Developmental Play Assessment App

All children need to play and be creative. It makes them happier, confident, better learners and better friends. But some of them need a little help. Built on the global interest and success of the Developmental Play Model, which grew out of work with children with special needs in India,  this approach is holistic and brings together best practice in the fields of neuroscience, developmental psychology, occupational therapy, creative arts and play therapy and play based education. This proposed App will make best practice and support available to children who need it most across the globe. In this assessment tool we aim to get our knowledge into an online accessible tool that teachers, parents and clinicians can use to find out what stage of developmental play their children are at and what type of play will support their development.

Our aim is to bring best global practice to the children most at risk across the world. Much expertise is in the developed world or located in urban cities meaning that millions of children get no support :those with disabilities or at risk from climate change, natural disasters and wars are unable to access the  expert support they need. 

Some Figures :

It is estimated that there are 600 Million people with disabilities worldwide and 80% of these are in developing countries, with 82% of them living below the poverty line. 

India has an estimated 52 million children with disabilities, 

There are an estimated 1.44 million people with disabilities and exceptional needs in the Philippines

Recent global figures for children with Autism suggest 1:54 ( US figures)

Incidence of sensory processing disorders 1:10 

Post Covid the incidence of developmental delays and social and emotional challenges are going to be unprecedented. The scale of the children in need of support is in the millions and we need to empower the adults who work with them to support them in the best way.

Development of an online affordable and accessible assessment of the individual child’s play and development which gives a baseline of child’s strengths and needs, then offers simple practical support to help these children at risk and with special needs to develop and prosper. Based on the Developmental Play Approach. 

• Essame, C. (2021). Stages not ages: The emerging Developmental Play  approach for differently abled children. In C. Holmwood & S. Jennings (Eds) International Handbook of Play and Play Therapy. Routledge
• Essame, C. (2020). Developmental Play: A new approach to understanding how all children learn through play, Childhood Education, 96:1, 14-23.

It will be built on an assessment algorithm, coded using AI to enable a parent or teacher anywhere to put in the information about their child, receive a baseline assessment and recommendations for play activities that can support the child’s development. This can then be reviewed and updated as the child progresses. In practice it will be a bit like an online therapist consultation but done through AI and based on the Developmental Play Model.

Our target population is the adults who work with the children at risk. These are parents, clinicians and teachers. We aim to support these adults to support children to develop through play. Our documentary “Mothers of Light “ below shows how it has worked in rural India with children with disabilities to bring about change in the families and the children. Feedback from the Philippines and India also below shows how change is already beginning. The online assessment will supplement these initiatives for greater impact and allow adults to quickly access best practice so they can support the children they care for. We are currently training 120 frontline workers at BRAC and they will be able to access this assessment too to enhance their work. CreateCATT has over 500 users on our online academy training in this model from across the globe and an accessible assessment will support their work and extend their reach. Our Certified Developmental Play Practitioners come from across the globe and our aim is to develop accessible best practice tools they can use. 

The Developmental Play model helps teachers and parents understand how children develop through play, it also helps them understand what children are telling them through their behaviour and learning. In a typical classroom there are likely to be at least 3:30 different learners, all children will have social and emotional needs, particularly post Covid, and in order to personalise learning a play based developmental assessment will help teachers support their children by understanding their unique profiles. It will also provide teachers and parents with tried and tested creative games suited to the child’s stage of learning.

We are at the Growth Stage, CreateCATT has an established product and proof of concept. Our work has been published in global journals and in 2019 we ran the first International Developmental Play Conference in Manila for children at risk in the Global South. We already have an online academy and are rolling out training across the globe with organisations like BRAC IED, National University of Singapore, Deepti Special School in Kerala India, Kaleidoscope Therapy and Learning Center, The Philippines, and TAPAS Progressive Education School in Bangalore. Our content is translated into 14 different languages to support partners like UNICEF in Nepal, Plan International, World Vision in Georgia and ARNEC in Pakistan to mention a few. As a small social enterprise we want to expand our content to support these organisations to take the model to scale.   

