Fufu Feels

According to a recent study by UNICEF, 1 in 7 children in India and 1 in 4 children globally between the ages 5-18 have reported symptoms of anxiety and depression? Out of these, 70% have had their onset of symptoms as early as 4 years old. Research has shown us that early intervention and a preventative approach is the most effective way to address the ongoing mental health crisis in children. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. Another study by the Child's Rights Resource Center who interviewed close to 37,000 people from 47 countries, revealed that 46% of parents reported resorting to physical means of discipline. Children feel cut-off from their peers, teachers feel a disconnect with their students and parents are exhausted from having to manage work+home+online learning for their children. 

Looking at these numbers, we realised that there is a need for an intervention that not only targets children but also works towards empowering adults (caregivers and educators) in emotionally nurturing children at the same time. Our solution would be geared towards providing opportunities to children to learn the social-emotional skills that they would need to build a compassionate and accepting world as well as resources for the adult to facilitate this learning.

The solution is a play-based mobile application called Fufu Feels that cultivates social emotional learning competencies amongst 3-10 year old children.

Fufu Feels is built on three pillars: (i) enhancing the emotional vocabulary of children to help them identify their emotions and feelings (ii) developing their coping skills in case of inter-relational conflicts and challenges (iii) demonstrating empathy and compassionate action towards self, others and their environment. Fufu Feels is an immersive and interactive mobile application that leverages the power of play, gamified assessments and transmedia storytelling to deliver a fun and meaningful experience for children. The core features of the app include: play, learn, and reflect that consist of animated videos, games, puzzles and different engaging activities that children can perform to “level up”. Children will have to periodically respond to reflective questions helping them delve deep within and share their thoughts with the character of the app, Fufu. We aim to drive positive behavior change through rewards in the form of real-life reinforcements that can be personalized by the educators/ the caregivers.

These can be specific to the child/classroom as opposed to a standard point or star system. The games have a unique SEL assessment embedded system, which helps teachers to understand their students’ emotional state better and further facilitate meaningful conversations within the classroom and design more targeted activities. The core mechanic of the game design relies on reflective thinking, identification of emotional and physiological states and empathic listening, and not on the speed of completion. The application motivates students to check-in with their friend Fufu everyday to ensure that they keep “leveling up” over a span of 3 months in-app activity. 

Educators will receive additional micro-trainings to ensure effective delivery of social-emotional learning amongst children. Educators and caregivers would also receive exclusive monthly newsletters with additional activities, worksheets and strategies to facilitate meaningful conversations that help foster a richer and healthier home and classroom climate. The stories in the mobile application include diverse characters from different cultures, religions, geographies and ethnicities since we believe that intercultural dialogue and acceptance of differences lies at the core of a healthy and happy ecosystem for a child.

Our target audience is 3-10 year old children.
We believe that before every child’s 10th birthday, each child must have C.A.K.E.,
(i) Critical thinking skills
(ii) Awareness of their emotions
(iii) Kindness towards self, others, and nature
(iv) Empathy to be able to take different perspectives.

Post-COVID, there is a severe impact on the psycho-social wellbeing of children. In an already overwhelmed learning system, educators and caregivers are under-equipped to manage the wellbeing of learners so that they are able to adapt to a shifted academic, social and familial environment. Social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions are intended to help people learn and effectively use “knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”1  Several research studies point to the fact that ensuring safe and orderly environments that encourage and reinforce positive classroom behavior 2 is a precursor for academic achievement.

The following barriers exist in ensuring social-emotional learning and critical thinking skills for students:

(i) Lack of classroom-ready programs Despite the success of several SEL interventions, there is a severe lack of scale and access to high-quality SEL programs due to the logistical barriers of in-person implementation. Since most of the SEL programs are delivered by school support staff (such as a mental health counselor), schools are not adequately funded to cover their time. Insufficiently trained instructors and a lack of classroom-ready instructional content leads to SEL being sidelined in schools. Our solution is to ensure that every child gets a delightful 1:1 in-app experience with minimal training time delivered to teachers, who can act as facilitators for the technology-driven solution.

(ii) Learner Engagement Traditional interventions can face tremendous barriers in motivating students towards completion. Our mobile application is entirely play-based and uses games and powerful storytelling to connect the child within the app’s world. We believe that learning happens while we are playing and ensure that the app is exciting for a child. We have further embedded key reinforcements within the games such that the child unlocks further levels only after completing the activity and/or reflection for the day.

