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Mount Comfort Elementary pilot uses Cognimoves to strengthen K‑3 executive‑function skills
Summary
At the March 10 Mount Vernon School Board meeting, Principal Donnie Turner described a year‑long pilot of Cognimoves at Mount Comfort Elementary (K–1) that staff say is linked with gains on district assessments and targeted interventions for students showing low growth.
Donnie Turner, principal of Mount Comfort Elementary, told the Mount Vernon School Board on March 10 that his school has piloted a cognitive‑motor program called Cognimoves for kindergarten and first‑grade students and is seeing early academic and behavioral improvements.
Turner said the program, delivered twice daily with short interactive videos, “primes them for academic success” by practicing executive‑function skills such as memory, focus, impulse control and task switching. He told the board the program pairs whole‑class daily Cognimoves sessions with targeted small‑group and one‑on‑one interventions for students who show limited growth on the district’s screening assessments.
Why it matters: executive functioning in early grades is strongly tied to learning outcomes. Mount Comfort — which Turner said is “the most diverse elementary school in the county” — uses Cognimoves to build the routines that teachers and staff say help students transition to academic tasks and self‑regulate.
Turner described how the district uses a baseline screening (MEFS/MEPS in the presentation) and NWEA benchmark data to identify students needing extra help. “We take that assessment. The whole class does Cognimoves. There are weekly structured activities for students showing little growth, and there’s one‑on‑one support for students who need the most support,” Turner said. He reported that a targeted group of 21 students had been reduced to 10 receiving small‑group support, with two students continuing to receive one‑on‑one interventions.
Turner told the board special education students at Mount Comfort make up “nearing 25%” of enrollment and multilingual learners about “nearing 12%,” and he said staff see Cognimoves helping with transitions, self‑regulation and classroom routines. Turner said the program’s short videos become progressively more challenging and are paired with assessments so staff can place students in the appropriate level of support.
Board member Kelly Freeman asked whether the program extends beyond K–3. Turner replied the Cognimoves vendor is “expanding their work, but primarily it’s the younger kids,” and said the intervention layer (small groups and individualized digital games) is intended to continue as needed. Turner cautioned that the pilot is early — “we’ve only done the two NWEA tests and the two MEFS tests at the beginning and middle of the year” — but said early correlations between the screening and NWEA scores permit targeted supports.
Turner said the pilot team includes kindergarten teacher Bree Williams and behavior technician Tonya Brown, and that they visited a site in Evansville before implementing Cognimoves at Mount Comfort. He asked the board to note the program’s progress; no board action was requested at the meeting.
Board members praised the presentation and asked staff to return with further data if the district considers expanding the program to additional schools.
The presentation closed with an invitation for parents to receive weekly newsletters and practice materials to support Cognimoves at home.
