Reimagining the Environment as the Third Teacher: Inclusive Early Childhood Spaces

Early childhood classrooms are changing.

I love the early childhood space and the brilliant young minds we get to nurture, having started my career in early childhood and now working as an inclusion consultant in N.S.W, what I’ve seen up close is this – inclusive early education starts with environments intentionally designed to anticipate and support diversity.

More than 1 in 20 children aged 0–4 years have a disability, with rates rising to around 1 in 8 by age 5–9 (ABS, 2022) – this figure has risen significantly from previous years. This isn’t just about diagnosis labels. It reflects the growing visibility of children whose everyday participation is shaped by neurodivergence, sensory differences, language and communication variation, attentional needs and more.

Importantly, early childhood is often when families are just beginning to notice differences, seek understanding, and consider whether their child may need adjustments or assessments. For many families this period is the start of a longer journey of understanding.

There’s an expectation that educators should be able to “just know” what strategies will help, adapt environments, engage families and document progress yet the sector is chronically under-resourced for this workload. It’s no wonder many educators feel overwhelmed or unsure how to support a child who appears “out of sync” with everyday routines.

Neuroaffirming practice means seeing children holistically — as learners who need environments and interactions designed to support their strengths and challenges.

In early childhood practice many of us know the Reggion Emilia approach that is “the environment is the third teacher” (Malaguzzi, 1998). This idea recognises that children learn not just from adults and peers, but from the settings around them – what is visible, organised, predictable and accessible.

Reimagining the environment as the third teacher asks us to look beyond what we might traditionally adjust. It’s not only about play resources or the layout of the room. It’s also about lighting, sensory input, noise levels and how information is made accessible. Research consistently shows that the communication environment plays a powerful role in shaping participation and learning outcomes (Gibson et al., 2011). The environment teaches through every signal it sends: how safe a space feels, how easy it is to understand expectations and how supported a child is to participate.

Visual supports are one of the most powerful ways we can make environments inclusive. Evidence-based practice in autism and neurodiversity-informed education highlights the importance of structured, visual and predictable supports in increasing participation and independence (Odom et al., 2010). They help make expectations understandable, transitions predictable, routines visible and communication accessible. For a child who experiences differences in language processing, sequencing or uncertainty, a visual timetable or choice board is not an optional add-on. It is essential to participation.

When educators embed visual supports, they build environments that actively reduce anxiety, increase autonomy and support self regulation.

That’s why tools like MyComms are so important for early childhood classrooms. MyComms helps educators and families create meaningful visual supports quickly and purposefully. Rather than searching for static printables that don’t fit the moment, MyComms allows teams to generate visuals that reflect the real lives and experiences of children in their care.

MyComms isn’t just “another app.” It’s a way to operationalise the principles educators already believe in:

• Design environments for participation

• Make learning visible and predictable

• Support communication access for all

• Collaborate with families from a strengths perspective

Visual supports are not only for transitions or moments of distress. They can structure everyday classroom experiences that we often assume children will simply understand. Group time is a good example. Sitting in a circle, greeting peers, listening, waiting, taking turns and responding to questions all rely on executive functioning, language processing and regulation. For many young children, especially those who experience the world differently, these expectations are invisible unless we make them visible.

A task breakdown turns an abstract social routine into something concrete. Instead of expecting children to hold the entire sequence in their heads, we externalise it into the environment. Children can see what is happening, what comes next and how long the experience will last. This reduces uncertainty and supports participation.

In the example below, group time is broken into clear, predictable steps: greeting, songs, weather, calendar, story, discussion, movement and closure My-Task-Group time – Morning Me…. Each step acts as a visual anchor. Children are not guessing what is expected or when they will get a break. The structure is visible, shared and consistent.

This is what it means to reimagine the environment as the third teacher. We are not asking children to adapt to an invisible routine. We are adapting the environment so the routine teaches itself.

See an example of a task breakdown for group time below.

Early childhood is a crucial developmental period and a time when families and educators alike are learning and adapting together. If we want inclusive early learning to be more than rhetoric, we need practice tools that match the complexity of real classrooms.

Adjustments should not be optional add-ons. They should be woven into the fabric of early childhood environments so that every child -regardless of how they move, think, communicate or engage – can belong, learn and flourish.

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Children and young people with disability, Australia. ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/children-and-young-people-disability-2022

Gibson, J. L., Hussain, J., Holsgrove, S., Adams, C., & Green, J. (2011). Quantifying the classroom communication environment in mainstream primary schools. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(3), 467–486.

Malaguzzi, L. (1998). History, ideas and basic philosophy: An interview with Lella Gandini. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini & G. Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education (2nd ed., pp. 49–97). Ablex.

Odom, S. L., Collet-Klingenberg, L., Rogers, S. J., & Hatton, D. D. (2010). Evidence-based practices in interventions for children and youth with autism spectrum disorders. Preventing School Failure, 54(4), 275–282.