Interactive toys and early educational centers are important for the brain development of children in their early years. The pandemic negatively affected the early childhood development sector because children lost out on early learning opportunities that are important for their development. This is a major concern that will affect them when they enter formal schooling.

Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey revealed that the percentage of children in the 0-4 years age group that remained at home with a parent or guardian increased from 57.8% in 2019 to 64.6% in 2021.

It’s unfortunate to note that percentage of children that attended Grade R, pre-school, nursery school, crèche, and edu-care centres decreased from 36.8% in 2019 to 28.5% in 2021.

Business models focused on early childhood development

Two businesses that have centred their missions around the ideology of providing children with the best tools to reach their full potential are Toys with Roots and Intellectual Village.  

According to an Early Learning Resource Unit report, “Research shows that early years are critical for the development of human potential. The period before birth and the first seven or eight years of life is a time of rapid physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and moral development.”

Toys with Roots was founded by Thabo and Mpumi Motsabi in 2015 after they realised, from their children, that there was a need for more diverse toys. Today they run a business that designs and sells toys that celebrate African children. They create a wide range of educational materials such as doll, puzzles, puppets, and books written in African languages.

“We noticed that our daughters aged 7 and 3 years old at the time, were putting towels on their heads to pretend as if it was their hair”, said Thabo the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Toys with Roots.

Play is an integral part of developing a child’s brain and ensuring that children have access to safe educational centres is important. Social entrepreneur Bakang Matlaopane saw a gap in the market and in 2021, he started a preschool called Intellectual Village. His preschool has a personalized learning approach that facilitates children’s development.

“In the current education system, resources are allocated in the later years of schooling, and I felt that at that stage it is already too late,” said Matlaopane the Founder and School Operations Manager of Intellectual Village.

At Intellectual Village, children are introduced to a selection of classes that teach them essential skills that they will need throughout their lives and expose them to tools that align with where the world is going. The classes include gardening, coding as well as social and emotional learnings amongst more.

“The learning is dynamic and play based. Mathematics and coding teach logical thinking and problem solving which are skills needed throughout life,” said Matlaopane.

He added that emotional learning equips children with skills on how to be aware of their thoughts and emotions but also how these can affect their behaviour. Children need to be taught how to self-regulate because at any given time thoughts and emotions will either be empowering or disempowering.

Interactive and educational learning in early education

The Thrive by Five Index which is a survey on preschool children shows that 65% of children aged four to five attending early leaning programmes in South Africa are failing to thrive and are not meeting the expected standards for early learning, physical growth or both.

This is a major concern because these children will start Grade R at a disadvantage, with possible long-term implications for their education and standard of living.

More efforts need to be invested to ensure that children have access to educational learning tools at home and at school.

Children need to play with relatable toys and Toys with Roots helps to empower children by creating toys that African children can relate to. The toys are even named after African names like Khana, Nandi, and Pula. “We assist parents raise confident and self-loving children who appreciate their heritage, and we are very intentional with the toys we create,” said Thabo.

Intellectual Village focuses on mental stimulation and positive affirmations in their teaching modules. The preschool has adopted the “I can” mentality. “We have phrases that children recite to encourage them to adapt a positive attitude.,” said Matlaopane.

By providing children with exposure to essential skills and building up their self-esteem through representative and educational learning tools, both Intellectual Village and Toys with Roots help facilitate the development of children during their very crucial years.

For additional information on Toys with Roots, you can listen to Thabo’s radio interview here: