Environment in Early Childhood Settings

The learning process of young children is greatly affected by their environment. A good learning environment is significant factor and can be prepared to support the healthy development of the child. Environmental practices can be defined as aspects of materials, equipments, routines, space and activities that educators and parents can intentionally modify in order to support the learning process of toddlers.

Running head: ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 1
Environment in Early Childhood Settings
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ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 2
Environment in Early Childhood Settings
1. Define the concept of environment in early childhood settings.
The learning process of young children is greatly affected by their environment. The space, daily
schedule, learning materials and how educators communicate to children are some of crucial
features that affect the teaching and learning process (McLachlan, Fleer & Edwards, 2018). A
good learning environment is significant factor and can be prepared to support the healthy
development of the child. The surroundings of young children affects child’s brain development.
A good environment for the child supports the brain development of a child and vice verse.
Early childhood education is emerging as one of world agendas where parents, teachers, policy
makers and political leaders are eager to improve quality and easy access of childhood education.
This eager is brought by multiple evidence that suggests that children who attend quality early
childhood education settings benefits a lot in relation to their behavior and their education life.
One of the most common cited evidence demonstrates that children who are taken to quality
education centers are able to perform well in their academic level when compared to these who
fail to attend education centers (McLachlan, Fleer & Edwards, 2018). Also, these children are
able to engage with their peers appropriately, have a high chance of attending universities and
colleges, and have a lower risk of incarceration.
Environmental practices can be defined as aspects of materials, equipments, routines, space and
activities that educators and parents can intentionally modify in order to support the learning
process of toddlers. An early childhood environment settings may involve many things. For
example, (Bagnato , McLean, Macy & Neisworth, 2011), defines it as a safe place where
toddlers are supervised while protecting them from elements. It also involves significant

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 3
practices of the day like bathing, washing hands, playing, sleeping and eating. Safe and
responsive surroundings are crucial part of supporting not only the learning process but also the
development children. Such environment also serves as a main component of challenging
behavior interventions for toddlers with disabilities.
A safe environment for children may also involve creating conducive environments like classes
or playing grounds that will support children in their learning process across all age groups and
development of domains for social, communication and cognitive. A well designed environment
will support responsive care giving, decrease challenging behavior, promote toddlers
engagement and encourage independence and feelings of competence in infants. A well designed
environment will also facilitate appropriate social interactions and provide structure and
predictability among children.
According to (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2017), early childhood environment
settings should be; Rich in play- playing is one of ways that helps toddlers to be able to integrate
all their new experience into their developing brains, emotions and bodies. This is supported by
evidence which demonstrates that toddlers learn best through playing. A safe early childhood
setting should also be rich in experience where toddlers can experiment, explore and learn basic
knowledge via direct experience. This is important since during this time, children are involved
in learning about the physical world.
A good childhood environment should also be rich in teaching. The role of a teacher is crucial in
toddle’s life. This is because infants depend on their teachers or educators to be their model,
confidant, instructor and their colleague. Additionally, childhood environment should be rich
with people. Toddles have desire of a lot of exposure to diversified group of people who are

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 4
living in the local village. The types of people may range from farmers, carpenters, nurses,
bakers piano tuner among others.
Besides, early childhood setting should be significant to children. Toddlers have that desire or
feeling of important. They have the desire to feel what they do is good and is important to
someone else beside themselves. Furthermore, early childhood setting should be a place where
children can call their own. All human beings have the need to belong as well as children. They
have that desire to be near to people whom they know, have comfortable objects or are familiar.
2. A list of attributes that you believe are important based on the previous discussion.
There are several attributes that are important based on early childhood education field. These
include passion for early childhood education, creativity, flexibility, understand all children are
different, good communication skills and should have patience and sense of humor (Steinberg, &
Darling, 2017).
3. A list of curriculum decisions that you believe are important.
In order to achieve high quality levels of early childhood education, good decisions have to be
made on curriculum programs. While each curriculum programs will be unique for quality early
childhood education, the following are some of the decisions that are important for a quality
programs. These decisions may include professional and stable teacher workforce, age
appropriate curriculum and effective leadership (Steinberg, & Darling, 2017).
Decision regarding professional and stable teacher workforce is crucial component of quality
early childhood education. All employed teachers need to have knowledge of early childhood
development. They should also be able to plan for activities that can promote toddler’s learning

