Session 2 - Getting the room right: environments that facilitate focused, regulated play

Getting the room right: Environments that facilitate focused, regulated play Professor Sam Wass

10 March 2026 12:00 to 13:00 (UTC)

Part 1: Basics of brain development – how children process sights and sounds differently from adults

Understanding childrens’ brains

Gogtay et al., 2004

Gogtay et al., 2004

‘Reptile’ (archipallium) - survival, fear ‘Mammal’ (paleopallium) – emotion, seek pleasure, avoid pain ‘Rational’ (neopallium) – logic and thinking

Develops late

Develops early

Frontal cortex helps you to keep a goal in mind

Buy more loo paper

MAIN AIM INTERMEDIATE AIMS

Get dressed

Get in car

Turn right/left

Park

Get shopping trolley

Frontal cortex helps you to keep a goal in mind

How do you think this is relevant for how we design settings?

Two different ways in which we pay attention

• Attention control

• Attention capture

Try NOT to look at this…

Our attention is automatically captured by movement.

What else automatically attracts our attention?

What else automatically attracts our attention?

Bright lights, edges, colours

Movement when we are reading a website is hard to ignore

Two different ways in which we pay attention

Attention capture

Driven by what in the environment ‘pulls our attention in’

Attention control

Two different ways in which we pay attention

Attention capture

Attention control

How would this affect auditory attention?

What else automatically attracts our attention? What about in the sound domain?

Emphasise how children’s experience of the world is different

• Noise and movement ‘capture’ our attention for evolutionary reasons.

• Children find it especially hard to over-ride attention capture and use attention control instead.

• The younger a child is, the more difficult this is for them.

Gogtay et al., 2004

Part 2: How learning environments influence concentration, self-regulation and language and communication

Think of a learning environment that you experienced as a child…

Visualise yourself there…

What can you see?

Hear?

How does it feel?

Often not much attention is paid to the physical learning environment, but research shows that is does matter…

Window views

Visual Clutter Temperature

Noise

Air quality

Light

Crowding

Which of these are true?…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Students with more daylight in their classrooms were found to progress 26% faster in maths test scores over a school year, compared to students with the least daylight.

In classrooms with more reverberation (echo), children had worse short-term memory and speech perception.

When ventilation was improved, and outdoor air in classrooms was increased, children’s completed tasks quicker.

Crowding (more children in the space) has been linked to lower motivation and more helplessness in children aged 6-12 and more conflict in preschoolers.

Air pollutants are linked to worse cognitive performance including more errors, worse attention, and slower reaction times.

6. After 6 plants were placed at the back of a classroom, the children had better attendance and fewer incidents of misbehaviour.

Which of these are true?…

1. Students with more daylight in their classrooms were found to progress 26% faster in maths test scores over a school year, compared to students with the least daylight.

Which of these are true?…

2. In classrooms with more reverberation (echo), children had worse short-term memory and speech perception.

Which of these are true?…

3. When ventilation was improved, and outdoor air in classrooms was increased, children’s completed tasks quicker.

Which of these are true?…

4. Crowding (more children in the space) has been linked to lower motivation and more helplessness in children aged 6-12 and more conflict in preschoolers.

Evans, G. W. (2006). Child development and the physical environment. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 57(1), 423-451.

5. Air pollutants are linked to worse cognitive performance including more errors, worse attention, and slower reaction times.

Wang, C., Zhang, F., Wang, J., Doyle, J. K., Hancock, P. A., Mak, C. M., & Liu, S. (2021). How indoor environmental quality affects occupants’ cognitive functions: A systematic review. Building and environment, 193, 107647.

6. After 6 plants were placed at the back of a classroom, the children had better attendance and fewer incidents of misbehaviour.

Han, K. T. (2009). Influence of limitedly visible leafy indoor plants on the psychology, behavior, and health of students at a junior high school in Taiwan. Environment and Behavior, 41(5), 658-692.

If lots of different environmental factors have an impact on children - which are the most important ones to focus on?

Noise Use the decibel chart to predict: • How loud do you think your classroom might be?

• What do you think would be an ideal level of noise for your classroom?

• WHO says classrooms should be 35dB. • The average primary school classroom in London is 70dB. • Research shows that excess noise affects learning, stress and patience for adults and children.

Research studies on noise Affects learning, particularly reading.

Younger children are worst affected – ability to distinguish speech from background noise develops over time (Ghinst et al, 2019)

Noise levels sig. related to SATs scores in a study of 50 London primary schools (Shield & Dockrell, 2003)

Research studies on noise Children at noisier schools = higher blood pressure and more likely to fail on a cognitive task and give up on it sooner (Cohen et al, 1980).

Evans 2006 – following the construction of a new airport, children’s levels of stress hormones almost doubled over the course of a year.

