SoundStart: Audio Learning for ECD in South Africa

In our last newsletter we announced that after a couple of unforeseen delays, that SoundStart had launched in Cape Town. Now, we’re thrilled to share that given the early success of initiative, it’s expanding. Lisa Voortman, the GROW project manager, requested additional Lifeplayer MP3 units so they can roll out in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal’s province early next year.

We recently visited a pre-school that received a Lifeplayer less than three months ago in an industrial area of Cape Town. The majority are immigrant children from Zimbabwe, DR Congo or Malawi and arrived speaking very any English and were unable to communicate with one another. Parents drop off their children early in the morning before they head to work as petty traders, domestic workers or cleaners.

The Lifeplayers were loaded with locally produced music and songs by preschool education musicologists, Wriggle and Rhyme. Wriggle and Rhyme’s intentional music-based songs and acitivites help children learn while their brains are growing and developing.

It was wonderful to witness how the children had memorised at least 20 songs and how much fun they had while singing them. The songs help develop memorization and listening skills, while dancing helps to build fine and gross motor skills. Music is a catalyst for learning and memory which further helps to build skills that aid in literacy and numeracy later on when they enter primary school. The children also learn to cooperate and now are able to communicate increasingly with one another in English.

Our partner, GROW with Educare, a social enterprise started in 2013, is dedicated to establishing and supporting high-quality preschools in under-served areas in South Africa. Its goal is to provide an excellent and well-rounded early education to South African and immigrant children from poor families. To help ensure sustainability, GROW offers micro-franchising opportunities for existing preschool providers, as well as to unemployed women. All are comprehensively trained to operate a preschool center.

One of the teachers, Zanele, said that the SoundStart initiative had made such a positive difference with the children. “Our preschoolers love to start each day by singing and dancing, which makes them happy,” she said.

In South Africa, there’s little government oversight for early childhood development (ECD) programing. Further, the closure of training colleges for preschool teachers has caused a severe shortage of formally-trained teachers at this level. This makes an initiative like SoundStart all the more important.

The fit-for-purpose power-independent Lifeplayer, an MP3 player, radio and recorder, is a tool that will be used to enrich and support ECD learning.

We hope that you’ll continue to support this hugely worthwhile initiative.