Nursery Equipment: Outdoors - Shout out!

Outdoor spaces where children play are rarely quiet. There is something about the outdoors that seems to encourage the urge to vocalise. While this is not always in the form of words, there is undoubtedly an impulse to make sounds and use the voice to its maximum. There is a sense of freedom that comes with being outdoors, as well as the need to shout and talk more loudly above external sounds, such as the wind in the trees or the roar of traffic.

It is true that children are less likely to be told to be quiet outdoors, but Anna Jean Ayres - writing more than 25 years ago - highlighted the link between vestibular activity and the urge to make sounds (see Sensory Integration and the Child: understanding hidden sensory challenges).

Spinning, swinging, sliding, rolling, hanging upside down and running around all stimulate the vestibular sensory system, and are all activities that seem to create an instinctive urge for exclamation - for shouting, shrieking or yelling at the top of our voices.

Ms Ayres also commented that a lack of outdoor play (leading to low levels of vestibular activity) might be a factor in poor speech and language development for some children. It is 'as if the brain needed a certain amount of vestibular input to produce sounds and the movements of daily life did not supply the amount needed in these children'.

CHOOSING RESOURCES

It makes good sense, then, to ensure that our outdoor spaces make the most of children's instinctive urge for vestibular activity. Look for equipment that is 'open-ended' - that has more than one function and allows children to play with it imaginatively or in collaboration. Multi-purpose Activity Frames and Ladders (£369.95) from TTS Group have a flexible design, so can be set up differently each time. Plum My First Wooden Play Centre (£207.99, below) from Early Learning Centre combines a climbing frame, a rock wall and den.

The Spinner (£75) and the Rocker (£60) from Jabadao are great for rocking, rolling and spinning and the under-threes will love to wobble and twist in the Bilibo (£22) from Early Years Direct. The Twister See-Saw (£91.95) from Hope Education offers a new approach to an old idea.

Children need to test their balance as their vestibular system develops and natural resources such as rocks, planks, logs and tree stumps provide the perfect opportunities. The Wobble Foot Wobble Board (£199.99) from Early Years Resources makes wobbling fun and looks good in an outdoor environment.

Vestibular activity for under-threes is important too, but must be sensitively tuned to their developmental stage and comfort levels. Being rocked or gently spun in the arms of a special person is the most beneficial as the adult can gauge what the child is comfortable with. Playing outdoors like this adds another level of interest - feeling the breeze or watching the clouds move. The Sensory Swing (£499.17) from Playgardens is particularly useful for stimulating sensory and physical development.

The outdoors is also a great place for under-threes to squeal and shout as they practise their running (and falling) skills and learn the joys of a slide. And there is no better place, whatever your age, for banging noisy pots and pans and singing along to nursery rhymes with great gusto, building lung capacity and experimenting with vocal sounds.

Megaphones are fun to play with outdoors and provide the quieter child or reluctant talker with the chance to experiment safely with vocalising and making big sounds. The more vocal children can be encouraged to explore softer and quieter sounds as well as having permission to let those big voices out.

Encouraging children to experiment with the volume of sounds and different mouth shapes increases their vocal dexterity and is useful in singing as well as speech development, so make some home-made megaphones or try Voice Changers (£12.99) from Mulberry Bush.

THE NATURAL WORLD

The outdoors provides a focus for discovery of the natural world - hunting for minibeasts, watching the leaves change, seeing plants grow or feeling the effects of the weather. Observing a child when they see a ladybird for the first time brings new meaning to our own understanding and appreciation of the natural world - no matter how many times we may have seen it before - and children are ready to absorb all the language we use to express our wonderment and describe what we see. This means we have got to be getting up close with the natural world and modelling a rich vocabulary to describe what we see and how it makes us feel.

Give reluctant talkers the chance to be roving reporters by recording their 'news', thoughts and ideas. Recording resources include Rainbow Talking Boxes (£22.95) from TTS Group or Message Discs (£19.99 for ten seconds and £24.99 for 30 seconds) from Arc Education Supplies. (See also ICT.)

The outdoors is a supportive space for children who speak English as an additional language. Encourage the children to make recordings in their first language as well as in English.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Being physically active also allows for lots of non-verbal communication and can be a restful interlude from the pressure of trying to listen and understand the talk and activities of the classroom.

Bubbles are a great resource for all ages, but particularly for promoting movement and building vocabulary with under-threes - describing the bubbles floating high and low, whether they move quickly or slowly, and the colours within them.

