Kids love toys. But playing with toys is more than just a fun activity for them! Tactile play is an important part of development for young children. According to an article posted by Integrated Learning Strategies,
“Tactile learning and touch is essential for a child’s growth in physical abilities, cognitive and language skills, and even social and emotional development. Touch is not only imperative for short-term advancement with infancy and early childhood sensory experiences, but for long-term development within the child.”
Tactile learning, or learning through touch, is essential to healthy development. Even something simple like putting together building blocks activates the brain and develops connections for enhanced learning development. Later in life this helps to stimulate intellectual growth in concepts such as mathmatical reasoning.
Mundo Exchange believes that all children have a right to equal education opportunities. This includes the right for kindergarden aged kids to have access to toys and materials for tactile learning at school.
The temple school in Chaiyaporn district that we have been helping understands the importance of tactile learning. They incorporate it into the school day and the lessons for the kids so they have as well rounded of an education as they can. When we arrived last week the kids were playing with play dough that we had donated to the school earlier last year. It was great to see our donations getting used constructively, and even better to see the kids playing together! Creativity was hard at work.
The school has some educational blocks for the kids to play with, but not enough for all 16 students. They would like it if the students could learn and play together instead of just a few kids being able to play with the toys at a time.
Playing together builds communication and problem solving skills, as well as teaches young kids how to work together as a team and share resources and ideas. Almost all of these kids come from poverty stricken homes and don’t have the luxury of play time with their parents. They don’t have toys to play with. Living in poverty puts them at an immediate disadvantage from birth. Providing materials and opportunity for tactile play together in the classroom is critical to their development.
Your donations don’t only provide practical materials such as pencils, notebooks, and needed supplies for education. They also go towards providing toys, blocks, play dough, and other forms of educational materials for tactile learning and development of young minds.