The Microsoft MIXathon Challenge has completed with over 150 submissions from 18 countries across Central and Eastern Europe.
Mr. Dimitris Esopos, a schoolteacher from the 2nd Primary Special School of Volos, Greece won the award “Innovation in special Education” sponsored by Kinems. He presented a social stories project for helping children with disabilities improve their skills.

The concept of *Social Stories * was introduced and described by Carol Gray. Social stories are short personalised written or visual guides, usually written by teachers, speech therapists and parents, that aim to teach children with autism how to manage their own behaviour during a social situation [Gray & Garand, 1993].

The MIXathon online contest is part of the Microsoft Partners in Learning global initiative aimed at empowering educators to connect, collaborate, create, and share so that their students can realize their greatest potential.

Congratulations to Mr. Dimitris Esopos and to all teachers who participated to Microsoft MIXathon Challenge! Kinems is very proud to support such initiatives that promote the work of passionate teachers that concern learning activities for empowering children with learning disabilities.

Bibliography

Gray C.A & Garand J.D. (1993). Social stories: Improving responses of students with autism with accurate social information. Focus on Autistic Behavior. 1993;8, pp. 1–10.