Reggio Emilia Part 5: Joy, Identity, and Expression

Dr. Cynthia DiCarlo, Louisiana State University

This six-part blog series highlights a visit to the Cinema School in Bologna, Italy and explores the shifts early childhood educators might consider when rethinking choice in their own programs. The school, directed by Beatrice Vitali, was toured in collaboration with ECEI researcher Marcella Terrusi of the University of Bologna. While many classrooms emphasize child choice within centers or activities, this school demonstrated what it looks like when choice is embedded into the design of the entire environment. Across this series, key structures—from movement across spaces to flexible routines—are examined with consideration for how these ideas might translate into practice in early childhood settings.

Joy, Identity, and Expression in the Environment

A consistent feature across environments designed to support meaningful choice is the presence of opportunities for children to express ideas, identities, and relationships through play. Rather than directing children toward a specific outcome, these environments create conditions in which children can explore, imagine, and represent their thinking in multiple ways.

In many early childhood settings, opportunities for creativity and expression are often confined to specific areas or designated times of the day. Art materials may be available at a table, or dramatic play may be limited to a defined center with predetermined props. While these experiences are valuable, they can also restrict the ways in which children engage with materials, space, and one another.

An alternative approach considers how expression can be embedded across the environment. As illustrated below, children engage in dramatic play, construction, and movement simultaneously, using materials and space in ways that reflect their interests and identities.

Children engage in imaginative play, construction, and movement, using materials and space to express ideas, roles, and identities.

In this type of environment, expression is not limited to a single area or activity. Children move between roles, materials, and interactions, often combining forms of play such as building, storytelling, and movement. Costumes, structures, and open space become tools for representation, allowing children to explore identity, relationships, and narrative in ways that are both complex and sustained.

This approach aligns with the Reggio Emilia concept of the “hundred languages of children,” which emphasizes that children communicate and construct knowledge through multiple forms of expression, including dramatic play, construction, movement, and symbolic representation (Malaguzzi, 1993). When environments are designed to support these forms of expression, children are able to engage more deeply with their experiences.

There is also a connection between opportunities for expression and sustained engagement. Research examining teaching conditions in early childhood classrooms suggests that when children are able to make decisions about how they engage with materials and peers, they demonstrate higher levels of attention and involvement (DiCarlo & Ota, 2025). Environments that allow for flexible, open-ended use of space and materials create conditions in which this type of engagement can occur.

This raises an important consideration for practice: What opportunities do children have to express ideas, identities, and relationships beyond predetermined activities?

The answer to this question is often found in how space and materials are organized. When environments allow for movement, combination of materials, and flexibility in use, children are more likely to engage in play that reflects their thinking and experiences. When environments are more restricted, expression may be limited to narrower forms.

Teachers might consider how dramatic play, construction, and movement can be integrated across the environment rather than separated into distinct areas. These shifts do not require additional materials, but rather a reconsideration of how materials and space are made available to children. When environments are intentionally designed to support expression, joy is not something that needs to be added. It emerges as children engage in meaningful, self-directed experiences.

Reggio Emilia Tenets in PracticeThis example reflects the importance of expression through multiple symbolic systems, often referred to as the “hundred languages of children,” as children combine dramatic play, construction, and movement to represent ideas (Santín & Torruella, 2017; Tedeschi et al., 2021). It also aligns with the image of the child as capable and competent, as children take on roles, create narratives, and direct their own play. The environment as a third teacher is evident in how space and materials are arranged to support flexible, open-ended use.

References

DiCarlo, C. F., & Ota, C. (2025). Sustained attention in three-year-old children: The impact of teaching conditions and choice. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01985-w

Malaguzzi, L. (1993). For an education based on relationships. Young Children, 49(1), 9–12.

Santín, M. F., & Torruella, M. F. (2017). Reggio Emilia: An essential tool to develop critical thinking in early childhood. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 6(1), 50–56. https://doi.org/10.7821/naer.2017.1.207

Tedeschi, M., Maccaferri, E., & Rabotti, A. (2021). The hundred languages of digital in the Reggio Emilia approach. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135592

Dr. Cynthia DiCarlo is a Professor and Program Coordinator of the Early Childhood Education at Louisiana State University and the Executive Director of the Early Childhood Education Institute www.lsu.edu/ecei

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