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 5
process (Shonkoff, 2010). This critical role needs educators to have formal education, skills and
knowledge in early childhood education. Moreover, early childhood professionals require
compensation and benefits that reflects the significant of their role in educating young children.
Good decisions should be aimed to professional and stable teacher workforce in order to promote
a quality and health learning surroundings for young pupils.
Furthermore, curriculum needs to be staffed at the appropriate level that can support quality
learning process of young children. For example, low teacher child ratio should be incorporated
in early childhood education programs at it helps educators to be able to concentrate and focus
on the needs every child and engage them in a meaningful interactions (Van Hoorn, Monighan,
Scales & Alward, 2014). This means adequate number of educators specifically assigned to
classrooms and others for physical education. Early childhood education should also involve
workforce that reflects the growing diversity of young pupil population, thereby ensuring that
toddlers have educators whom they can relate (McLachlan, Fleer & Edwards, 2018).
The other decision is effective leadership. Early childhood administrators have a broad range of
tasks in ensuring early childhood education programs are run in the right manner that can support
the learning process of children. Good decisions of employing best leaders with the sound
managerial skills with varied skills is encouraged for smooth running of early childhood
education programs (Wortham, 2002).
Furthermore, age appropriate curriculum decision is important in ensuring smooth running of
early childhood education. Decisions on choosing the best curriculum that can accommodate
every child in relations to their age, culture, language and their physical. The best early
childhood education curriculum should relevant to all children in regards to culturally,

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 6
linguistically and developmentally. In other words, curriculum decisions should take into
account the toddler’s age, economic status, linguistic, culture and the behavior of the child.
4. A hand drawn or digital design of a kindergarten environment – labeled
5. Examples of resources, teaching tools etc. that could be used to support the intention of
your design. (images and explanations)
There are numerous resources and teaching materials that can be used to support my
kindergarten environment above. These materials includes; neat and spacious classrooms, neatly
arranged chairs and desk, teaching materials such as books, charts, chalks and chalkboard.
Furthermore, creative and attractive physical features such as poetry and comic pictures will be
required to help in the learning and development process of the child.

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 7
6. Justification – why is this best practice?
The kindergarten design is the best as it has neat, well ventilated and spacious classrooms that
will allow free movement. Also, chairs should be well arranged to provide educators a clear view
of all children (Jacobs, 2010). All learning materials such as chalks, charts and books should be
present as they play key role in developing the learning process of children. The play ground is
also important as it will act as a venue where children can integrate what they have learned in
classroom by playing.
Conclusion
There are several curriculums for programs that can support early childhood education including
high score curriculum and creative curriculum. Besides, a well designed environment will
support responsive care giving, decrease challenging behavior, promote toddlers engagement and
encourage independence and feelings of competence in infants (Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 2014).
A well designed environment will also facilitate appropriate social interactions and provide
structure and predictability among children.
In conclusion, early childhood environment settings should be; Rich in play- playing is one of
ways that helps toddlers to be able to integrate all their new experience into their developing
brains, emotions and bodies. This is supported by evidence which demonstrates that toddlers
learn best through playing (Bornstein, & Bradley, 2014). A safe early childhood setting should
also be rich in experience where toddlers can experiment, explore and learn basic knowledge via
direct experience. This is important since during this time, children are involved in learning
about the physical world. A good childhood environment should also be rich in teaching. The
role of a teacher is crucial in toddle’s life. This is because infants depend on their teachers or

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 8
educators to be their model, confidant, instructor and their colleague. Additionally, childhood
environment should be rich with people. Toddles have desire of a lot of exposure to diversified
group of people who are living in the local village (Jones et al., 2011). The types of people may
range from farmers, carpenters, nurses, bakers piano tuner among others.

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 9
References
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2017). Programming and Planning
in Early Childhood Settings with Student Resource Access 12 Months. Cengage AU.
Bagnato, S. J., McLean, M., Macy, M., & Neisworth, J. T. (2011). Identifying instructional
targets for early childhood via authentic assessment: Alignment of professional standards
and practice-based evidence. Journal of Early Intervention, 33(4), 243-253.
Bornstein, M. H., & Bradley, R. H. (2014). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child
development. Routledge.
Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (2014). Early childhood environment rating scale.
Teachers College Press.
Jacobs, H. H. (2010). A new essential curriculum. Curriculum, 21, 7-17.
Jones, R. A., Riethmuller, A., Hesketh, K., Trezise, J., Batterham, M., & Okely, A. D. (2011).
Promoting fundamental movement skill development and physical activity in early
childhood settings: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Pediatric exercise
science, 23(4), 600-615.
McLachlan, C., Fleer, M., & Edwards, S. (2018). Early childhood curriculum: Planning,
assessment and implementation. Cambridge University Press.
Shonkoff, J. P. (2010). Building a new biodevelopmental framework to guide the future of early
childhood policy. Child development, 81(1), 357-367.

ENVIRONMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS 10
Steinberg, L., & Darling, N. (2017). Parenting style as context: An integrative model.
In Interpersonal Development (pp. 161-170). Routledge
Van Hoorn, J. L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B., & Alward, K. R. (2014). Play at the center of
the curriculum. Pearson.
Wortham, S. C. (2002). Early childhood curriculum: Developmental bases for learning and
teaching. Merrill/Prentice Hall.