By Bridget Schramm | Manager
There’s nothing that makes us feel prouder than when a project takes on a life of its own. This happens when an initiative expands and makes an impact beyond our expectations - like SoundStart!
SoundStart was launched in Cape Town townships in the middle of last year, doubled early in 2018, and now is doubling again. Our partner, GROW with Educare, has a sustainable model to deliver early childhood education using the principles of microfranchising and social enterprise. GROW upgrades childcare centers in low-income, high-density areas in the South Africa. Teachers are comprehensively trained and provided with a pedagogically sound early childhood curriculum, teachers’ guides, toys, educational materials, a policy and procedures manual and a Lifeplayer loaded with Wriggle and Rhyme interactive preschool content. This is known as a “school in a box”.
One of the key reasons that SoundStart is so successful is the audio content. Produced in South Africa by Wriggle and Rhyme and their award-winning musicologists, children love and respond so positively to their songs. Research undertaken in both Europe and the US of music on growing brains clearly validates what we witness in the classroom.
For example, singing songs aids in language development as children repeat, learn new words, memorize and rhyme – all essential in language development. Further, the importance that music itself in contributing to speech, even before words are understood is increasingly realized. Differentiating sounds is also one of the central components to language development.
Put them together in a happy Wriggle and Rhyme song and children respond positively. As one little boy from a preschool in Philippi, a Cape Town township said, “when you’re singing, you can only be happy.”
The children gather around Lifeplayers, which the children also see as the teacher and they associate it with fun.
Please continue to support this great initiative as we grow and the children grow with Educare.
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