Locally made toys for supporting smooth pre-primary to primary school transition for Children with Disabilities

• In Event: Investing in transition: a path to sustainable early childhood development and education

Proposal

CRS Cambodia implemented a pilot project entitled Early Childhood Intervention for Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in 9 schools in 3 districts in Takeo province from January 2016 to September 2017. One key finding from this project was the need to strengthen support for children aged 3-5 for a smoother transition from pre-school to primary school, with particular emphasis on supporting children aged 3-5 who have disabilities. Government and other stakeholders agreed that one way to do this would be to identify and create educational toys for use at school and at home to prepare children for a smooth transition to primary school.
While classrooms across Cambodia utilize a variety of teaching aids, CRS and relevant Government stakeholders noted two significant gaps: a lack of toys/games designed for use in inclusive pre-school classrooms that are transferable for use at home to reinforce learning through play, and pre-school appropriate toys that can also be used in inclusive primary school classrooms as teaching aids. To learn more, CRS Cambodia employed an international consultant to conduct a mixed-methods survey utilizing questionnaires, focus group discussions, preschool class observations, semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, and classroom observation. The survey used a convenient sampling method, covering at least 10% of the total number of beneficiaries in 7 targeted schools in Takeo Province (except for parents of children without disabilities due to the time constraint) to be significant, if not statistically relevant . The selection of children with disabilities was done to represent boys and girls and cover a variety of disability types (motor, sensorial or cognitive). Due their young age, children were not interviewed but observed.

Based on survey findings, CRS worked in collaboration with key stakeholders to develop toy/game prototypes and manuals for their creation and use targeted to both teachers and parents. These toys/games are inclusive, designed for children from 3 to 5 years old to prepare them for grade 1 transition, regardless of disability or other vulnerability considerations. The toys and games account for barriers related to cost, durability, and sustainability. They are based on locally-available materials and require a reasonable amount of time to be created (an hour or less).
CRS Cambodia proposes to share key survey findings, recommendations, and examples of prototypes of toys/games created with locally available/locally sourced materials.

Author

• Sean Kosal, Catholic Relief Services (Cambodia)