Students from the Universidad Nacional de Lanús (UNLa) designed and manufactured educational toys such as drums, nesting boards, a “little house” and even a “pata pata”. They are aimed at boys and girls from zero to three years old and stimulate motor skills, sensory perception, attention and encourage group activity. The developments were carried out as part of the Degree in Industrial Design and were donated to the University’s kindergarten. Although they are prototypes that are carried out within the course’s practical workshops, they can set a precedent for their future commercialization or linkage with teaching institutions in the area.
“To carry out the work, we went to the garden and observed where the toys would be kept, how the space was distributed and what materials it was made of. As most children are not yet speaking, we had to pay attention to how long they interacted with the different games and we came to the conclusion that they were more attracted to visual, sound and tactile stimuli”, count victoria innkeeper It is Leonardo ArevaloUNLA students.
Thus, the group of students discovered Montessori games (which derive from the method developed by the educator María Montessori at the beginning of the 20th century) that stimulate autonomy, imagination and senses. These types of toys are usually made of wood and have different colors, sounds, textures and shapes so that little ones can develop, among other things, body motor skills to make big and small movements.
“We were looking for different shapes that responded to all of this and that were also visually attractive so that the shape caught the eye”, explain Tabernero and Arévalo. In this way, They developed several games that in turn can be grouped into one to stimulate the children’s development and take up as little space as possible in the room..
In recent years, the Degree in Industrial Design has oriented its practices towards solving real problems typical of the different actors in the community. This way, students find extra motivation as they their creations solve different concrete problems and also learn knowledge that goes beyond running.
“We are very happy with the final result because the receptivity we saw from the first children who had contact with the toy was very good.”, count Nicolas Sardi It is Amelia Aragon, students of the race. In this regard, Lautaro Diaz It is andres skirtalso members of the team, add: “It was four months of a lot of stress, of thinking and solving things on the go, but the truth is that it was worth it. Seeing children playing with a product we made was exciting.”.
Although it is not the objective of the article, the project can be reproduced in medium or large scale. As part of the work, the students generated all the necessary documentation: the analysis of the products, the development of technical drawings and the manufacturing files of the corresponding machines.