KUALA LUMPUR: Bringing their expertise into play, Toy Eight, an AI-backed edutech startup from Japan, stepped forward to provide a solution for all children including those with learning disabilities to discover their skills as well as seek relevant help and support when in need.
The company's digital screening programme is the first in the country and is made available through a smartphone device designed to assess children's development in five domain areas – gross motor, fine motor, speech and language, cognitive development, and social/adaptive behaviour.
In a statement released by the company, it shared that according to the Asian Development Bank research, Malaysia reportedly had one of the highest learning losses among emerging Asian countries.
One of the examples cited is, there are children who cannot recognise letters at the age of five, indicating a challenge in language skills. It also pointed out that immaturity in social and emotional skills is noticeable.
Toy Eight's co-founder and chief executive officer Masaki Ishibashi, in the statement said that early identification of a child's characteristics and developmental level is critical for parents and teachers to make informed decisions about how to nurture them, adding that only then can one decide how to go about optimising learning.
In many developed countries, Toy Eight said that screening is often conducted in person by specialists. However, through the use smartphone device that incorporates games, the company has simplified the screening procedure so that parents can learn about their children's developmental stages in a setting that is familiar to them. It is designed to provide annual screening for children ages three to five.
"We believe that understanding and accepting the child's current stage of development is the first step in parenting and education. [...] From this vantage point, we are troubled by the fact that many Southeast Asian nations lack a national system for developmental screening," said Ishibashi.
Acknowledging that every child has different strengths, the Toy Eight programme received support from local universities—Universiti Malaya and Sunway University—in their efforts to develop the screening tool and establish a national norm for Malaysians.
The localised screening tool focuses on early childhood development abilities such as fine motor, cognitive, receptive language, and expressive language.
To assure the screening's accuracy, a team from University Malaya, Sunway University, and Japanese experts spent months finalising and localising the test items, guaranteeing top-quality judging criteria, and establishing the norm to minimise human error.
"With this collaboration, we aim to address socio-educational issues in Southeast Asia by making developmental assessment affordable and accessible whilst rapidly improving the understanding of child developmental levels in different communities and areas," added Ishibashi.
Toy Eight is also part of the Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) Live Lab initiative introduced by InvestKL, an investment agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The initiative was developed as a city concept to use GKL as a testbed to conduct knowledge-intensive and innovative activities while collaborating with local industry players and academic institutions.
Additionally, the company also shared that they have established a programme for nurseries and kindergartens that allows screening to take place in these establishments too.
"It is important to recognise and appreciate all youngsters. We first democratise preschool screening to do this. We'll collaborate with the government, hospitals, schools, and their various stakeholders to win parents' understanding and accomplish the desired results. No one is left behind," said its co-founder and chief creative officer, Shun Matsuzaka.
Screening is also available at Toy Eight Playground, which is located in The Gardens mall. It is the first playground in Malaysia that is devoted to child development. There, parents can get in-house developmental specialists from Malaysia and Japan who will provide a selection of Coffee chat services for ad hoc consultations at RM50 per hour.
Along with that, Toy Eight provides a Play Together Observation option that includes informal observation of children playing in the playground.