Bizzibrains

Bizzibrains creates personalised story book apps that familiarise children with behaviours or situations with the aim of giving families less stress and more joy. The idea behind Bizzibrains' apps first began to take shape when my daughter asked me to substitute her name into the picture books I read her. She connected better with the stories when... she was in them. I noticed that when the topic of the book was a behaviour she was still learning - such as sharing at three years old - she was more interested in applying what she learnt from the story to her play. The simple idea of reading about, watching or imagining yourself doing something to increase familiarity and confidence is behind a number of techniques used by educators, parents and even athletes. Carol Gray developed Social Stories which are often used by teachers and parents of children with autism, for example, as a behavioural strategy, to increase understanding of how others might behave and how they might be expected to behave or to cope with changes to routine. Some athletes use a similar technique. They visualise themself successfully running a race with the aim of improving their performance in that race. Bizzibrains story book apps are different to both these techniques. They mix creative illustrations, interactions and a story which is largely fictional to engage the child's imagination with some elements that are true and familiar to the child (such as their name, their photo face, some other characters and in I learn their age and where they go to learn). Our story book apps are designed to prompt the child to imagine that they are in the story, to familiarise them with the topic and make them confident that they can behave the way their character does in the story. I love printed picture books. They create a togetherness with my children, a dreamy magic that I can't imagine without the feel of paper. But it is clear to me that interactive story book apps are capable of engaging children in a different way. Technology allows us to do ...Read More