Early Childhood Environment

Safe, responsive, and nurturing environments are an important part of supporting the learning and development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Such environments also help to prevent challenging behaviors and serve as a core component of interventions for infants and young children with identified disabilities.  

Environmental practices involve the intentional adjustment of space, materials, equipment, routines, and activities by educators and families to support and enhance each child’s development across different areas.

Unfortunately, many practitioners are unsure how to create environments that support their children’s learning across different age groups (e.g., infants, toddlers, preschoolers) and developmental domains (e.g., social, communication, cognitive, motor). Well-designed classroom* environments:

• Support responsive caregiving
• Foster independence and feelings of competence in young children
• Encourage staff efficiency
• Promote children’s engagement
• Decrease challenging behavior
• Facilitate appropriate social interactions among children
• Provide structure and predictability.                                 

In order to create an environment conducive to the learning and development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, these three components must be carefully designed and implemented. Indeed, every aspect of a classroom environment’s design should reflect its program’s priorities and philosophy. For example, a program that concentrates on improving children’s math skills is likely to emphasize the availability of materials related to numeracy, as well as to learning shapes and patterns. Additionally, if this program’s philosophy was Montessori-inspired—that is, it helped students to learn concepts through hands-on work with materials, rather than by traditional direct instruction—you might expect to see bead chains to support the teaching of mathematical concepts.

Including Children with Disabilities

A well-designed, safe, and responsive environment is an essential first step in including young children with disabilities in early childhood settings such as inclusive preschool, Head Start, and childcare programs. If, however, the learning environment does not provide the support necessary to help children with disabilities to succeed, teachers must make changes to maximize their participation in planned activities, interactions, and routines. These intentional changes can be small and are often easy to implement, yet they can yield immediate improvement in the level of child participation and learning.