Neurons and Narratives: the human need for free play in early years development

The arena of early years education has, over the past decade, been pitched into a situation where we seem to constantly swim against a relentless tide of inappropriate policy ‘initiatives’. This situation appears to have developed because those charged with policy development are not developmental specialists. They have learned the lessons of the impact of early environments upon neuronal development, but appear to think that the way to respond to this is a fast pace of adult-directed activity at the earliest possible stage. This belief is highly misguided, and contrary to both theory and empirical research evidence, which will be summarised below.