The ‘home learning environment’ (HLE) is a reflection of the home environment and interactions in and around the home with family members.
Learning experiences are vital for young children’s development and are shaped by the nature of everyday life and activities for a small child. Children learn to investigate the world through the family context and as such it provides the blueprint for learning, behaviour, and attitudes.
Why this is important
Research demonstrates that all families want the best for their children, and most are highly motivated to achieve this. The home learning environment is central to children in the early years and is where most children spend most of their time. By supporting families to create stimulating and engaging home learning environments we can support all children to achieve their developmental targets.
We know that to support parents and carers to provide strong home learning environments for their children, we need to make environments accessible and engaging. We also need to know what families can benefit from and understand what is important to them. Most of all, we need to value and listen to our parents and carers.
Dudley’s ‘Home Learning Environment’ project aims to increase parent and carers confidence in supporting and developing their child’s communication, early language and foundational skills.
Dudley Home Learning Environment Project
The more we sing, talk, play and read together with our children, the more we help them develop communication and other skills to get them ready to learn, all of which helps to develop their brains!
Anytime, anywhere, whether at home, nursery or out and about, it all makes a difference .
There’s no need to buy lots of toys or have big days out. Wherever you are, simply chatting back and forth, answering your child’s questions and sharing special moments together all help their brain to grow and develop secure and strong connections.
Learning to talk, interact and communicate playfully helps children develop and reach their potential. There’s lots of things you can do at home to encourage learning in the early years from singing and talking to reading and helping children explore the world around them.
Dudley Early Years have developed a set of key messages and tools to help you with this, it is called a Dudley STaRT – Sing, Talk and Read Together.
The following websites offer fun activities and things to do with your child to help with communication skills and development:
Tiny Happy People
Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child's language skills. Explore our simple activities and play ideas and find out about babies and toddlers' amazing early development.
Additional resources to help you understand and support your child:
Black Country Early Outcomes - Tips and activities to help your child develop their speech skills.
Learning to talk 3 to 5 years - Ideas to turn almost anything into a game for young children.
Words for life - Get more from reading with your child with the help of these videos designed to put the fun back into reading.