Kognito’s PK-12 Simulations Score Hat Trick in International 2020 Award Recognition

NEW YORK, August 17, 2020 — As districts across the country look to online professional development simulations for their educators, health simulation company Kognito today  announced that two international awards programs recently recognized three of its PK-12 solutions. At-Risk for Early Childhood Educators won a gold medal and Resilient Together: Coping with Loss at School earned a silver medal in the K-12 Education SEL category at the 2020 International Serious Play Awards program which honors outstanding products that leverage gaming technology for education or training. Trauma-Informed Practices was a winner in the software category of Tech & Learning’s 2020 Awards of Excellence contest, a competition led by Tech & Learning magazine which recognizes products that are improving the way educators and students learn.

All three winning simulations utilize interactive practice scenarios with virtual humans to help educators build the knowledge and skills to have meaningful conversations within their classrooms and school communities: 

• At-Risk for Early Childhood Educators helps educators who work with children ages 3-5 develop the knowledge and skills to handle challenging behavior, identify students who may need more support, bring up concerns with caregivers, and practice emotional self-regulation to be better prepared to support their classroom.
  
• Resilient Together: Coping with Loss at School prepares administrators, teachers, and staff to respond to a death within the school community by teaching them key elements of a crisis response plan, including postvention, and best practices for communicating with students and colleagues impacted by a loss in the school.
• Trauma-Informed Practices for K12 Schools, empowers educators to better support students whose behavior might be related to sources of trauma or distress by preparing users to spot warning signs of trauma, lead real-life conversations with students, and explore making a referral to a mental health professional.

As districts continue to emphasize student mental health, Kognito’s research-proven simulations are helping many schools prepare for the 2020 school year.  Research suggests that youth are at particular risk of increased stress due to the pandemic, with children as young as three being at risk of delays in development when stress is prevalent. Now more than ever, students will depend on their educators for support. Educators will need to recognize signs of students in distress, know what to say to a student, and where to refer students for more help. 

While the practice scenarios in Kognito simulations aren’t specific to COVID-19, the experiential learning and web-based format of the training make them an effective way to prepare teachers and staff with the skills needed to support students this fall. One district leading this charge is Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the nation’s fourth-largest school district, which is preparing its educators to respond to COVID-19 trauma by providing all 40,000 school employees with access to Trauma-Informed Practices.

To learn more about Kognito’s solutions for PK-12 districts, head here.

About Kognito

Kognito is a health simulation company whose evidence-based simulations harness the power of role-play conversations with virtual humans to improve social, emotional, and physical health. Learn more at kognito.com.