Brillante

Who (first and last name) is the Team Lead for your application and LEAP Project?

Jhony Pérez

Describe the role the Team Lead plays in your organization. [100-200 words recommended]

Jhony Pérez is the co-founder and the person in charge of directing the operations and the business model of the project. For this reason, he leads all the actions and alliances that promote the financing of Brillante's operations. One of his functions is also the protection of the copyright and intellectual property of the resources created in Brillante, such as the brand, characters, music, among others.

Additionally, he is in charge of developing immersive experiences through voice recognition, augmented reality, and facial gesture recognition, based on the guidelines of Brillante's Play methodology. 

As a co-founder, he also participates in important management decisions.

Explain how your Team Lead and supporting team members are well-positioned to effectively support the LEAP Project, given other priorities within your organization. [200-500 words - recommended]

Our team is very clear that in order to strengthen our methodology and the impact we aim to generate for the more than 80,000 children with language difficulties in Guatemala, it is necessary for us to participate in research  programs such as MIT. 

Due to the fact that our development of the Play methodology resources is based on the evaluation and learning of metrics and research, we constantly strive to develop the ability to adapt and modify for continuous improvement. 

Additionally, in the operations plan, we have taken into consideration how to adjust our priorities in order to actively participate in the event of being selected for the MIT LEAP program.

For example, in the last semester we participated in a training program for the responsible creation of the metaverse, carried out by the IDB LAB and Meta, the learning helped us to adapt the activities to be responsible when interacting with children and adults.

We also participate in a business training program run by a Creative Busines Cup partner, which has helped us to strengthen our business model.

All these participations we had while carrying out evaluations of our methodology with children, parents and teachers.

The knowledge acquired from these programs and the development of our work have allowed us to have the ability to constantly adapt and improve our resources

One-line solution summary: In 20 words or less, summarize your organization's product or program that is the focus of your LEAP Project.

Immersive technologies and stimuli for developing language in children from 0 months to 12 years old.

Define the problem that your solution seeks to solve. [200-500 words recommended]

In Guatemala in 2023 there are 3 million children of school age registered with the Ministry of Education, of whom according to statistics there are about 80 thousand children with language difficulties.

This is the reason we are facing generations of children that are having difficulties in communicating, expressing their feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Additionally, these children are having very serious problems when interacting with literacy elements

The saddest part is that In Latin America we do not have a model that allows us to effectively address this problem. Therefore, we are not meeting the sustainable development goals.

Also at this time in Guatemala there are no scalable solutions to give access  to stimulation and recovery of language in children from the age of 0 months to 12 years old.

That's why we created Brillante, which, through science, research, and technology, has created the Play methodology. This methodology allows us to create resources that are highly accessible, scalable, and enable us to be very specific and effective in addressing this problem.

Although there are some organizations that help to give solution to this problem, this not work for ambiguous methodologies.The exposure to expensive, boring, and tedious rehabilitation methods that have been implemented for the last 30 years makes evident  the difficulty of language in children.

Describe your solution and how it works in simple terms. [200-500 words recommended]

The Play methodology makes us unique. 

The Play methodology is designed with concepts and tools that facilitate, empower and potentiate efforts/actions/strategies for the rehabilitation/habilitation of language in children. 

The main elements of the methodology are: 

*Gamification:used to activate neurotransmitters; 

*Child development: focused on identifying the social, educational, physical and verbal and non-verbal communication needs; 

*Psychology:used to motivate the child and tutor to exercise cognitive behavioral; 

*Research:used to validate and apply scientific methods that allow the adaptation of effective strategies; 

*Implement Industry 4.0: used to apply of voice recognition, augmented reality, data analysis and programming to create effective scenarios or solutions which are scalable

These characteristics help the language rehabilitation process to be remote, unilateral, accelerated and comprehensive since the appropriate conditions are created for the promotion of language and prepare the child to start the school stage

In a simple way, at Brillante, we create stimuli that foster language development in children at home or school.

For example, we create augmented reality experiences (utilizing face recognition) with gamification to encourage children to talk or makes lingual praxis, without feeling stressed or pressured. Additionally, we create video games with speech recognition in controlled situations, which allow children to enjoy these activities while advancing their language development.

Select the key characteristics of your target population. Select all that apply.