A wind kit such as that from Early Years Resources (£17.99, right) is a great starting point for building resources to provoke talk about the weather. Create your own kits for rain, snow and sunshine. Rain Pods (£420, below) from Infinite Playgrounds are a novel idea - an acrylic den shape for sitting under to watch the rain falling. For an alternative solution, try the Den Cover Kit, Transparent (£27.50) from Muddy Faces.

Role play is an important feature of play outdoors and superhero play in particular lends itself to outdoor play. Masks, cloaks and wristbands seem to be all that is needed to turn everyday children into superheroes and they are fairly to easy to make or improvise. But you could try TTS's Glitzy Cloaks (£24.95) or the Superheroes Cuffs (£14.95) from Cosy Direct for a change.

Don't forget the value of phones in encouraging talk and communication in role play. Bring your collection of old phones and toy phones outside to trigger conversations all over the place. Experiment with cans and string, a Forest Phone (£19.99) from Reflections on Learning or invest in the Outdoor Telephone (£99) from Designs for Education.

Wheeled toys are usually essential in outdoor play spaces. For individual play, consider providing children with wooden two-wheeled 'striding' bikes that develop the core balance for bike riding skills, such as LikeaBike's Mini Forest mini trikes (£169), but also include wheeled toys that encourage collaborative riding and provide the opportunity to have conversations while riding. Arc Education Supplies' Pedal Tandem Trike (£189.95) is good example here.

Prams and trolleys are also essentials for role play and transporting. They encourage talk for imaginative role play as well as negotiation and collaboration. Try the Step 2 Neighbourhood Wagon (£79.99) from the Early Learning Centre.

PRACTITIONER ROLE

Some resources work equally well indoors and out. Large hollow blocks - such as those supplied by Community Playthings - encourage a wide variety of talk outdoors. As children design, construct, build and develop they explore the language of shape and position on a grand scale.

Small-world toys and figures come into their own outdoors with natural landscapes - under a tree or in a muddy puddle. Children naturally engage in a lot of 'self-talk' when playing with small figures.

Small spaces, dens and hideaways are important for quiet chats and conversations in the big outdoors. Den kits of all sorts are available. Look out for ones to suit your budget. The best come with no instructions, leaving children and supervising adults to decide for themselves how to create their hideaway.

There is always value in going for walks in the local area. Take babies and toddlers out in pusher-facing buggies so that you can talk and engage with them face to face. Include children in planning.

Encourage children to share their ideas and talk about what works well outdoors. They will have some interesting thoughts and opinions. Record their thoughts and drawings of the outside space on a noticeboard and adapt as the space changes and develops. Take photographs and create a Talking Photograph Album (£24.95), from Schools Resources Online, for children to speak about the space and the way they like to use it.

Monitor the way children use the outdoors to support your planning for communication outdoors. Are there gender differences in the way children use the outdoor space and the amount of talk that takes place there? Do boys use some equipment more often and for different purposes? Do you need to challenge this or work with it? How can you use children's outdoor play preferences to foster their language development?

Ask the adults about where they feel the best outdoors places are for chatting with children. Are there enough benches for sitting and getting close, for observing and listening to children's talk?

Think about the ways you intervene and interact with outdoor play.How well do you listen? How do you make links between children's indoor and outdoor talk and thinking processes? What opportunities do children have to make those links for themselves? Do you interfere with children's conversations or help carry them forward, sharing children's interests and 'provoking' thought and extended conversations?

Lastly, remember communication isn't all about talking. Movement is a child's first language - from their earliest days, it is how they respond to sensory stimulation and communicate their experience of the world around them. The outdoors provides children with the space and the stimulus to communicate with their bodies as well as their voices.

MORE INFORMATION

•  www.arc-education.co.uk
• www.community playthings.co.uk
• Cosy Direct, 01332 370152
• www.designsfor education.co.uk
• www.earlyyears direct.com
• www.earlyyears resources.co.uk
• www.elc.co.uk
• www.hope-education.co.uk
• www.infinite playgrounds.co.uk
• www.jabadao.org
• www.likeabike.co.uk
• www.muddyfaces.co.uk
• www.mulberry bush.co.uk
• www.playgardens.co.uk
• www.reflectionson learning.co.uk
• www.schools resourcesonline.com
• www.tts-group.co.uk