Brooklyn, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/14/2017 --Indy and the Farm, an all new toy concept from creative educational toy startup Indy "Talk" Shop, is changing the way parents and their children play and learn together. The product is the first of its kind on the market to guide parents during play and is based on the latest research in guided play, communication, and cognition. The company is currently live on Kickstarter and raising funds to bring the project to life.
Parents love to read to their children and children love to play, so Indy "Talk" Shop has paired an original children's story with a classic farm animal puzzle. The story's text shows what parents can do and say while reading to advance communication and cognitive skills as their kids play. Both matching book and toy, which the company has dubbed the 'Playbox', have been beautifully designed to complement one another as tools for learning naturally and easily without screens. This new take on children's learning is nostalgic for a time when we all played with classics, but at the same time gives parents the evidence-based information they crave to help their kids learn. The story's text emphasizes the exact words, sounds and problem-solving skills that are critical for kids to learn within the 18 – 36-month-old age range—an important period for vocabulary growth and cognitive acceleration.
"I felt like parents could really use a tool while they were playing with their kids, not another manual or set of instructions that they had to understand beforehand," says co-founder and CEO Frida Matute, a speech therapist, on the inspiration behind the project. "I wanted to bring parents a well-designed toy that they inherently knew would help them quickly and easily engage their kids across developmental areas because it was based on research."
Each Playbox comes with an original story, highlighting the adventures of their main character (a cute yet clumsy dragon named "Indy") and a matching classic toy (think: puzzles, blocks, train sets) so that as parents read, children play along. The graphically treated text of the story helps parents focus on what exact words and sounds are important for their kids to learn while the "mouse" character in the story sneaks up behind cute illustrations to point out specific questions to ask and problem-solving skills to try related to that page throughout the reading-while-playing experience. The conversations that result from guided play fosters not only communicative and cognitive growth, but bonding between parent and child that is natural and essential for their social-emotional well-being. This interactive dynamic between parent and child, promoted by the Playbox, is essential for early learning and serves as a tool that parents often need when they have little time or feel pressured to do more educational activities without knowing what else to try.
"Play research has been going on for years, but toy companies are not embedding this research directly into the design of toys to help parents and kids bond, learn and play more effectively. It is not just that parents and kids play together, but it is about keeping the conversation going with guided play," adds Matute. "This is why we designed the Playbox, to promote exactly this kind of educational and natural interaction between parents and their children."
Indy and the Farm is now live and available to support on Kickstarter.
About Indy "Talk" Shop LLC
Indy "Talk" Shop LLC is a creative educational toy company uniquely designing a line of fun and dynamic original children's stories paired with beautifully crafted classic toys called Playboxes to help guide parents and their kids in a reading-while-playing experience. The Playbox is the first toy on the market that guides parents and children during play and is based fully on outcomes in guided play, communication and cognitive research. Indy "Talk" Shop was co-founded by medical speech-language therapist, Frida Matute, and her husband, Alex Adarichev, in 2015.
For more information on Indy "Talk" Shop LLC please visit https://www.indytalkshop.com