• Pre-primary age children (ages 2-5)
• Primary school children (ages 5-12)
• Rural
• Peri-Urban
• Poor
• Low-Income
• Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
• Persons with Disabilities

In which country or countries does your solution currently operate?

Guatemala

Upload your solution's Theory of Change or Logic Model.

Where would you place your solution on Nesta's Standards of Evidence?

To date, what research/studies has your organization conducted that have helped demonstrate the effectiveness of your solution? [200-500 words recommended]

2005 – 2012: The founders of Brillante (Estela and Jhony) as young people participated in an organization on the rights of children and adolescents where the methodology to transmit and analyze teaching is based on gamification. They created carnivals, games, radio magazines to share their rights with their peers. At that time, evaluations were made (people outside the organization) on how this methodology helped to efficiently share the rights of other young people. The co-founder was a national representative of Guatemala in a Latin American gaming network.

2012/2013: The founders of Brillante graduated as primary school teachers in Guatemala, where they had their first experiences with children with language difficulties.

2012-2020: Estela finishes her studies as a Speech Therapist and Psychologist. During this time, she carries out research work on children with language difficulties and special educational needs. Based on the experiences she has having interventions with children with language difficulties, she develops the Play methodology.

2021 - 2022: Estela begins to compare her methodology with international research published on the internet, such as: the work that Oracy appg (United Kingdom) has developed.

2021 - 2022: The final prototypes of video games, augmented reality, cartoons, and songs are created, which are implemented in language development in 25 children accompanied by their parents/teachers.

2023: IDB LAB and Meta (Facebook) selected Brillante as 1 of the 10 communities in Latin America and the Caribbean that use immersive technologies to impact their communities.

2023: The necessary alliances are being made with Universities in Guatemala for the research team to carry out analyzes on the Play methodology.

What has the research/studies you have conducted revealed about your solution and how did it inform your work moving forward? [200-500 words recommended]

The reasons why a child has difficulties with language development between the ages of 0 months to 12 years are due to various circumstances. Some are related to cognitive-behavioral issues that arise in the home, others are due to genetic disorders that affect language, and others are attributed to cultural factors where communication and language are not prioritized in children's development.

Because each child is different with their own interests, but with very common characteristics in the learning process regardless of their condition, we have identified the primary stimuli to which a child reacts in their language development process.

Elements of gamification, music, interactivity, appropriately tailored using technology and psychology, allow us to create immersive experiences that accelerate learning processes. In our case, we focus on fostering inner language, comprehension, and expressive skills, which facilitate short and long-term learning (memory).

For example, a child engaging in the Play methodology activities that aid in their language rehabilitation process tends to develop phonological awareness, which in turn allows them to interact better with literacy elements in the future.

These have been our conclusions after interacting with children in the learning stage, children with language difficulties, and children with special educational needs for over 10 years.

Describe your organization's need to strengthen the evidence base of your solution. [200-500 words recommended]

At this moment, we are very happy because we are seeking a partner who can help us automate our application. We are facing interoperability issues due to interacting with various elements of 4.0 technology.

We would like to analyze stimuli in real time.

What are 2-3 research questions that you would like your LEAP Project to help you answer? [100 words recommended]

Como medir el impacto de nuestra metodología y recursos con niños con aspecto autista?

Como crear un algoritmo flexible a las necesidades de cada niños?

Como construir comunidad para que padres se fortalezcan los unos a otros en una comunidad segura?

What type of research/studies do you think will help answer your stated questions? Select all that apply.

• Formative research (e.g. usability studies; feasibility studies; case studies; user interviews; implementation studies; pre-post or multi-measure research; correlational studies)
• Summative research (e.g. correlational studies; quasi-experimental studies; randomized control studies)

Please elaborate on your selection above by describing your desired outputs of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint. [200 - 500 words recommended]

Lo siento ya no tuvimos tiempo de contestar esta pregunta, por el tiempo del envio de la convocatoria.

How will your organization put these outputs into action? [200-500 words recommended]

Lo siento ya no tuvimos tiempo de contestar esta pregunta, por el tiempo del envio de la convocatoria.

Describe your desired short-term and long-term outcomes of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint for both your organization and solution. [200-500 words recommended]

Lo siento ya no tuvimos tiempo de contestar esta pregunta, por el tiempo del envio de la convocatoria.