Enabling Play Environments: Strategies in Early Childhood Education

This essay discusses the importance of enabling play environments in early childhood education and care. It identifies the different types of environments—built, natural, and social—and emphasizes the significance of physical, social, cultural, and personal attributes in creating a conducive play space. The essay explains how these environments support children's development and learning, highlighting the role of early years practitioners (EYPs) in fostering socialization and managing behavior. It analyzes strategies for supporting children's behavior, such as behavior charts, positive reinforcement, and empathy. Furthermore, the essay explores how EYPs facilitate group learning and socialization through planned activities and observation. It also details the features of enabling indoor and outdoor play environments, focusing on safety, accessibility, and age-appropriateness. The essay concludes by emphasizing how these environments meet the diverse ages, stages, and needs of children, ensuring they feel secure, safe, and welcome, promoting imagination and experimentation with various materials.

Early Childhood Education And Care 1
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
By (Student’s Name)
Professor’s Name
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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
Promote enabling play environment
The environment can have a high impact on Children’s learning, play as well as
development. It is vital for the children to feel comfortable to play freely and express themselves
in their environment.
Identify types of environment
The three main kinds of environment include:
• Built environment
• Natural environment
• Social environment
Physical environment: Location may be indoors or outdoors. It must be exciting and
welcoming to encourage children to play and explore. The environment must also be appropriate
to age as well as the stage of development. It should also contain accessible toys and sized
furniture to enable children to explore and play (Campbell et al. 2014 p.86). Lastly, the
environment should be diverse to encourage children to attempt different things and by varying
resources, layout etc. There will prevention of boredom.
Social aspect: An important child feels a sense of belonging in the environment since it
provides them self-confidence to make relationships as well as play. The environment is capable
of supporting emotional or social development only if it allows children to play as a group
(Richter et al. 2017 p. 105).
Cultural aspects: It should consider inclusion, equality and cultural diversity to stimulate
an individual sense of belonging. This can be done by use of display, books, materials that

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illustrate multiculturalism, and different languages and abilities. A sense of belonging will help
in developing confidence.
Personal attributes: The beliefs, experiences, and values of an individual can change the
feel of play environment. An individual need to be welcoming and friendly, have fun and a sense
of humor, be patient, confident, adaptable, creative, effective communicators as well as
dedicated. These will enable children to respond and hence participate for a mature adult (Feller
et al.2016 p.207).
Explain how the environments support play.
The environment plays an important role in supporting the needs of children’s
development and learning.
Enabling environment contains equipment and toys for children to play with; it also
offers room for them to play. Different children love to imagine, explore and invent. Any
environment that is safe can support play. The environment where children play needs to be
welcoming and positive for children to play freely. The environment should also be stimulating,
and it should not be too busy, as it will distract children while they are playing (Slot et al. 2015
p.72).
How to work collaboratively to provide enabling play environments in early year’s
settings
EYP and parents can work as a group to establish a suitable play environment for all the
children. The team can work in collaboration to change the environment’s layout to make it more
suitable for all the children that use it. The setting may also seek outside professionals with the
required skills to come in and help in redesigning the indoor and outdoor play environment to
make it more stimulating and exciting. Parents and practitioners may work together in creating a

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home corner that shows the diversity of the surrounding community. Parents, professionals, and
practitioners work together with the intention of meeting the needs of the children. The society
also plays essential role in children’s learning as well as development. Practitioners need to work
with different people, for example, working in collaboration with general practitioners, health
visitors, physiotherapists, social workers, as well as language and speech therapist. All these will
help support children as well as their families.
The role of the EYP in supporting children’s socialization within the play
environment
EYP performs different role in supporting socialization of children within the play
environment. They were involved in encouraging children to socialize in different ways. They
promote social development by encouraging the children to involve with others from time to
time. Practitioners also plan for activities that enable children to work together thereby
encouraging socialization.
Analyze strategies to support children to manage their behavior about others.
The child begins to discover how the social Universe works as from their birth. Exploring
as well as learning to manage behavior, feelings, responsibilities, and rights is a complex
process. Educator performs an essential role in assisting children to control their behavior.
Positive and respectful interactions with children may help them learn about independence to
become understanding citizens (Bradman et al. 2014 p.103).
Self- management assists children learn to manage their behavior because it enables them
to know what they should do. Teaching a child how to behave well can be a hard task for any
parents, but it is a process that brings great rewards. Classroom teachers and parents want
children to use suitable social interaction skills and play to complete tasks, classroom and home

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routine, as well as engage in various activities such as instructional activities. Self-management
techniques enable children to become accountable for their action as well as learn to control their
behavior.
Create a behavior chat: The behavior chat will allow children to know when they have
misbehaved or behaved well. Bad behavior should be marked on the chart with a red dot, and
good behavior with a gold star. When the children see their development on a chart, they will be
encouraged to behave appropriately more frequently to earn more rewards.
Acknowledge good behavior: it is quite more comfortable for parents to notice the bad
things that their children are doing. Parents should, therefore, acknowledge the proper behavior
to motivate them. They should also reward and praise them when they do something positive.
Empathize with your children: when the children react inappropriately or misbehave,
parents should show empathy to their children. And that does not mean that they should not
discipline their children. Parents should also inform them that their actions were wrong, as well
as explain to them how they should behave well with others (Blackwell, Lauricella and Wartella
2014 p.65).
Signs of a change in behavior: It might not take long, but children should be monitored
closely for a sign of any change in behavior. Signs that show that children manage their behavior
include: not engaging in conflict with violence, as well as being true to their actions.
Visual support: children should be given close attention, and their level of self-
management skills should also be asses by both the parents and teachers. What do the children
need? What steps are the children missing? This is the two examples of how the technique can be
used to assist the children in learning the steps required for preparing for snaps and or for hand-
washing (Perlman et al. 2016 p.97). The steps should be reviewed to ensure that the children

