities in our country is marked.
 
The most important aspects to solve are:
-Reduce the technological gap with specialized education
- Increase the impact of our beneficiaries
- Reach rural areas of the country

The ARDOWN project is multidisciplinary.

We have 6 colleagues in the programming part of the new activities and the creation of new learning modules. All of them are computer and information technology engineers with degrees in programming.
We have a group of 10 inclusive education specialists and teachers who certify and endorse each of our activities before being implemented, in the same way they are the ones who certify and endorse ARDOWN as a tool and innovator in the education of children with syndrome of down.
We have two people in charge of marketing and attracting new clients.
In the same way, a person works with us in charge of creating relationships with each of the institutions or foundations with which we are going to work.
In the same way, we consider the children part of this great team, as they have taught us the true value of education, reaffirming each of their rights to have a better quality of life.
My team is a Full Stack developer, they have participated in projects with national and international teams of research and development of emerging technologies, public entrepreneurship projects and in data analysis projects. They currently play the roles of full stack developer, cloud expert and data analyst.

Currently we see as strategic allies the institutions and foundations that are in the Mexican Republic with which we work, since we share the same purpose as ARDOWN, to provide a comprehensive and quality education to children with Down syndrome. There are different AI companies that could be a strategic ally to implement artificial intelligence in the education of infants and thus offer a new experience to our user.

The use of AI can create new and promising teaching and learning alternatives, since they allow flexibility and individualization of the instruction process, since it can be adapted to the personal requirements of each student. This quality is especially interesting when working with individuals who have specific needs for educational support, by favoring digital inclusion. Historically, this group has been deprived of the same opportunities to access the media as the rest of the population, suffering from the so-called digital divide.

We do not want to be consider for this prize. 

We do not want to be consider for this prize.