We know that what goes on in the home environment is crucial in promoting and aiding child development. Research from 2020 shows a link between the home environment and children's development of self-regulation, UCL's Institute of Education found. Things like damp, smoke and the background noise from the TV or radio, lack of calm and quiet and home disorganisation were all detrimental to developing the ability to control or direct attention, thoughts, emotions and actions. My research focused further on other physical aspects of the home environment, with a focus on resources, in order to promote language. What sort of features would a home environment need to have to best promote these skills?
Through previous empirical research, I devised a list of 27 elements that constituted a high-quality play and learning environment (see box).
PARENTAL AUDIT
In order to assess the home environment, parents were asked to rate these 27 elements and to reflect upon how they manifested themselves within their homes. At the same time, they equipped their children with GoPros and recorded where their children were playing and what they said in each environment – either indoors or outdoors. I then assessed the quality of each child's vocabulary and compared it with the quality rating of the home environment to ascertain whether there was a correlation between the two aspects.
Perhaps unsurprisingly there were mixed findings – there was a correlation between the quality of the home environment and the quality of speech in several cases, and the resources within the environment did appear to have an impact on children's comments. What needs to be recognised in this study, however, is that there were many variables. Things that appeared to impact the quality of speech and language were not only the quality of the home environment but also the amount of adult interaction, whether there was a sibling engaged in the play, and whether that sibling was older or younger. One child had an older sibling who was very influential in the play. This child's language quality was lower than some of his peers, which suggests that children who are able to lead and follow their own play may have the potential to use richer language. However, it is important that children have someone to interact with in order to use and expand their vocabulary. One child was left alone for several hours of recordings and he said very little. He was playing with blocks and jigsaws but had very little language usage. While it is important for children to have time alone and space to assimilate their thoughts, this shows the importance of having someone alongside a child's play – routine in a setting context, but not necessarily at home.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Parents’ assessment of their home environments highlighted some specific aspects that were not provided for within their play spaces. We found that it would be beneficial for more sensory play and natural resources to be available within the home environments. It also showed that children would benefit from opportunities to use their imaginations and to play with others when possible.
Resource packs and a guidance poster were provided to enable parents to enhance their children's speech and language further (and to thank them for their time). Participatory settings were also given some sets of resources with the same poster that they could send home to parents on a lending scheme basis. The ideas were all fairly simple and cost-effective to provide and to implement.
CASE STUDY: Kate Langley, parent of Frank, from Grassroots Nursery, Hargrave, Bedfordshire
‘The resources have allowed my son Frank to play without any pre-empted expectation. This promoted a freedom to experiment and explore, which has made the opportunities in his play endless. The excitement of his discoveries resulted in him telling me all about what he was discovering in that moment. He is excited to teach me what things are, rather than something having a clear label, or to show me a new way he has found to play or use the item. A wooden block could be a smiley face…squirrel food…a wheel…, while a wooden peg was a person…a balancing challenge…a game of skittles.
‘Frank enjoys telling me the similarities and differences between the items and other familiar objects, such as creating an ice-cream cone with a shell and ball, a family from the different sizes, and a game that he improvised, as he explains rules as he goes along. He explores the items with various senses, rolling the beads over his cheeks, holding the shells to his ear to listen to “the ocean” and tapping the items, exploring the different sounds they make. The variety of textures, shapes and colours encourage and develop his verbal descriptions during his play. He enjoys telling me what he thinks the different items are, what he thinks they could be used for. Frank also enjoys mixing the items with his toy cars, making obstacles and roads. He often puts pieces in the play sand and sometimes likes to take the beads and shells in the bath for water play. His speech is animated and expressive as he comes up with new ideas each time.’
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Providing these resources is something that settings could do fairly easily – the case study shows Frank's evident enjoyment and engagement, and the benefits for his language skills.
As this study has shown, simple things can make a significant difference to children's language skills, but this is only possible when you have the knowledge to be able to do so. A discussion with practitioners around the 27 elements and how these could be enhanced within your setting is a really good starting point – once you make small changes to the setting, you can then discuss this with parents (quite often the children do this part for you) and then they can consider how they can implement similar approaches within the home. Covid has kept parents out of settings for a long time – now maybe the time to let them back in and take inspiration for their home environments.
REFERENCES
- https://bit.ly/3Q3JIqu
- Tamis-LeMonda C. et al (2001) ‘Maternal responsiveness and children's achievement of language milestones’, Child Development, 72(3), pp.748-767