BELLA: Kindergarten Readiness

BELLA is a research based and child focused game made for ages 3 to 5. It targets bilingual children, and prepares them for kindergarten. The game has a storybook-like feeling, and introduces the player to different characters including crocodile, monkey, bird, turtle and more. The game prompts children with a variety of games that aim to assess their skills in literacy, reading, mathematics, science, and social and emotional development. Throughout the games, a little mouse accompanies the children playing. Mouse times the tasks, and provides feedback on answers. The bilingual nature of the game allows it to provide trials both in English and in Spanish. The user can choose which language to use. Future developments of the game aim to make the mini-games adaptive, meaning that they will be specifically targeted at the user’s level in the previously mentioned skills, but also in their mastery over the languages used. BELLA, the kindergarten readiness educational game, is developed by research teams at the University of Houston in collaboration with MindTrust labs.