Key takeaways:

- Elizabeth Jarman’s Background: Renowned for developing the Communication Friendly Spaces approach, Jarman focuses on using environments to enhance communication, emotional well-being, and physical development. She works globally with architects, landscapers, and settings like schools and prisons, authored numerous books, and emphasizes research-driven, reflective practice.

- Communication Friendly Spaces Approach: This holistic framework prioritizes creating dynamic, personalized environments that support storytelling and story-making, challenging traditional, compartmentalized learning spaces (e.g., math or reading corners) to foster flexible, child-centered settings.

- Research Foundation: Jarman’s work is grounded in current research on brain development, attachment, and child development, stressing the importance of environments that support neural growth, particularly during early years’ critical windows, and avoiding outdated, stereotypical setups.

- Physical Environment Design: Environments should integrate indoor and outdoor spaces, offer varied scales (solitary, parallel, group), manage movement flow to reduce distractions, and incorporate softness (e.g., cozy nooks, real furniture) to support emotional independence and sensory integration.

- Resource Use: Jarman advocates for open-ended, natural, and accessible resources (e.g., sticks, stones, scrap materials) to spark creativity and storytelling, emphasizing non-prescriptive materials that align with children’s schematic interests and avoid over-cluttered, standardized setups.

- Adult Role and Team Approach: Adults act as active play partners, observing and responding to children’s environmental interactions. Change requires a whole-team vision, long-term action plans, and ongoing audits to ensure environments evolve based on children’s needs and interests.

- Parental and Community Engagement: Involving parents through consultation and projects (e.g., designing home corners) bridges home and school environments, using simple, jargon-free communication to share the impact of environments on brain development and encourage playful, open-ended interactions at home.

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