The idea of Little World Lab evolved out of a question which was formed in the process of my community work on You Are Not Alone peer support initiative which I founded in 2018. While the initiative was not focused on children, working with adults and talking to them about their experience made me realize how our early experiences affect our views of relationship, emotions, gender, conflict and self-worth. Children learn all of these lessons not only being taught, but watching examples in families, books, media and everyday communication.
The question was enhanced by a youth journalist summit which I organized, seeing how the preexisting social perception can affect how youth perceives and represents other people.
Thus, I started asking myself: is it possible to create an environment where children could learn a healthier and more diverse world view before they develop any assumptions?
Little World Lab was established to help children learn about emotions, empathy, fairness, relationship and conflict through play, not lectures or screens – with stories, puppets, movement, choices and role-play.
We don't teach children what to think. We give them more opportunities to imagine.
Little World Lab is a screen-free learning program based on play where children learn by doing, choosing, and imagining. The typical session includes using physical materials such as puppets, picture cards, items, story starters and movements which are used to describe some real-life situations.
For example, two puppets can be fighting over one toy. Rather than telling the child how to solve the problem, a facilitator asks “What can they do?” The child then takes a decision and finds out what would happen after taking certain actions. Another example might involve helping a character, exploring their feelings, deciding whom to cook, build, take care of, or fix things.
Facilitators observe spontaneous reactions of children and provide them with some other solutions to the problem through storytelling and acting. Parents and educators receive prompts for further discussion outside the lesson.
The program was developed to adapt to the age of children starting from the simplest social and emotional experiences for kids aged 2-3 years old.
Little World Lab is still in the initial phase of development, and hence, we are not making claims about wide-scale application. The basis of Little World Lab has been built through years of work among the communities via You Are Not Alone, dialogues with youth, and engaging with adults.
The concept was born out of dialogues with adults that showed the extent to which early family and societal experiences impact perceptions of relationships, gender, emotions, and conflict. The concept evolved further through my organization of a summit with young journalism students, whose dialogues helped show the effect of existing perceptions on how young people perceive others.
Little World Lab is now being developed as a cost-effective and screen-less method that will spread through preschools, educators, community organizations, and families. The use of stories, puppets, picture cards, movements, and role-playing makes the activities adaptable in any language or setting.
The next step is piloting it on a small scale with observation and improvement before widespread application. Little World Lab should develop through trained facilitators, educator networks, and community partnership as opposed to technology.
If you want to test Little World Lab, start with a small group of children aged 2-3 years old at a preschool, early learning centre or within a community. A facilitator can conduct brief play-based sessions utilising easy materials like puppets, picture cards, everyday objects and story stimuli.
A session begins with a familiar scenario and allows children to choose, perform, move and react. Facilitators observe the reactions of the children and utilise activities to offer new ideas instead of a predetermined solution.
Conversations can then be continued by parents and teachers through play-based activities in the home or classroom setting.
In the course of developing our model, we will offer you activity guides for facilitators in order to enable teachers and community organisations to adapt Little World Lab to their local language and context.
