An entrepreneur who set out to create meaningful digital content in the Maltese language for children, hopes more kids can enjoy more access to educational technology that improves their word power.
Francesca Borg Bellanti, the CEO of Magic Games Factory, understood early on that there was a glaring gap in the digital landscape for Maltese-language learning games for young children.
Aware of the current challenges that young children face in acquiring native Maltese-language skills, she built a small team to develop a simple yet enjoyable smartphone app: Nina u Ninu.
The app this month celebrates its second anniversary with the addition of new features that parents will find essential for their young children to sharpen their Maltese word power.
“We’re celebrating an important milestone with new content that underlines the success that Nina u Ninu has enjoyed over the past years,” Borg Bellanti said.
“Nina u Ninu was born out of this simple, powerful need: to give my children meaningful, screen-based experiences in their own language,” Borg Bellanti said, who leads Magic Games Factory in the development of innovative ed-tech that is aimed at keeping languages alive.
“As any parent has learnt, we have switched to a world that is ‘always-on’ – kids have unlimited choices through content streamed to smart TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones. But we need to guide their development by harnessing this technology.
“Nina u Ninu was born out of this simple, powerful need: to give my children meaningful, screen-based experiences in their own language”
“Streaming platforms like Netflix offer easy language switches between English and Italian, but we lack high-quality, modern digital content in Maltese – a language that is central to our identity, and a fundamental requirement for educational attainment and job progression.”
To mark its second birthday, Magic Games Factory has announced new content designed for older children (5+), which include a daily “Il-Kelma tal-lum” (Word of the day), with audio and visual context to spark vocabulary growth; and a fun, interactive spelling game “Imla l-vojt” (Fill in the blank), designed to improve language skills in a playful way.
The ad-free Nina u Ninu app provides engaging educational games to support Maltese vocabulary, literacy, numeracy and logic thanks to its playful user experience designed for children aged 2 to 8.
Nina u Ninu incurs just a one-time-only price that is a fraction of monthly streaming platform prices or other online game purchases, and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
“Magic Games Factory is investing in building high-quality content that is relevant to Malta’s youngest learner,” Borg Bellanti said. “But parents will find the value of our meaningful, educational, and safe content priceless when they will see their kids power up their language skills.”
Magic Games Factory is also developing its groundbreaking white label to showcase innovation in language preservation through engaging experiences like Nina u Ninu and Parlini Land.
Read also about the Ninu u Nina podcast. For more education-related content, click here. For more Child stories, follow this link.
