In the years of the great American economic depression, around 1934, in Los Angeles, the owner of a toy store complained to the principal of the Municipal School that the children were stealing toys. The director concluded that this was happening because the children had nothing to play with. Thus, it started a toy loan service as a community resource. The so-called Los Angeles Toy Loan still exists today. However, it was in Sweden, in 1963, that this idea was further developed. In order to lend toys and give guidance to the families of children with disabilities on how they could play with their children to better stimulate them, two teachers, mothers of children with disabilities, founded Lekotek (Swedish library) in Stockholm.

In Brazil, this service also started to be developed from the need to encourage disabled children. In 1971, on the occasion of the opening of the Qualification Center of the Association of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional (APAE) of São Paulo, an exhibition of educational toys took place. The interest aroused by the event was such that it was transformed into a Pedagogical Resources Sector within APAE, coordinated by the educator Nylse Helena Silva Cunha, who, in 1973, implemented the Toy and Pedagogical Material Rotation System, the Ludoteca. All toys from the Educational Sector of APAE were centralized and started to be used in the mold of a circulating library. Only in 1981 was the first playroom in the country set up, the Playhouse Indianópolis, in São Paulo, with the director responsible for creating the term Playhouse, the pedagogue Nylse Helena Silva Cunha. From 1984 onwards, due to the growing movement around the theme, the need arose to create an association that would cover the demand. Since then, the Brazilian Toy Library Association - ABBri has been working to promote play, as well as training toy makers and assisting in the assembly of toy stores throughout the country.

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PATRONESSE AND FOUNDER

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Nylse Helena Silva Cunha (09/23/1929 - 04/24/2017).

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Pedagogue, director of the Indianópolis Institute and founder of the first Brazilian Toy Library. Author of DAE - Evolutionary Assessment Dossier, an important registration tool for the assessment and continuous monitoring of the global development of disabled people, used by professionals at the Indianópolis Institute. He was a member of ITLA - International Toy Library Association. She began her career in the area of ​​Special Education at Sociedade Pestalozzi and was coordinator of the Pedagogical Resources sector at APAE - SP, where she created the Therapeutic Playroom. He taught courses all over the national territory and, as an international lecturer, participated in congresses in Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Australia, Spain, Switzerland and Korea. Author of eight books in the area of ​​Education, especially on pedagogical resources.