In America, a group of postdoctoral researchers at Temple University Infant & Child Laboratory conduct a supermarket project to help create opportunities for children to learn in their daily life with their caregivers and teachers.
The cost for this intervention: It stays around $20 per market.
Here’s the design: Signs are installed in various areas of the supermarket, prompting parents to ask their children to spark their curiosity. For example, at a dairy case, a sign with a friendly cartoon cow reads, “Ask your child: Where does milk come from? What else comes from a cow?”
The research team said that not only these signs would help set a learning point for kids outside of school, they would create connections between them and their parents.
A study tested and showed that in Philadelphia-area supermarkets, these signs sparked a one-third increase in conversations between parents and children under 8.
The team is planning on bringing the project to “trapped spaces” in the city, like doctors’ waiting rooms and laundromats, where people have to spend time waiting.
