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Everyone is special in Baba Village. Jambo doesn’t speak. So he uses his face and body to talk. Why is he unhappy jumping up and down? Who can help Jambo? Baba Village aims to teach young children to understand, appreciate and embrace difference through inclusive educational stories. The characters embody different traits from various special needs. These physical or emotional challenges can be confronting but village life shows how it can lead to social strengths through acceptance and understanding. The Baba Village series teaches children in early childhood to embrace difference in cultures, appearances and behaviours.
The modern classroom has seen an increased focus on ‘special needs’ children incorporated into mainstream education. This has presented a challenge for teachers who were not specifically trained to deal with these needs. But it also presented an opportunity for education at the early childhood level to make all children aware of and accepting of the various personal traits and forms of behaviour of others in their world.
Baba Village is based on the modelling of social learning theory. Children pay attention to distinctively designed characters and how they behave in stories. The fundamental concept and theme of Baba Village stories is social interaction and moral behaviour rather than knowledge and information. The physical and internal conditions of the characters symbolise inclusiveness and diversity in our society. Each character is based on traits of various disabilities and has physical and psychological strengths and weaknesses. Placing the characters in ‘Baba Village’ shows how they live and play as a community.
Children can learn to normalise and respect others with differences when they are exposed to circumstances that are inclusive and collaborative between people of different cultures, appearances and behaviours. The stories and the characters demonstrate how to embrace difference in others inclusively and collaboratively.
