Editorial: Providing communication friendly environments for children

In recent years there has been increased interest in universal provision in that spoken language and communication development is supported for all children in schools, classrooms and early years settings. As well as supporting all children this approach is facilitative for children with speech, language and communication needs, and for children whose home language is different from the language of the school, classroom or setting. Within this context there has been an emphasis on providing environments that are ‘communication friendly’. As editors, we are delighted to present this exciting special issue focusing on the definition, identification, implementation and evaluation of communication friendly environments. The articles selected represent the UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, spanning quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The exact nature of communication friendly environments need defining so that they can be implemented and then evaluated to determine their effectiveness in facilitating children’s spoken language and communication. Dockrell, Bakopoulou, Law et al. and Gracia, Vega and GalvanBovaira describe the tools they have devised to identify and measure communication friendly classrooms. Dockrell et al. carried out an extensive review of the literature to determine the aspects of a classroom and the behaviours of professional(s) in the classroom that can be measured and then developed further to enable a classroom to become more communication friendly. Their Communication Supporting Tool (CSC) is not only grounded in the research literature but has also been tested in schools to confirm it has inter-rater reliability and validity and is, therefore, a robust measure for primary schools to use that can also facilitate professionals to make classrooms more communication friendly. The EVALOE tool (Gracia et al.) is perhaps more specific, aiming to capture and measure the interaction between teachers and children. The EVALOE tool measures the spoken language learning and teaching in the classroom and then offers a method by which teachers can reflect on their practice and develop strategies to improve this. An ethnographic approach to exploring the nature of communication friendly classrooms and the role of the education practitioner is taken by Bain, James and Harrison. Here, a detailed and reflective account is given of the practitioner and her or his role in supporting children’s communication development, with an emphasis on the often neglected role of the children’s parents in creating communication friendly environments. Communication friendly environments are an intrinsic component of the current universal provision ethos. Universal provision promotes the development of practitioners’ knowledge of children’s language and communication development across early years and into primary school age. Along with increased knowledge, these practitioners are also expected to implement strategies that can develop children’s language and communication as part of their everyday care of the children. 604058 CLT0010.1177/0265659015604058Child Language Teaching and TherapyEditorial research-article2015