FUNdamentally Children

Dr Amanda Gummer, founder of FUNdamentally Children, is a renowned child development expert, and often features in media discussing the role of play in learning. Through FUNdamentally Children and the Good Play Guide, she offers valuable insights on educational toys and parenting, helping families make informed choices for their children’s development and well-being.

This podcast explores play’s role in child development and brand strategy.

Summary of the Podcast

Key Takeaways

• Mission: FUNdamentally Children translates academic research into practical advice for kids’ brands (toys, media, education) to improve products and policy.
• Method: Research uses naturalistic observation in familiar settings to capture meaningful data, avoiding the “strange kids in strange places” bias of traditional lab studies.
• Impact: Services de-risk product launches (e.g., preventing a faulty toy release) and sharpen marketing (e.g., identifying a “pizza delivery boy” character as the licensing driver).
• Challenge: The biggest barrier is the perception of play as frivolous, which hinders its recognition as a powerful tool for developing critical life skills.

The Problem: A Gap Between Research & Practice

• FUNdamentally Children bridges the gap between academic research and practical application for kids’ brands.
• Clients: Toy companies, digital game developers, TV content creators, playground designers, and policymakers.
• Core Principle: The Maya Angelou quote, “When you know better, do better.” The company provides the “better” knowledge.

The Solution: Naturalistic, Child-Centred Research

• Research avoids the “strange kids in strange places” bias of traditional lab studies.
• Method: Observe children in familiar settings with trusted people to capture authentic behavior.
• Quality Control: Rigorously vets other research papers (e.g., for the Children’s Media Association) to ensure data validity.

The Business Model: De-Risking & Sharpening Strategy

• Funding comes from corporate clients paying for research and workshops.
• De-Risking Product Launches:
  • Identified a faulty Thomas the Tank Engine toy (pegs too small for holes) in playtesting, preventing a negative launch and PR.
  • Provided evidence to defend a toy train from a “toy train makes kid bald” headline, proving it was a user accident, not a product fault.
• Sharpening Marketing & Licensing:
  • Research for a kids’ TV show about motorbikes found the “pizza delivery boy” character was the most popular.
  • Insight: Kids were focused on the pizza, not the bike’s design or the show’s friendship theme.
  • Action: This insight redirected the licensing strategy to focus on the pizza theme.

The Philosophy: Play as a Tool for Development

• Play is a powerful tool for developing critical skills (critical thinking, self-reliance, social skills) that traditional education often misses.
• DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion):
  • Focuses on practical accessibility (e.g., wheelchair ramps in playgrounds) to ensure all children can participate.
  • Distinguishes this from political debates like transgender athletes in sports, which are separate biological issues.
• Play Commission:
  • Amanda was a commissioner on this year-long project, which produced the “Raising the Nation” report.
  • Goal: Provide evidence to government on play’s impact across education, health, and youth justice.

Clips from the Podcast

Who Amanda Serve

Moral & Rich

Children are our Future

Inclusion

Testimonial

Sponsor – inCruises

Graham Arrowsmith’s company Finely Fettled is an inCruises Independent Partner and invites you to find out more about inCruises.

inCruises Link

The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-Hosts

Graham Arrowsmith

Graham founded Finely Fettled in 2014 to provide data from The UK High Net Worth Database to marketers targeting affluent and high-net-worth customers.  He’s the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, creating lead generation AI Agents & Workflows and introducing the MeclabsAI Platform. Graham also provides an Answer Engine Optimisation solution to get your website in shape to be found by LLMs.

Kevin Appleby

Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He’s the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com