Early years practitioners put a lot of energy and thought into creating a 'stimulating' environment for the children and babies in their care. There are certain things people generally expect to see, and there is often an expectation that the space will be filled with books and toys and displays of children's 'work'. Understanding the principles behind what is (and what isn't) appropriately 'stimulating' is at the heart of a continuous provision or workshop-style approach.
No matter how much thought we put into designing and organising the learning environment, we need to recognise first of all the importance of addressing the basic human needs of comfort and safety. Children need to feel safe, secure and comfortable, or their bodies and brains will not be able to interact and engage well with the space or resources on offer. The work of Abraham Maslow and his 'hierarchy of human need' helps us to understand how a 'nurturing environment' makes the best of all possible learning environments.
Maslow describes human needs in a series of levels and suggests that if needs are not met at one level, then we cannot move on to the next.
Jenni Clark, in Sustaining Shared Thinking, shows how these needs can be met in a high-quality early years environment.
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
Physiological needs are the first and overwhelming needs of a human. They include food, drink, fresh air and rest. Having water and healthy snacks available to children as part of their continuous provision means that children are free from preoccupations about being thirsty or hungry.
Being able to move freely indoors or outdoors meets a child's needs for fresh air and exercise. Quiet spaces and sleep nests enable children and babies to regulate for themselves when they need to rest or sleep.
An absence of any of the above can mean that children become stressed easily and their brains are flooded with the stress chemical, cortisol. This blocks connections in the brain and inhibits thinking and learning. This is true for adults too - we all know how hard it is to concentrate if we are tired or hungry - so a high-quality early years environment is one where the adults involved also have their physiological needs well met.
SAFETY AND SOCIAL NEEDS
At the next level is our need for safety and a sense of belonging. Children need to feel emotionally safe and secure if they are to be able to explore and take chances in their learning. As well has having close relationships with their key carers, children need to feel they have ownership of the space.
Observing babies and young children is a great way to establish the best arrangement of the area and the best placing of their favourite things. When we involve children in making labels for resources (with photos, pictures or silhouettes) so they can find and replace equipment, we enable them to take control and use materials independently. We also need to involve them in decisions about the layout of the space and the things in it, so that they can adapt and change it as they start to recognise their own needs for thinking and learning.
SELF-ESTEEM NEEDS
When our basic needs for nourishment, nurture and safety are met, then, and only then, are we able to devote attention to our self-image and sense of self-worth.
To participate in a learning environment, children need to feel good about themselves and their abilities. They need to know that making mistakes in a supportive environment is a valuable part of the learning process and that revisiting experiences is a useful way of refining and extending their skills.
Familiarity reinforces positive feelings and can act as a stimulus to use previous knowledge in a new situation. Being able to make choices about the direction of their play and build on their earlier experiences, with the support of sensitive, encouraging adults, promotes self-esteem in children.
SELF-ACTUALISATION
Only when all the above needs are met can we feel confident and secure enough to consider our self-actualisation needs. This is all about knowing who we are and what we can do, and exploring learning for its own sake and intrinsic value.
For babies, having lots of time to explore themselves and other people through physical and sensory experiences is an important part of this. Older children can begin to understand what they can achieve by having lots of positive experiences of learning. A continuous provision approach allows children to engage - and 'wallow' - in the kind of self-determined thinking, exploring and experimenting that enables them to learn about learning.
THE TIME IT TAKES...
But you can't 'wallow' in anything if there are time restrictions - and children quickly recognise that adult preoccupations are likely to interrupt their play. Jacqui Cousins has quoted the comments of four-year-olds who had already absorbed that 'tidy-up time' comes round all too soon. 'When I build a house it takes me a long time... and then I got to break it... tidy-up time,' said one. 'Time's as long as it takes,' said another about something he enjoyed doing.
The reflective philosophy of the early years centres in Reggio Emilia, Italy, challenges the usual conventions of time-restricted activities. Adults organise the environment so that children can leave their 'work in progress' and return to it as often as, and for as long as, they need to. This also helps shift the understanding about the purposes of 'displays' and the value that is often attached to finished products mounted (high up) on a wall.
Wallowing and developing
We need to make sure that children have enough time to make the most of the environment we provide for them. They need time to:
- wallow in their self-directed play
- revisit and consolidate their learning through play
- plan and reflect
- develop ideas and solve problems
- stop and think
- stand and stare
- watch others until they feel ready to have a go
- talk about what they are thinking and doing
- make mistakes and persevere until they reach a personal conclusion.
Reflecting and joining in
As practitioners, we need to make sure that we provide time for:
- children to experience sustained, uninterrupted periods of play
- observing and recording children's self-chosen play and the directions it takes
- listening to children talk and hearing them think
- reflecting on what we see and hear and how it matches what we know about child development and the learning process
- joining in and allowing ourselves to participate fully in children's play.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER RESOURCES
- Maslow is cited in Sustaining Shared Thinking by Jenni Clarke (Featherstone Education)
- The Foundation Stage Teacher in Action - Teaching Three-, Four- and Five-Year-Olds by Margaret Edgington (Paul Chapman)
- The Excellence of Play edited by Janet R Moyles (OUP)
- The Continuous Curriculum: Planning for Spontaneous Play, Kirklees Council
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Harper Perennial)
- Bringing the Reggio Approach to Your Early Years Practice by Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton (David Fulton)
- Understanding Child Development - Linking theory and practice by Jennie Lindon (Hodder Arnold)
- Listening to Four- Year-Olds: How they can help us to plan their education and care by Jacqui Cousins (National Children's Bureau)
LINKS TO EYFS GUIDANCE
- PR 3.3 Supporting Learning
- EE 3.1 Observation, Assessment and Planning
- EE 3.2 Supporting Every Child
- EE 3.3 The Learning Environment.
