The bilingual exhibition, 'Communication Friendly Spaces in the Home Context', is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government. It celebrates the achievements of registered childminders who received specialised training in fostering children's communication skills. The project was developed by the National Childminding Association and a company specialising in effective learning environments led by Elizabeth Jarman.
Ms Jarman said, 'The key message is around viewing the environment from a child's perspective. Children have different kinds of preferred learning environments. We need to be tuning in to what these are.'
Childminder Karen Caluan took part through her local childminding network. She created a private space for children in her hallway, which soon turned into an adult-free area for free play, role play and quiet time.
'I changed the colour of the walls to a green that is more calming,' she said. 'I made and bought tents and loads of different fabrics so the children could make their own dens as well. I just gave them the props and watched them get on with it.'
Ms Caluan described the area as 'a chatting space' for the older children to trade secrets. 'It's created a lot of communication and brought the quiet ones out of themselves as well,' she said.
'I have a little boy who is quite hot-headed. He has to be busy all the time. He was the first one to go and play on his own in the tent and fall asleep in there.'
FURTHER INFORMATION
Elizabeth Jarman's features on creating communication-friendly spaces appeared in Nursery World, 13 March 2008 and 3 May 2007. Her new series starts on 3 July.