(iii) Lack of evidence-based assessments

Social-emotional learning assessments rely on self-reported pre and post questionnaires which may not be the most accurate way of measuring growth. Instead, we have designed game-based assessments that are derived from standardized tests, and are delivered playfully to the user. Our curricula is built upon recognised frameworks of CASEL, similarly our assessments are framed upon published and globally validated scales.  

(iv) Stigma to receive early psychoeducation South Asian markets face stigma in seeking psychoeducation services and in-person interventions make it more difficult for children to reach out in case they require support. Technology and games provide the opportunity to reduce this barrier while ensuring that a playful and scalable solution can be delivered to children.

In the current scenario, educational organizations in India are working towards digitizing our public schools and under-resourced schools. They are on the lookout for solutions that leverage on the local language and also build essential life skills in children. The National Educational Policy (NEP) 2020 of India also highlights the use of local languages in the early childhood years as well as a deep focus on building social-emotional skills. We aim to partner/work with such organizations in addition to targeting parents directly from the semi-urban and urban areas in India.

References:

1. CASEL guide: Effective social and emotional learning programs: Middle and high school edition. Chicago, IL: CASEL. CASEL (2017).

2. Marzano, R. J. (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action.

The founders combine their strengths in design, education, children's media and technology with a strong network of educational organisations, national and state governments, early childhood development community across the Asia Pacific region and are associated with globally recognised institutions such as UNESCO, NTU, BITS and IIM.

 Anurati is a play and learning experience designer who has worked with UNESCO MGIEP for three years and has been instrumental in designing and implementing research-driven games and game-based curriculum that promote social-emotional learning and critical thinking skills amongst learners, educators and developers. She has previously led the development of the award-winning mobile application KathaKhazana that enhances grade-level reading amongst early learners and was awarded the mBillionth 2018 across South Asia for innovation in storytelling and games. She is an alumnus of BITS Pilani where she received training in product engineering and the sciences, as well as Ashoka University where she studied liberal arts and leadership. She is a Young India Fellow 2017, and an Arts for Good Fellow 2021.

 Drishti has 7 years of experience working in the field of mental health and education for privately-funded schools in the semi-urban areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. She has worked extensively in building in-person SEL programs geared towards suicide prevention among youth. She holds an M.A. in Counseling and Guidance from NTU, Singapore.  

Additionally, we have a physical prototype of a small component of Fufu Feels launched in the market in the form of flashcards and books, which have been very well-received by schools and parents. A common feedback received was to digitize the flashcards and books, so that it can reach a lot more children at a lower cost and most importantly children can learn the skills with minimal guidance from the adult.

We are applying to MIT Solve in order to develop our product in partnership with purpose-driven organisations with technological acumen. Through Solve we aim to expand our network of schools/educational organisations as well as guidance from experts in the field of go-to-market support, technology, organisational development, and fundraising. As we scale up, we look forward to being trained in strategies on lean product management and team building as we aim to build an inclusive, ethical and compassionate culture. In order to move towards our mission of nurturing a generation of resilient children, it would be beneficial for us to network with and learn from peers across the world. Our vision is for the product to be a key catalyst for cultivating social-emotional competencies amongst children through technology and inspire ripples of change across the globe. 

(i)      Child-Centered Design

We strongly believe in providing learner agency to facilitate play for social-emotional learning. Hence, the product will be designed using participatory techniques such that the story and games are co-designed with children and for children. In a gist, we leverage on everyday interactions which a child could relate with, to help them understand what they are feeling. Instead of a tiger getting impatient, a little child is getting impatient as she can’t wait for her turn to get a chocolate. These are situations they know and possibly could have experienced, making having any kind of feeling we have, a more human experience. 

(ii)     Social-Emotional Learning Through Play        
Play lies at the heart of FuFu Feels and the stories, games, reflective prompts, activities will be designed to strike a chord with the child first such that the child develops a connection with Fufu and her friends in the story and is able to exhibit empathy and compassion towards the characters. Additionally, the reflective prompts and exercises help initiate a dialogue between the child and the educator, making way for a deeper emotional connection between them, further contributing towards a healthier and happier classroom climate.

(iii) Evidence-Based Game-Based Assessments    
Our product takes a unique approach to assessments and connects the playfulness and intrinsic motivation provided by games with standardized and validated scales on social-emotional learning. Additionally, a child’s in-app engagement is also connected to real-life positive reinforcements provided by educators and caregivers.

