Thinking about communication friendly spaces

I went on a really excellent training course last night, with Elizabeth Jarman who specialises in promoting environments that help children to develop to the best of their ability. She shared with us several pieces of research which showed how our environments affect brain development in children. Some of it really made us think – for example, how we can reduce noise in our environments to help children to focus better. Often our homes are very noisy with radios, music and televisions on, yet we expect young children to pick up on new words and sounds, against a background of noise. In nursery we need to think about how we can find quiet spaces at times and reduce background noise during talking and reading activities.

We came away full of ideas and will also be thinking about transitions from home to nursery and how we can ease these, as well as transitions between age groups. For now, do have a look at www.elizabethjarmantraining.co.uk as the page is designed for parents and practitioners alike. Over the next few weeks we hope to be sharing our learning with our nursery teams, so keep an eye out for a focus on communication friendly spaces around our settings.