Motor skill development is high on the radar of homegrown entrepreneurs, giving global brands a run for their money

According to Technavio market research findings, the global educational toys market is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 10% until 2021. In this category, motor skill development has taken top priority in many pre-school and day-care centres, and at homes across India. This unexplored terrain has now grabbed the attention of many startups and edupreneurs and no wonder can be seen as a huge game changer, when it comes to emerging business trends in the field of education.

Global technology and market research companies like Technavio and Million Insights forecasts that the motor skills educational toys market is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. That is because of parents are increasing dependency on toys at home for hands-on contributory development. Thus, toy manufacturers worldwide are innovating these toys due to added emphasis on the physical well-being of children.

These toys are specially designed to allow physical development and strengthening of muscles in infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. Motor skills are often classified as gross motor skills (movements of larger muscles such as arms and legs) and fine motor skills (movements of smaller muscles such as those in hands and wrist).

Flint Box, to start with, was the first to explore the market and now there is a useful portal called Rentoys through which you can meet your child’s motor skill development needs, right at your doorstep. For an amount of Rs. 850 per month, they provide you with toys from all over the world worth Rs. 5000.

China has gone one step further and brought about the year old famous Lego building blocks into their elementary schools.  Lego provides the medium of free play, a popular concept catching up in premium schools in India and provides an excellent opportunity to building of motor skills in children in the age group of 3-5 years.

Motor skill development is also being enhanced, with the adoption of the western concept of ‘Free play’, where children are given time to explore various mediums of play to encourage the independent exploration of their abilities. Another company that is becoming increasingly popular with its innovative wooden toys designed for developing motor skills in Skola Toys.  Launched in September 2017 in India, Skola Toys is the brainchild of Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan in Bangalore. They have been successful in providing a unique range of wooden learning toys for the age group of 2 to 7. Skola has now become one of India’s first wooden toy companies to provide specific learning outcomes with each toy. Skola also maps each aspect of learning sequentially, to play - thus the tagline: 'Skola Toys, Learning Journeys Designed as Play'.

Currently, the key players in the global educational toy industry include Hasbro, Chicco, Mattel, Smoby, Bandai, Auldey, LEGO Group, SILVERLIT, Quiltown, Playwell, HWTOYS, Allo & Lugh, YQG, HuiLe Toys, Top Bright, Playmobil, Barbie, Play"n"Learn, Fisher Price, DISCOVERY TOYS, Automoblox, IKEA, Learning Resources, KID Designs, Hog Wild, Educational insights, Sassy, One Smart Cookie Productions, POOF-Slinky, Safari, and Elenco.

India is developing its own homegrown versions, which can give a run to the competitors for their money.