It is widely recognised that many young children are struggling with their speech and language. Covid-19 appears to have exacerbated what was already an area of concern and, in national data published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (2022), 14 per cent of two-year-olds were presenting below the expected level in communication skills in 2021/22, compared with 11 per cent in 2019/20 (Public Health England, 2021). As a result of this, many settings have been exploring intervention strategies.
Literature often discusses a communication-rich environment, but does not explore what this looks like. My research set out to define this – how the play and learning space can support and develop speech and language in the best way possible. This adopts the Reggio Emilia approach of the environment being the third educator. It also recognises that children cannot and should not have adult engagement at all times, but should have the opportunity to engage in a playful manner within an environment that supports them accordingly.
Through empirical evidence it has been possible to constitute what a high-quality environment looks like when supporting speechand language development. This has resulted in an audit tool that settings can use to assess their spaces and make adjustments accordingly. What is also unique about this tool is that it can be used in a variety of environments: indoor classrooms, outdoor classrooms, Forest Schools, natural play environments, etc. My findings showed that there is a link between the quality of the environment and the quality of speech and language, and in the study settings it was found that the outdoor classroom space tended to produce the richest range of vocabulary, followed by the Forest School and then the indoor classroom.
CODIFYING QUALITY
My study sought views from practitioners, parents, speech and language therapists, renowned authors on communication, Ofsted inspectors and children on what they thought constituted a high-quality environment for speech and language. We used these views to ascertain that 27 elements were considered necessary. We then:
- devised an audit tool to assess these elements within play and learning environments
- recorded children's speech and language while they played and learnt in different environments and analysed their speech quality
- compared the quality of the children's speech with the quality of the environment.
The 27 elements (see table) fell into three categories: resources, environment and atmosphere.
WHAT DO THESE ELEMENTS MEAN?
Provocations
Provocations can be defined as items that provoke conversation, thought, curiosity and questioning. They are likely to be things that are different and will therefore prompt interest. These correlate with the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the environment as the third educator. When exploring further what this actually means, Stong-Wilson and Ellis (2007) attest that it is about ‘expecting the unexpected’ and that provocations are often the catalysts for this adaptation to the environment. These provocations should bring to the environment an element of excitement that, in turn, generates language and enhances vocabulary.
Familiar/real-life experiences
In contrast to the point about the need for ‘different’ resources that prompt curiosity, an element of familiarity within an environment will also prompt speech and language. It is recognised that there is a need for a quality environment to be culturally relevant and to be reflective of children's home lives, and this needs factoring in when considering how the environment is supporting children.
It was found that supportive environments should include areas where children can be quiet, where they can process their thoughts, and can listen to others with ease. Meaningful dialogue is recognised as being essential, and it is asserted that this quiet space is essential for this meaningful dialogue to take place effectively. This does not necessarily need to be restricted to a specific area of the environment, however – a den, for example, can be constructed in any environment and would suffice for the purposes of reflection and processing. The positioning of this space is important to consider.
Supportive environment
Children need interaction with others as well as the environment. Although this study focused on the environment, it is impossible not to take account of the people within that environment. It is recognised that if children are to be encouraged to try new experiences and thus extend their language then they need support of a more knowledgeable other (Vygotsky, 1962) to do so. It should be noted here, though, that this element should not be restricted to adults within the environment but also to peers, and the ethos of the setting needs to reflect this supportive aspect for children to benefit fully.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
By considering how your environments are set up, and giving equal focus to all environments, it has been shown through this study that it can make a difference to children's speech and language development. By considering the 27 elements listed here, you can make small, non-costly and effective tweaks that can have a long-lasting effect.
If, as practitioners, we can get the spaces established to promote a communication-rich environment and interact with the children ina supportive manner, then we can make a difference in the speech and language abilities of our youngest children.
CASE STUDY: Castle Academy, Northants
Monika Griffin, early years lead teacher, Castle Academy, Northampton has been auditing her environment using the 27 elements. She says:
‘We looked at our environment and each member of the team reflected on our strengths and areas on which we could improve individually, as we appreciate that this can be subjective and we may all see things differently. We all reached similar conclusions, though, of areas that we wanted to develop and immediately made some small changes.
‘We reflected on the position of some of our areas and moved some things around – an example of this was that the music-making area used to be next to the book corner; we realised that this was not the best position to encourage speech and language. The simple act of moving these two areas further apart has seen children spend more time in the book area and talk to each other more about the books that they access.
‘Another area that we considered was our use of provocations. Although we provided lots of lovely resources, we realised that we did not really provide these open-ended resources. One week we were looking at spring, and in addition to the normal daffodils we set up a provocation tray with pussy willow and different seeds on. This prompted lots of questions, showing real interest in finding out and exploring something new and finding different ways to describe something when the children didn’t know what something was.
‘This process has shown us many areas which we can, and will continue to, develop to enhance language skills. Although we all realise the importance of extending children's vocabulary by questioning and discussing, we have also realised, through this process, that it is also important that we, as adults, stop talking sometimes, giving children the space to think and to process.’