The Developmental Play Model is in itself innovative and was featured in 2020 as one of the early childhood education innovative approaches 

• Essame, C. (2020). Developmental Play: A new approach to understanding how all children learn through play, Childhood Education, 96:1, 14-23.

Change has already started in the market with the Developmental Play Model and Caroline Essame has collaboratated with The LEGO Foundation and other leading Play thought leaders to rally the cry for more play for children across the globe. The fact that BRAC, the leaders in Play Based Work for the Global South, is embracing the model shows that the model is important for 21st Century child development. The next step of harnessing technology to take the expertise of Developmental Play more online and make it more accessible has huge potential to be catalytic with the right support and investment.

We are continuing to build global partnerships and training Certified Developmental Play Practitioners (CDPPs) across the globe. We aim to have CDPPs in over 20 Global South Countries within the next five years and will be training trainers to upscale the online training bringing best practice to every corner of the globe, supported by CreateCATT but led by local country experts. We are already in conversations with NGOs and Universities in Asia, Health Authorities in Africa and Private Companies in the UK as well as maintaining our contacts with the LEGO Foundation, PEDAL ( Play Education, Development and Learning at the University of Cambridge in the UK) and international bodies like UNICEF, ARNEC ( The Asian Regional Network for Early Childhood) and BRAC. Most importantly we want to upscale our online capacity and develop an online assessment and recommendations tool that can have greater reach than just our training alone.  

To date we have trained 100 Certified Developmental Play Practitioners 

With 220 currently doing their training.

We have reached over 20,000 children at risk through supporting the adults who serve them and by next year we would anticipate triple this, 60,000.

In five years we would like to increase this a hundredfold to 2 Million (minimum) by building more strategic partnerships and upscaling our online abilities and capacities.

This does not include the impact that our open source play resources are making during Covid- they are being used in 14 countries in 12 different languages so changing the world for children in ways we can only imagine.

An online app assessment that is affordable and scalable has potential to reach 100 million children in three years with the right investment. 

Simplist measurement is growth of online sign up and countries reached with partnerships set up. Since start of 2020 our online take up has increased by 200%. Ideally we would like a more research based measure of progress and impact and that is something we hope to set up with a partner specialised in this area.

Theory of change and impact of the training and model is being undertaken in 2021.

Once an app is created we would be able to gather big data using technology to show sign up, engagement, improvements in children etc.

One full time 

2 Part – time

2 Contract workers 6 Advisors/ Consultants – paid adhoc as content requires

6 Advisors/ Consultants – paid adhoc as content requires

Our team brings together years experience in the field of creativity and human development, with experience in health and education . Many of us have raised our own children, have first hand experience of living with disability, loss or challenges  and most of all have a passion for play.

Caroline Essame is CEO and Founder Occupational therapist and arts and play therapist with a Masters Degree in education. Based in Singapore she is the pioneer of CreateCATT Developmental Play with over 35 years experience in health, therapy and education in Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, the Philippines and India.

Caroline Clay is Director UK is an Occupational Therapist with over 35 years’ experience in disability, welfare, health, education and management.

Dr Andrew Duffy is Director of Communication is an assistant professor of journalism studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 

Dr Susan Mathew is the Director of Deepti Special School and Rehabilitation Centre in Kerala, India. Mother of a child with cerebral palsy.

Monaliza Guce is the Director and owner of Kaleidoscope Therapy & Learning Center. She is an occupational therapist in the Philippines and Oregon, USA.  Mona is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Occupational Therapy on inclusion programmes and Developmental Play.

Shoba Raja has a background in psychology and a Masters degree in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work in India.

Dr Suvi Pitkola is a Finnish Occupational Therapist and Music Therapist based in Singapore. She is Director the first  Floortime School to be registered in Asia and also Co-Director of Kaleidoscope Therapy Centre. 

Ying Li Looi specialises in  Professional Communication majoring in TV Production. 

Dr David Whitebread was the founding  Director of the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. 

Sue Allen is a Children’s Occupational Therapist, postgraduate lecturer, clinical researcher and author. UK

Barnaby Duffy is British artist. He is the animator and illustrator of all CreateCATT graphics. 

