The organisation of space in an early years setting often is not given the attention it deserves, argues Lena Engel, but the curriculum will provide the best guidelines
As homes and gardens reflect their owners' tastes, so the use of space and equipment in early years settings reflects the taste of staff. Manufacturers offer little guidance about how to place their early years equipment in a setting, while early years training largely ignores the importance of creating a secure and comfortable learning environment for children. Not surprisingly, early years practitioners often find it difficult to use space effectively. What is space?
Space in a nursery is the whole area within the boundaries of walls or fences to which the children and staff have access.
The way space is used has a significant impact on both children and staff. It determines the ethos and climate for working and playing and influences the way adults and children behave, think and feel. It is only when adults focus on the nature of the space that they begin to acknowledge how their tastes, experiences and prejudices affect its arrangement.
Children and adults perceive space differently, so adults must evaluate space from a child's viewpoint if they want to create a child-centred environment that meets the individual needs of all children in their care.
How space affects babies and young children
As soon as babies can move, they investigate the boundaries of the space around them. They like to do this from the security of their parent or carer so that they can return to safety when anything frightens them.
When toddlers gain confidence, they start running around to explore. As young children learn to move more thoughtfully and achieve greater control of the limbs, they begin to vary their speed of motion and to work in greater harmony within the boundaries of their space.
In the home, young children regulate their behaviour according to family expectations and the confines of the space. At nursery, children also learn to adapt to both the space and the social context.
Young children in early years settings continue to need secure reference points from which to observe and investigate the environment. Adults should make children feel emotionally secure and should organise a safe, challenging and visually stimulating space in which they can play.
The child-centred environment
For most children, their home is not generally child-centred. Any concessions to children are usually reflected in safety measures, such as covering the garden pond with mesh.
Early years settings are uniquely placed to offer child-centred environments in which children's perspectives and needs take precedence over adults'. To plan a child-centred environment, practitioners should consider all aspects of child development and view the space from the child's point of view. They should get down on their knees to appreciate how children perceive a room. Therefore:
- All display boards should be hung low on the walls to ensure that children can see and appreciate the work or information with ease.
- All storage for resources and equipment should be low.
- All tables and chairs should be child sized, as should be facilities such as basins, toilets, coat hooks and containers for personal possessions.
Giving children good access to all resources empowers them to be independent and reduces the need for them to wait for adults to service them. A child-centred environment should encourage free flow of movement, without unnecessary restrictions, both indoors and outside. It should also limit adult intervention in daily routines, so that children can make choices about what they do and when. For example, lay out the setting so that children can:
- register themselves by placing their name card on a whiteboard
- pour themselves water when they want
- engage in activities indoors and outside throughout the day
- be part of small groups for story-time.
These strategies will have a calming effect on children and will help them to develop independence skills and self-confidence.
Six areas of guidance
It is essential that practitioners understand and put into practice the philosophy and the implied methodology of the early years curriculum when planning the layout of their setting.
Be guided by the six areas of learning and make the most of the natural features of the space, such as access to daylight. Learning in the six areas can occur across the provision, but particularly in dedicated areas:
Communication, language and literacy
- Provide a welcoming book corner with good natural light, soft flooring and comfortable cushions and a wide range of accessible books.
- Provide a writing area, again with natural light, and with resources to practise drawing and writing skills.
- Provide a role play area to support communication and imaginative skills and supply props that reflect experiences to which children can relate. Mathematical development
- Provide resources that will initiate investigation, and support learning about number, shape and measurement. Easy location of these resources helps organise children's thinking and encourages them to make informed choices about the tools they may need to solve mathematical problems. Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Provide a flexible space that can be used for building with construction toys or guiding remote control vehicles.
- Ensure that both space and resources encourage children to develop investigative skills.
- Provide facilities outdoors for digging, planting and observing climate changes and the natural world.
Physical development
- Ensure that indoor space is flexible and that children have the space and surfaces suitable to engage in exercises to develop co-ordination skills.
- Similarly, provide space outdoors for children to develop a range of physical skills with and without equipment and wheeled toys.
Creative development
- Provide role play areas and space for small-scale role play experiences with model farms, dinosaurs and so on.
- Provide areas where water and sand play can be enjoyed.
- Offer daily access to painting, other art activities, and using malleable materials, such as dough and clay.
- Provide a music area where children can listen to tapes and play musical instruments.
Personal, social and emotional development
- This area of learning is developed through the effective provision of a child-centred environment in which children's interests, needs and cultures are valued.
- It is essential to remember that the appearance and organisation of space has a profound effect on the children's and adults' behaviour and mood. Unnecessary rules are likely to aggravate children's behaviour and so fray adults' nerves.
