AS AN ED-TECH entrepreneur and a mother, Aditi Prasad, Founder, STEMPlay Labs, often found herself searching for toys that truly helped her kids build real-world thinking without screens. That was how STEMPlay Labs came in. She said, “our mission is to become a trusted partner for parents and educators, those trying to raise curious problem-solvers in a world that’s changing faster than you can say Artificial Intelligence!”
LEARNING THROUGH INTERACTIVE STORIES
A child creates its own world of imagination with toys. Aditi wanted to recreate that but with a change, where children can build, think and learn without realising they are doing something educational. Under their two brands, Wonder Bricks and PictoMath, STEMPlay Labs encourages open-ended learning by presenting fundamentals of engineering creatively. Aditi explained how their Wonder Bricks help children develop spatial awareness, problem-solving and design skills. For example, one story begins with a grandfather building a birdhouse with his grandchildren. Through this story, they introduce the concept of tools and simple machines like hammers and levers. The kids understand the concept through the story.
MAKING MATH MAGICAL
For older children, to understand engineering fundamentals, their sets teach how big and small gears move, in which direction they rotate and how that affects speed. They internalise all these through play. Not every child is a fan of mathematics. To ease this, STEMPlay Labs came up with Pictomath, a series of visual math card games. For children as young as six, it begins with simple equations and gradually enables them to develop number sense, pattern recognition and problem-solving skills naturally. “It is all about how a concept is introduced. You can make them love or fear it,” highlighted Aditi.
WOMEN-LED MANUFACTURING
On the creative side, Aditi mentioned that their blocks are unlike traditional ones that only stack vertically; they feature both side-locking and center-locking capabilities and are designed for open-ended creativity, so no two children ever build the same thing. “We always identify what a child at a particular age needs,” highlighted Aditi. Even though Indian parents today value educational play, they don’t compromise on safety. To address parents’ concerns, Aditi made it very clear that all their toys are BIS-certified and proudly made in Tamil Nadu under a women-led MSME.
Within the next six to eight months, STEMPlay Labs plan to expand both in India and globally. They have started expanding their products both offline and online. “Our focus is right there in the name — STEMPlay Labs. We want to instill STEM skills in children, but through play. When a child is laughing, imagining and building, real learning happens naturally,” pointed out Aditi.