How does the use of role-play to facilitate high quality vocabulary and oracy impact boys’communication and language development within the outdoor environment?

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the use of role-play in the outdoors to support the facilitation of language development in boys. The premise of the study stemmed from previous data which highlighted the need for support systems in place to allow boys in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to make rapid progress from their baseline assessment. This was further supported by the national baseline data as well as data gleaned from internal school assessments. The information obtained suggested there was an 8% gap between boys and girls, with girls outperforming boys (Fig. 3) in the area of communication and language (C&L). The study centred on a control group of initially six boys, later refined to four boys, who were identified as significantly underachieving in communication and language (Fig. 1 and Appendix 2).