Counting for Life offers assistance to primary age children who have difficulty with numeracy skills. The original program was a one on one session with students and a volunteer "Number Buddy".
In order to reach more children and make it easier for volunteers to be a "Buddy", Citigroup provided funding to develop an online version of Counting for Life. Citigroup staff participate in the program as "Buddies".
The online interactive games make use of a webcam so the child and "Buddy" can communicate while playing the games. A Voice over takes the child through each step. Games are either single play, mulitplay or turn based.
There are two characters the child selects from and several different educational games to play, all controlled by the "Buddy".
In order to make sure the child at home and participating schools had the correct setup, a compatiblity test was developed. Pre and post testing also takes place with the child and an admin tool generates reports each session, including a certificate for the child which they can print.
At Milk, we also worked on a similar program for Reading For Life, for which we donated one of the games developed.
