The provision of simple toys and structured play could enable more than 200 million of the world's poorest children to achieve their developmental potential and so help break the cycle of deprivation, according to a series of research papers published in leading medical journal The Lancet.
The first report, 'Developmental potential in the first five years for children in developing countries', by a team from University College London's Institute of Child Health, says that 200 million children are held back intellectually because of a lack of stimulation and nourishment in the first five years of life.
These children are not reaching their potential at school and are likely to earn low incomes, provide poor care for their own children and bequeath their poverty to the next generation. Most of the children affected live in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
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