We all have memories of a favourite doll or toy, in the dark corners of our past, that we loved. This applies to almost everyone born before the great consumerist era, the same beautiful toy story : like those tin pots fixed to rope that our grandfathers would give us to play the game of stilts. Then a time came when all these were looked down upon and cast out in favour of more flashy products. We were no longer children and these brand new goods, heavily advertised, were neglectfully handed to a more demanding new generation: at best gameboys and videogames with all their fascinating content, but which somehow neglect the child in the children and, at worst, cheap and unsafe gadgets mass-produced for profit-oriented outlets.

“The problem is not just that these toys can cause harm, but, if they become the only recourse, they may kill the taste for activity in children and put aside the essential role of interactivity between parents and children in the learning process”, explains Christine Tse, from Smile Education (Mauritius). Pretending that learning can be fun without games is ludicrous, according to Christine. “All this is related to time management: I have children myself, so I also bought gameboys. But during the crucial years under 6, when the brain undergoes 80% of its development, the child has to develop different skills, which he can’t do just by sitting in front of a screen for hours.”

<B>Fruitful interaction with adults</B>

“Growing up with a smile” is the company’s motto: so Smile Education toys and games, originating from South Africa, don’t stress on high technology, nor newness, but on well-tried methods, in the form of toys that already existed in the days of our parents but which have been made safer. The tin pots have been replaced by plastic ones, stilts which can now support up to 80 kg each, with rope that can’t hurt even if badly handled. These games have enormous success, being welcomed by learning centres, home schoolers and educational therapists. “We are in a situation where we are actually looking for more staff for our activities”. In fact while the Currimjee Group has announced the opening of an educative game outlet for next year, Smile Education stands almost alone in the field of pedagogical games in Mauritius.

Meanwhile, children and adults can achieve a fruitful interactivity with games that range from word rummy, which emphasises on vocabulary to sequence storybuilding images, thus encouraging the first steps into creativity and essay construction, as well as geometric shapes that can introduce the child to the world of colours. “Our aim is to remind that children are naturally curious, that they want to move, explore and experiment and that they have also to learn through all their senses: visual, tactile and so on.”

A view shared by Ingrid Samouilhan, from Tiny Tots, a pre-school and creche for children from three months to five years in Tamarin which operates in both English and French. “Educational toys and games are excellent for learners during and even after preschool. When they are well designed, there are so many things that can be learned from them. For example, two sided puzzles that make a picture or CDs that develop the hearing.” Children mostly assimilate knowledge without realising, and the ‘fun element’, which is so primordial, has to be constant.

It is no surprise then that professionals who cater for special needs children, like the APEIM, value this type of toy very highly. “A toy that is designed for children of 3 can also be useful for older ones with special needs. On the other hand, studies have shown that children who spend too much time before a screen, sacrificing outdoor activities and diversity in their playing time, can have learning problems afterwards in their school years”.

But are we sufficiently aware of this ? Conscious of the importance of educational games, the Pre-school trust fund gave to each of some 100 preschools a grant of Rs 10 000 in 2005. But how much of this has been spent on toys that are now broken, because they were cheap and badly made? “Parents have to be selective and more aware of how children learn from these toys. They may be tiny but reliable passports for their sons and daughters to cope with today’s fast-changing world”, concludes Christine Tse.