Professor Sue Jennings is an anthropologist and pioneer drama therapist, play therapist and storyteller based in Malaysia and the UK. She has published over 40 books.

We include different genders, races and our whole ethos is inclusive and rooted in social justice. 

For more information on our values please visit our blog on nurture capital.

CreateCATT is dedicated to the memory of the founders brother:

Clive Essame is the inspiration for much of the work of CreateCATT. Born with a disability he was a passionate advocate for life in all its diversity. A horticulturalist, a playwright and an artist he also worked with people with challenges through the arts and nature constantly bearing testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit and the right of everyone to creativity and play. As his sister I dedicate my social enterprise to his memory.

To link in with global leaders in education and technology. To network and work for good with more partners to change the world for the better. Post Covid millions of the most vulnerable children will have got left behind. We want to support them to reach their potential. We need strong global partners to achieve this.

We can continue to operate organically  but this does allow us to get to scale fast and reach the children who most need support as quickly as possible. We need support take the business to scale. We have the product, we have proof of concept, we have a global reputation for being leaders in the field, we now need business acumen and finance to scale for impact.

As above we need research, (impact measurement)  and business support. Not knowing the Solve team we are open to many different conversations.

The Developmental Play Model is relevant for all teachers everywhere as it looks at foundation stages of learning and could be really well used in primary and secondary classrooms particularly for children who learn differently or who have social and emotional challenges. It means that through the Developmental Play Assessment App US teachers could get expert advise for their children for play based learning and teacher support at the press of a few buttons. Busy teachers need best advise as fast as possible - so this app would bring assessments of learning insights to them immediately they had concerns and can support ideas for integrating in their classrooms whenever they need it. The CreateCATT team has years of experience in supporting children in Singapore, UK, Indian and Filipino classrooms and this knowledge will underpin the app.

Currently CreateCATT is rolling training out with BRAC who are working with ECD in Coxes Bazaar. They are using the Developmental Play Model to promote play based learning in their children in the camps. As this proposed Developmental Play Assessment App aims to bring best practice into learning in the camps we feel it would be eligible for this award. Its key area of impact would be in supporting and identifying children at risk of developmental delays and social and emotional vulnerabilities and offering immediate simple solutions that could support that Childs development. It would really support inclusive innovation.

It order to be smart and build inclusivity in education we need to understand the neurobiology of learning and that includes putting the A into STEM. ( Arts and Play). CreateCATT is supporting STEAM initiatives in India through the Developmental Play model and it sees the importance of making learning accessible and inclusive for different learners. This Development Play Assessment Apps means that teachers can identify and support different learning profiles and adapt and support classrooms for different children's needs. Thereby giving ALL children the best start in life for the best chance in life. Not all children learn the same, but by understanding how children learn we can build equitable classrooms.

Most of our trainees  in Developmental Play are women and girls and the foundation of our approach is on the value of relationships and attachment. Our earlier article, attached in this application, on Nurture Capital highlights how we believe that we really need to invest and celebrate the soft skills of care and nurture, often associated with women. 

CreateCATT Developmental Play Model grew out of the 35 years expertise and 3 trainings  of its founder . Within 5 minutes of meeting a child who was having a challenge she could give insights and suggestions on how to support that childs development and learning. That is expertise ! Now with AI we can for the first time in history have a chance to replicate that expertise fast and not have to wait 35 years to train up an individual in that expertise. We are on the cusp of being able to model those brain processes and scale them up so expert support can be available to any child anywhere who needs it...and fast.

CreateCATT Developmental Play Model grew out of the 35 years expertise and 3 trainings  of its founder . Within 5 minutes of meeting a child who was having a challenge she could give insights and suggestions on how to support that childs development and learning. That is expertise ! Now with AI we can for the first time in history have a chance to replicate that expertise fast and not have to wait 35 years to train up an individual in that expertise. We are on the cusp of being able to model those brain processes and scale them up so expert support can be available to any child anywhere who needs it...and fast.