As one of the three prime areas in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Physical development is crucial for children’s overall progress. It enables children to engage with the world around them and lays the building blocks for their later physical capabilities and health. That’s why we’ve produced a new, downloadable and bite-sized resource that presents what the research evidence tells us about supporting Physical Development in the early years.
Research evidence shows that educators working in the early years play a pivotal role in supporting the development of children’s gross motor and fine motor movement skills through careful implementation of identified approaches. One such approach, Promoting Physical Activity, highlights the impact of establishing a positive culture to motivate children to be physically active and enjoy active play.
Our Early Years Evidence Store has been formulated for its other themes by sharing evidence summaries along with written and video exemplification materials. In the same way, the recently launched Physical Development theme supports educators to use evidence informed approaches within their own practice. This new summary resource will help to build educators’ knowledge by bringing them closer to the most relevant messages from the evidence, presented in an easily-digestible way. It can also be downloaded for ease of reference in settings.
To find out more about how the approaches could look in practice, or for more detailed information about the evidence behind them, you can scan the QR code on the poster or visit the Physical Development theme of the Evidence Store.
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Blog: Stepping up Physical Development in the early years