(iv)  Whole-Child Approach Our solution targets the entire system of educators, caregivers and learners to ensure the psycho-social well-being of children through monthly guidebooks, newsletters, workshops, training and conversation flashcards. By supporting the parent and educator, we are empowering them in their ability to facilitate a stronger bond with their child/student.

The success of a one-of-its-kind child-driven SEL mobile game through proven research and data, spearheaded by individuals who have worked directly with educators and learners in underserved communities across the South Asia would enable recognition of accessible SEL programs in the area, and spark greater acceptance amongst educators in adoption of proven techniques.

UN SDG indicator 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity. 

The impact goal will be assessed using games and data-driven technology.
(i) For Children:

• Ability to demonstrate SEL core competencies 
• Ability to express themselves and acknowledge their emotions 
• Ability to solve everyday challenges with confidence 
•  Ability to practice kindness towards themselves and others.
  Measurement metric: In-app engagement, reflection activities, gamified SEL assessments.

(ii) For Educators:

• Improved Classroom Climate
• Stronger Connection b/w teachers & students and among students
• Reported confidence in delivering digital SEL programs
  Measurement metric: Monthly Reflection, Assessment & Feedback.

Fufu Feels is an interactive play-based game on social-emotional learning that ensures that children cultivate competencies of critical thinking, awareness, kindness towards the self, others, and nature, and empathy by the time they reach the age of 10. Driven by the mission of creating a generation of empathic listeners, compassionate problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and creatively confident doers, the app delivers engaging and relevant multimedia content in the form of stories, games, reflective activities, and animated videos. Our immediate goal is to cultivate and assess core SEL competencies through embedded games and a whole child approach which positively impacts learners, educators and caregivers. This ties up to our long term goals of improving classroom climate and home environments that promote the well-being of children. There is ample research to prove that children’s SEL skills grow significantly during early childhood. It is proven that when children participate in SEL Interventions in Early Childhood interventions, not only can their behavior improve, but we may also see changes in their brain structure and function(1). In addition, multiple studies have found that participating in preschool SEL interventions is significantly related to growth in academic achievement and SEL skills, in both the short and long term(2).   

The A-Z of You & Me
Soon to be launched in Hindi!To test our innovative curriculum, we have designed paper prototypes in the form of learning cards that aim to enhance the emotional vocabulary of children and facilitate conversations on emotions and feelings within homes and classrooms. We have successfully delivered the product to 75 learners and 150 educators who have significantly reported the need for such relevant, contextualized SEL curriculum which is available on digital devices for easier access.

References: 1. Clancy Blair and C. Cybele Raver, “Closing the Achievement Gap through Modification of Neurocognitive and Neuroendocrine Function: Results from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of an Innovative Approach to the Education of Children in Kindergarten,” PLoS ONE 9, no. 11 (2014): e112393, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112393

2. Damon E. Jones, Mark Greenberg, and Max Crowley, “Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness,” American Journal of Public Health 105 (2015): 2283–90, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302630

 

• The solution uses a mobile application that hosts interactive games, voice-based reflections and animated stories. 

• Personalized dashboards for educators to have access to classroom insights and learner completion rates.

Fufu Feels is a project initiated under the banner of Journey Matters (a women-led venture). We partner with organizations that work towards teacher empowerment in semi-urban and rural areas of India to design culturally relevant content. 

 Our games are designed by children mobilized from different parts of India as part of our value of “design for children, by children”. Inclusion lies at the core of our beliefs and we aim to design for inclusion, accessibility, diversity and equity. Our mission is to advance a compassionate and respectful community led by the culture of care. Journey Matters is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.

• Fufu Feels will be made available to our clients at a subscription of Rs.99/$1.30USD per month per child. When additional languages are added, it will be an additional cost of Rs.45/ $0.59 USD per month.

• Key customers: Targeting the CSR wing of multinational companies, education-focused NGOs working with a community of schools and independent schools. 

• Partnering with local education ministries to deploy the app in government schools

• A community trainer will assist the schools in implementing the app within the classroom.

• Educator development in technology to be a significant component of training sessions.

We plan to have a combination of applying for grants, investment money and providing our app at a minimal subscription of Rs.99/1.30 USD per month.

Presently, this is a bootstrapped venture with the founders putting in their personal capital. We have invested close to Rs. 6,00,000/-

• brand identity development,
• trademark and copyrights,
• physical prototype design and manufacturing
• marketing activities
• shipping and other logistics

 With the help of product sales and product training sessions, we are running at a profit of 5%.