Explain the Importance of the Environment in Supporting Speech, Language and Communication Development

We need to be flexible when developing communication friendly spaces, these spaces should be made available to children inside and outside. We should try and make it with a child’s perspective in mind. We need to try to reduce noise and distractions to a minimum otherwise the children cannot concentrate, so a great deal of thought has to be put in before you place a book area, some settings place net curtain around this area for the sounds to be kept to a minimum.
The area should have sunlight for you to maximise the use of light and enable young babies or toddlers to see your face and how we use facial expressions this is particularly important if you have a child with an hearing impairment, at my setting the book area is placed in a corner with windows reflecting good direct sunlight into the area. You need to consider the impact of the colour to reflect on a child’s emotions, a good colour is yellow this colour is recognised faster than any other colour, evokes spontaneity, is joyful, optimistic, warm and signifies communication. A communicating area should not be over stimulating or cluttered.
We have a small but cosy area for the book area we have a trolley with different age/stage books on, the trolley and we place big cushions in the tent this becomes a soft and cosy area, we place some books around the cushions so that the children realise that they can help themselves. This enables the area to be inviting for the children and quite often during the day an adult is supporting this area.
In the quite corner looking and reading at books helps children to talk to other children and adults as they might feel safe and secure in a small cosy space. Also it allows staff to have a more one to one time with