ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the physical development needs of children aged 0–6. It outlines the importance of providing an environment that meets the physical development needs of young children. The chapter highlights both the indoor and outdoor environment that is available for children to play and develop, and identified a range of age appropriate resources that could be provided. It argues that modern societal norms have meant that children have less opportunities to be active and to engage in unsupervised, outdoor play than in the past and that this has partially necessitated a need for preschool provisions to fill a gap that historically was met more “naturally” for most children. The Movement Environment Rating Scale was developed to enable practitioners to better understand this vital area and, hopefully, in turn, to help improve the quality of young children’s movement experiences, the environment and pedagogy in early childhood education settings and the early primary years.
