Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn. SEN is a term used covering learning difficulties, social, emotional or mental health difficulties, sensory needs, visual or physical difficulties and communication problems. in Europe nearly 5 million people have autism, over 1.5 million have Cerebral Palsy and nearly 6 million people have other learning disabilities.
Students with SEN must train their cognitive, communication and physical skills daily in order to maintain and improve their independence and quality of life.
Traditionally, to address such impairments, practitioners relied on two types of solutions. On the one hand, the expensive sophisticated solutions for training developed by large companies and intended for use in hospital settings. On the other, therapists used repetitive training routines designed to stimulate users both cognitively and physically on a daily basis. The former are advanced solutions that are inaccessible to the majority of users due to their cost, whilst the latter, despite their wider use, have largely demonstrated their limitations (customisation, pricing), creating the need for more involvement on therapists’ side, and leading to increased care costs for social care systems and families.
Recently, novel techniques involving games, music and enabling creativity have proven capable of relieving the negative feelings associated with repetition and distracting attention from pain and fatigue associated with exercising. The engaging effects of game playing together with music’s ability to tap into the emotion and the reward systems of the brain, can catalyse patients’ training process, and immensely improve their psychological well-being. With 150m people worldwide with SEN, the assistive technology market in this sector alone is expected to reach €8,8bn in 2016, with 5.7% year on year growth.
Cosmo is the first product by company Filisia Interfaces. It is a patent-pending cloud-based Software as a service (SaaS) solution integrating:
-modular, sensor based controllers (Hardware) and
-a platform with several activities designed by teachers (Software), which
-collects and reports data insights about learners’ physical and cognitive capacities.
Cosmo is designed to help users exercise regularly both cognitively and physically by triggering users’ creativity and engagement through games, music making and gamified training activities. The devices ergonomically accessible, highly customisable and offers interoperability possibilities with other hardware and software solutions. Cosmo is developed by Filisia Interfaces, in cooperation with with the National Rehabilitation centre of Greece, the Athens Centre for Cerebral palsy, the University of Birmingham in the UK, Goldsmiths university and 100+ special educators, physical, occupational and music therapists and special needs educators from the UK, the Netherlands, USA and Greece.
Filisia used Horizon 2020 SME Instrument funding to conduct a feasibility study to examine Cosmo’s technical and commercial viability among a larger pool of potential clients (user-acceptance), and to assess if the selected commercialisation approach will be conducive of the projected growth on the European level. During the action, Filisia successfully conducted:
(A) Users’ acceptance study: We validated the existing product design and functionality against the evolving long-term needs of special needs educators, physical, occupational and music therapists who use the platform, via testing and pilots. The resulting suggested enhancements were prioritized into a workflow to drive the the product development and business plan. The target location is the United Kingdom, mostly due to the location of the team and the known languages and legal requirements.
(B) Market assessment (including pricing): We modified and validated the pricing and business model in the targeted markets. We reached out to our customers using our in-house sales force to develop the B2B channels by targeting i) professionals and therapists as well as (ii) institutional clients such as care homes, hospitals and schools, offering yearly subscriptions, in a B2B model, and developed our B2B2B network constituted of Major assistive technology distributors (B2B2B) who have a wide network of clients who trust them (therapists, SEN schools and care homes). This way we:
validated the sales approach across all channels
assessed whether the commercialization strategy is adapted to its targets and its sector,
whether there is acceptance of Cosmo as a solution as it is or whether it requires further customisation in each market, and it will constitute an assessment of the conditions in each target country to prepare for European and international expansion.
(C) Technological assessment: tested both the adaptability (technical customization) toward the customer groups and the real scalability of the service;
(D) Impact assessment: gathered qualitative (testimonials) and quantitative (research with the University of Birmingham) data to prove the impact Filisia provides to its customers;
