Authors: Hannah Pentith, Senior Early Years Advisor, Save the Children, and Evie Keough, Founder & CEO, Boromi.
The biggest influence upon a child’s early development and lifelong potential is the home learning environment – the positive relationships, quality interactions, experiences and play that parents provide their babies and young children.
"Play between a parent and child over the first few years of life can be, quite literally, life changing." – The LEGO Foundation
Play builds children’s brains. It is how children learn. From our earliest moments, it has shaped who we all are and how we develop.
It is through play that children can safely and comfortably explore and develop essential life skills, such as:
- how to investigate, problem solve and build resilience
- how to negotiate, share and work as a team
- learning to communicate and developing language
- exploring emotions, body and movement
- stimulating creativity and intrigue
When parents or caregivers actively engage alongside their child in play and help their child to expand, extend and make connections between their thoughts, ideas, and feelings they are empowering them in their discovery and exploration of the world around them.
As a result, supporting parents to have the time, capacity, and ideas to play with their children – right from the moment they are born – will have a lasting impact on their child’s development and lifelong learning.
Impact of poverty on early years development
We know that for many children living in poverty can all too often mean:
- Growing up in resource-poor environments with limited access to books, toys, games that can limit the exposure to play and learning
- Limited space and time for play – often pushed out due to work demands, pressure and stressors of financial concerns or poor mental health
In some cases, parents have little support or information on the benefits of play for their babies and young child’s development. Sometimes with limited accessible guidance or resources on how they can support their child’s play.
Exclusion from high-quality play experiences for disadvantaged children further deepens inequalities in learning, which fosters deeper inequalities in life opportunities.
Introducing our new Wonderpacks
We believe that play is incredibly powerful. And that play between parents and their young children can happen anytime, anywhere with almost anything.
That’s why Save the Children and Boromi have collaborated to create the brand new ‘Wonderpacks’ series. Five carefully crafted packs spanning newborn to primary, with each pack designed to not only inspire play through the resources provided but also through highlighting the play potential in the everyday moments and objects.
Through our partnership, we want to reinforce the important message that families don’t need to buy expensive toys or have hours of free time. Almost any everyday object or routine can be a chance to nurture play, joy and support their child’s learning.
We recently tested our Wonderpacks with parents and local practitioners from across the UK, and their feedback has been incredibly valuable in shaping the final design and content.
“Love every element of this pack, the objects can be used for so many things, the ball comes everywhere with us!” – Parent.
“Really like ‘Play it Again’ part… using items around the house and not requiring additional expensive resources...something you could put your hand on in the home makes it a lot more accessible and feels very inspiring to include children in everyday activities, made it very inviting and relatable.” Practitioner, Manchester.
Wonderpacks will be rolled out later this summer through Save the Children’s Early Years Grant. They will be provided to families experiencing financial hardship, with children aged 0- 6 years old.
It is now more than ever that young children need access to resources, and parents need support to provide playful parenting, without the burden of costs and time commitments.
We hope our new Wonderpacks series inspire families to enjoy and build play into the everyday - helping babies and young children to learn, grow and reach their full potential.
