Toys“R”Us announced a brand new PLAY WITH PURPOSE fundraising and awareness campaign in partnership with Save the Children (a nonprofit committed to ensuring all U.S. children have a healthy start). Together, they are embarking on a mission to provide children in impoverished regions of the country with opportunities and resources to integrate purposeful play into their everyday lives; a factor proven critical in children’s emotional, physical and cognitive development and future growth.
- 15.5 Million U.S. Children Live in Poverty; Many Lack Playtime in Their Daily Lives
- 10 Minutes of Play Improves Children’s Performance
- Play Enhances the Progress of Early Development by 34%
From February 17 – April 17, customers can make cash donations at any Toys“R”Us or Babies“R”Us store, or online at Toysrus.com/PlayWithPurpose, to help bring learning through play to kids in need.
Play With Purpose campaign is designed to support Save the Children’s early childhood development programs – Early Steps to School Success, Literacy/Healthy Choices and the SummerBoost Initiative – which help children in some of America’s most underprivileged areas thrive.
Together, Toys“R”Us and Save the Children are embarking on a mission to provide some of the 15.5 million youth living in impoverished regions of the country with opportunities and resources to integrate purposeful play into their everyday lives; a factor proven critical in children’s emotional, physical and cognitive development and future growth.
Through the good work of Save the Children’s early childhood development programs and field representatives, underprivileged families from Washington state to Washington D.C. are able to reap the benefits of hands-on involvement, as they embrace unstructured playtime in their homes. Statistics serving as the foundation of this campaign include:
- Play builds the foundation for a lifetime of learning
- Pretend play with a child from 8 to 17 months old is linked to higher intellect at age 5
- Young children benefit from interaction, babbling, facial expressions and gestures, the absence of which from adults can lead to disparities in learning and behavior
- In one study, children ages 1 ½ to 2 ½ who were provided sets of plastic building bricks had significantly higher language scores six months later
- Even 10 minutes of play can improve a child’s performance, may encourage thinking and successfully controls behavior
- Children with access to a variety of toys reach higher levels of intellectual achievement