LEGO has revealed some key findings from its 2022 Play Well Report, a study conducted around the world across thousands of parents and children to get their input on education, play and more.

The 2022 study was, according to the Danish toy company, conducted across 30 countries including South Africa and involved almost 60 000 participants. The participants were broken down into 32 781 parents and 24 593 children, with the latter group between the ages of five and 12.

Unfortunately the full report is not yet available to the public but LEGO has revealed some key findings.

“This year’s study revealed that 92% of South African parent respondents said they believed that play nurtures the positive qualities of resilience. The survey also found that play prepares children for the future by helping them develop a wide range of hard and soft skills, with 94% and 96% of parents also saying that play developed their children’s curiosity and creativity,” reads a press release sent to us.

“Even more parents (97%) said playing had developed their children’s communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills, and 95% and 94% saying said that play taught their young ones to be more confident and focused,” it adds.

We experienced some of this first hand at an event this week hosted by quite the panel:

• Miroslav Riha: Country Manager for The LEGO Group in South Africa;
• Brent Hutcheson: Director at Care for Education;
• Yvonne Mokhudung Segabutle: Educational Psychologist;
• Anele Mdoda: MC and radio host.

Care for Education is an NPO and LEGO partner seeking to provide training and education resources for children.

One of the successful programmes headed by Care for Education and Hutcheson is Six Bricks, an entire curriculum and play structure designed to engage and teach children using just six Duplo bricks. Duplo is a sub-brand of LEGO offering larger bricks for kids too young for the smaller ones.

Despite the target market Hutcheson had a room full of adults engaged with some of the Six Bricks lessons, such as the use of physical movement through play to ease into more traditional learning, making the latter more effective.

More about Six Bricks can be found in the introductory video at the bottom of the page and this dedicated website.

As so much can be accomplished with just six bricks, we’re now eagerly awaiting the full 2022 Play Well Report.