Taa Taa Toddler Journey in Accra

The Playtime in Africa team of Mmofra Foundation is creating a “toddler exploration” journey in the two-acre Mmofra Place park in the Dzorwulu neighbourhood of Ghana’s capital city Accra. The park is one of the few city settings where children from all socio-economic groups can and do interact.

The journey involves physical elements which promote playful discovery – primarily derived from salvaged hardwood and simple landscaping, along with innovative uses of traditional earthenware pottery, and with loose elements derived from local materials such as calabash gourds and textiles. In Ghana’s Akan language, ‘taa taa’ expresses the hands-held-out encouragement a caregiver extends to the newly-toddling child.

Update, February 2018: Interviews and observation have been ongoing since the start of the project, and the remaining weeks of the grant will concentrate on observing how children aged 0-3 and caregivers interact with the interventions – including a workshop to solicit feedback and inform an evidence-based assessment of early childhood development through nature-based play in an African setting.