ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three key areas: the environment, enabling children’s participation, and communicating with others. It asks what an enabling and sustainable environment may look like. The chapter explores the importance of effective interpersonal communication in acknowledging the role of the practitioner within an enabling environment. It considers how an awareness of this supports the student practitioner in learning how to communicate and relate positively to babies and young children. To become an enabling practitioner thus requires us to reflect on ourselves, the environments in which the author works and the needs of the children who access our provision. In order to foster inclusive and enabling environments practitioners need to actively challenge all forms of discrimination, racism, sexism, ableism and others, in order to create spaces for all children to be valued and respected. The chapter gathers together some key threads for the student practitioner – applicable to not only the novice but also the experienced practitioner.