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know what is expected of them. They should also be displayed visually and described clearly.
The children should also be praise to encourage more appropriate behavior and independence.
The children should also be told how to relate with one another. As time elapsed, most of the
children will need less assistance from their teachers and parents, and they will be able to finish
the job quickly as they manage their behavior (Rand and Morrow 2018 p.73).
How the early year’s practitioner provides for:
Group learning
An important role of the practitioners is to encourage children to improve positive
partnerships. Practitioners do this by offering opportunities for socialization and group learning
(Hohmann 2018 p.104). They provide opportunities for children to play as a group. The children
will share toys and resources. Group learning also provides opportunities for different children
especially older children to work together in groups for example board games or role play. Group
activities provided by practitioners, for example, a nature walk encourage communication.
Practitioners involve children in smaller group activities, for example taking children to a
weekly playgroup, or library story time. Practitioners also help in organizing children into group
play. This enables them to discover and gain different skills when they are in groups (Heiskanen,
Alasuutari and Vehkakoski 2018 p.45)
Supporting children’s Socialization
Practitioners help in planning of activities that stimulate children to play and work in
groups. Most of the children find it easier when they are with other children. Teenagers are
mostly nervous and shy in a group situation. EYP often observe children and help them to
socialize with other children. Most of the teenagers who join the setting may lack experience of
playing with others. There may be one teenager, and some may have sisters and brothers at

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home, and this may make them used to play with other children (Gehris, Gooze and Whitaker
2015 p.75). Practitioners should be aware of this information so that they can plan accordingly.
EYP can stimulate a child to play in different ways. The practitioner can make use of
daily jobs, for example, snack time to assist children to play in groups. They can also plan
activities that enable teenagers to work in groups, for example, large block play.
Features of an enabling:
Indoor play environment:
The environment influences the quality of children’s development and learning. This
environment directly affects the learning as well as the development of the children. Rich
environments are interesting; comfort the able, attractive as well as suitable for the use of a child.
For some children indoors become their home where they sleep and eat (Takahashi et al. 2018
p.29) Environments should, therefore, be attractive as well as make children feel secure and safe.
They should be places where they can confidently learn and play.
Features of enabling indoor environment include
• Safety
• Room design
• It provides rooms for sleep and rest
• Age-applicable resources
• Variety of activities
• Language-rich environment
• Attractive presentation as well as tidying up
• Display as well as interest tables
• The significance of mathematics is recognized

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Outdoor play environment
The outdoor environment provides a multi-sensory, productive environment that is
stimulating, motivating, and meaningful for all children. In an indoor environment, children can
take a risk and move more freely (Sandseter 2014). The environment also encourages children to
develop their strength and health as well as coordination. Outdoor environments provide an
opportunity to experience as well as improve varieties of skills with a greater sense of
independence and freedom than those experienced in another type of environments such as
indoors (Britto et al. 2017 p.45). Outdoor spaces, as well as learning environments, give contact
with the natural world permitting children to their senses. Outdoor learning environment gives
children the opportunity of experiencing risk-taking and problem-solving in a safe environment.
This environment enhanced physical activity of the children, therefore, enables them to grow up
actively.
Features of an outdoor play environment include
• Child-centered
• Accessible
• Checked for hazards
• Space for exercise
• Safety-sun protection
• Provide opportunities for all areas of learning
How the environment meets the age, stage, and needs of children.
A place that makes children feel secure, safe and welcome is known as enabling
environment. An enabling environment has to be appropriate for the age, needs, and stage of all
the children that are using it (Black et al. 2017 p. 72). Different activities and areas within the

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environment will challenge and stretch children. There should also be spaces that allow children
to have a free choice to play and use their imagination. It is not necessary that the enabling
environments should be full of costly equipment. The home corner of the room should be
covered with a large blanket to change it into the dark area to enable children to explore dark and
light. Placing junk modeling materials inside the sand will also offer the children opportunity of
experimenting with different materials (Cohen and Gadassi 2018 p.45).
Enabling environments meet the age, needs, and stage of children in the following
ways:
Effective adult support: the Rich environment is made up of adult and practitioner that
support children as they grow up. They encourage children to play together. They also help in
including the children in a social gathering.
Adequate resources and equipment: The environment provides sufficient resources and
equipment that meet the requirements of the age, needs as well as a stage of all children. The
material and resources enable children to learn and develop their skills.
Promoting independence and choice: Enabling environment allows children to choose
lifestyle and friends.
Promoting socialization: Enabling environment encourages socialization and interactions
among children. It encourages children of different age sets to interact with others. Through the
promotion of socialization, children will be exposed to different culture, manners, language, and
learn about society.

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