Children living boroughs surrounding Heathrow airport had poorer reading and maths SATs scores than those living further from airport noise (Haines et al, 2002).

Experimental research – same children/same school Elevated train track noise and reading performance (Bronzaft & McCarthy, 1975) 976 secondary school students read science texts & multiple-choice comp questions on laptops with varying degrees of noise played through headphones (Connolly & Dockrell, 2019) Performance was significantly negatively affected at 70dB (fewer Qs attempted, fewer Qs answered correctly).

The impact of noise • Captures attention and makes attention control more difficult • Acts as a stressor • Makes it hard for young children to hear your voice • Increases levels of arousal

Visual noise/visual clutter Younger children = more distractable But… Often the classrooms for the younger children have the most distracting visual displays.

Laboratory study (Fisher, 2014) • 3 science lessons in a highly decorated ‘classroom’.

• 3 lessons in a ‘streamlined’ non cluttered ‘classroom.’

• 5-year-olds performed better in the classroom with blank walls.

• Over 85% of the children spent more time off-task in the decorated classroom.

• This led to lower learning outcomes.

• Reducing visual clutter reduced children’s off task behaviour.

• Hanley et al (2017) video-taped lessons • Half delivered against a plain background and the other with classroom displays in the background.

• Children watched, then were asked follow up questions about the content.

• Children spent more time looking at the teacher in the ‘plain background’ condition and had higher learning scores.

• The effect was even stronger in Autistic children.

• Rodrigues and Pandeirada (2018) – Children performed better in attention and memory tasks in a ‘low-load’ visual environment (cubicle with blank walls) than in a ‘highload’ environment (walls with visual displays).

• Other studies showed that having some wall displays has a positive effect – but children were more likely to be off task if displays covered more than 25% of the wall space (Godwin et al, 2022) • Researchers acknowledged that classroom displays can foster belonging and improve representation. But too much visual noise can overload children’s attentional capacity.

Which wall display is more ‘taxing’ to process? Why?

To help children regulate their focus and attention • Minimise excess noise • Streamlined and simple • Remove irrelevant/unnecessary information • Cohesion

To help children regulate their behaviour, reduce stress by making environments:

Calm and predictable Organised and structured Easy to move around in (uncrowded)

How can you tell when a child is over aroused?.....

• High levels of noise, colour and complexity increase overall levels of arousal and can lead to children becoming over stimulated…..

Fatigue /sleepiness

Strong stress, anxiety, impaired performance

• Easily distracted • Heightened emotions/over reactions • Might seem overwhelmed/shut down • May go into fight/flight

What can you do about it, to nudge them back down into the ‘optimal, intermediate zone’?

Fatigue /sleepiness

Strong stress, anxiety, impaired performance

• Reduce excess noise.

• Reduce excess clutter.

• Dim lights.

• Less interaction.

• Warmth.

• Pressure on the muscles or joints – pushing palms together, tensing and releasing muscles.

• Quiet, predictable environments.

• Calm music/soft slow voices.

• Watching a sand timer, glitter jar or other slow-moving toy.

• Yoga.

What does it look like when a child is under-aroused? (needs more stimulation from the environment)

• Lethargic and disinterested • Daydreaming/’zoning out’ • Might slump, move slowly, lay down • Conversely, might fidget/move around a lot or appear to be ‘looking for trouble’

What can you do about it, to nudge them up into the ‘optimal, intermediate zone’?

Fatigue /sleepiness

Strong stress, anxiety, impaired performance

• More interaction • More feedback • More movement • Fresh air • Cold water

• Opportunities to use all senses • Novelty • Varying tone and pitch of voice e.g. singsong voice • Spinning • Crunchy snacks

Is there a link between effective learning environments and replicating being outside in nature?

Natural outdoor environments have: • natural lighting • intermediate levels of colour and complexity • better air quality • lower levels of noise.

I began reading this book in the morning and could not put it down until I had finished the final chapter!

Dr Neil Leitch, OBE, FRSA - Chief Executive, Early Years Alliance

Times Educational Supplement - one of the top 7 books on early years

THANK YOU! Contact: s.v.wass@uel.ac.uk

www.isey.org Instagram @profsamwass/@isey_uel Twitter: @profsamwass/@ISEY_uel LinkedIn – personal: www.linkedin.com/in/sam-wass-987513202/ LinkedIn - ISEY: https://www.linkedin.com/company/107254666/

Thank you!

cambridge.org/internationaleducation

© Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2025 © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2021

Next steps Getting started with play-based learning in early years https://cambrid.ge/play-based-learning-getting-started

Explore Cambridge Early Years​ www.cambridgeinternational.org/earlyyears

Exploring the early years learning environment​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNEZKXCh-g​

​ What does a good early years environment look like?​​ https://youtu.be/S5gOThjX5i4