Developing communication skills in a calming environment

Lambeth Council developed Natural Thinkers in 2012 for early years settings and schools. Positive early results led to it being included in the Lambeth Early Action Partnership’s (LEAP) communication and language development (CLD) strand of work.

Natural Thinkers aims to give children the opportunity to explore in an environment they may find more calming. This can promote positive social interaction, which helps children develop the communication skills that enable them to better express themselves.

The programme works with childcare settings and children’s centres. It aims to improve their outdoor environments through, training, support visits, development plans, network meetings and setting accreditation. The LEAP programme gave each setting £500 funding to support their development plans.

LEAP rolled out the programme in Lambeth to complement the work its speech and language team do. Natural Thinkers was also delivered as weekly Stay and Play sessions in children’s centres.

Background

Evidence demonstrates the importance of early language development and communication.

Children with strong communication skills are better able to interact with others, make friends and have healthy interpersonal relationships. Conversely, children with ongoing language difficulties are at risk of poor academic performance.

Without effective help, a third of children with speech, language and communication difficulties will need treatment for mental health issues later in life. Children with poor vocabulary at age five are twice as likely to experience unemployment as adults.

Research has suggested that interacting with the natural environment can be particularly beneficial for language development. When children play in natural environments, their range of potential experiences increases. This can encourage the kind of imaginative and creative play that has been shown to foster language skills.

This short report reviews available evidence on the delivery and impact of the Natural Thinkers intervention. It describes what has been delivered; how well services have been received; and what evidence exists to support the case that Natural Thinkers has had a positive impact on the development of the communication and language skills in pre-school children.

Indicative findings

In the review, we connected available evidence to test our assumptions about the programme. From this, we made some indicative findings, which included: