The younger
generation(s) are very important to the future of society and should be treated
as so.
There are many ways to
improve child care environments, including Evidence-Based Design, whether it
includes day care facilities, preschools, elementary schools, or other forms of
educational buildings/spaces.
I don’t know about
anyone else but when I have children, I want to know they are getting the best
out of every learning experience, especially school. I am all for improving the
qualities and characteristics of buildings contributing to the education,
whether school related or socially related, of my children as well as everyone
elses.
If you think about it,
when you get older, into your elderly years, most likely you will be visiting
the doctor more frequently and taking more types of medication than you did in
your younger years.
And WHO do you think is going to be the one to perform your check-ups,
x-rays, and, all though I hope not, surgeries? Hopefully everyone can answer
this question fairly easily. Those same people you call children as of right
now, you will also be calling your doctors 20 or 30 years from now.
In community child care
facilities, which are mostly referred to as some type of daycare, it is
critical for them to be able to support all of the developing needs of each
child. These types of facilities are not to be confused with preschools.
Unlike preschools,
community child care facilities provide services such as:
-
care
for children as young as 5-6 weeks and up until the age of 5
-
hours
of availability from the 6:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. on weekdays
-
Some
programs offer hours of availability through the evenings and on weekends
The reason these three points
are so crucial to Evidence-Based Design is because, for the average person who
has a job and in many cases do not have someone to watch their children while
they are away, these very young children could easily spend 10 hours a day, 5
days a week in a community child care environment.
That is more time than
older children spend in school. It also may very well be more time than the
children spend at home.
Having to spend so much
time at the community child care facility, children should experience learning
development on many different levels including intellectual, social, emotional,
and physical. It should feel more like a home away from home. I KNOW no one wants their child to be
dropped off at daycare, told to play with toys all day, take a nap whenever
they get tired, and eat junk food whenever they want.
YES! Of course
your child will love it but it is far from the best care that can and should be
given to a child.
Community Child Care
Facilities should offer opportunities for:
-
Social
Interaction
-
Personal
Hygiene
-
Skill
and knowledge development
-
Play
and exploration
-
Eating
-
Sleep
and relaxation
Some specific design
issues include:
-
Scale
-
Complexity
- Adjacencies
and Zones
-
Size of
Space
-
Legibility
-
Adult
Spaces
Okay, so all of these issues
are pretty straight forward, but how about we touch on a couple points that can
improve scale just as an example:
Scale: If the
physical environment is scaled appropriately when specifically designed for the
child’s age and ability, they will be able to gain a mastery over the
environment.
-
Place
play items within children’s reach so they can retrieve and store items on
their own
-
Put
sink faucets and door handles within the preschool child’s reach
-
Windows
at a child’s height will allow them to view the outdoors.
-
Risers
placed on the floor for infants to climb on to improve motor development
-
Give
older children easy access to their own cubby and space to practice dressing
and undressing
-
Should
also contain some scale variation so the children can master increasing skill
levels (this is also very important because at home, nothing is child-scaled)
 |
| Children's Height Book Display |
 |
| Children's Height Sink |
 |
| Children's Height |
Studies have been done verifying
that these changes have greatly improved social, motor, and intellectual skills
among children attending community child care facilities. An Evidence-Based
Design gives designers the opportunity to plan and create improved designs based
on the studies, research and data provided.
References Provided
By:
- Implications
Vol. 06 Issue 1
- Google Images
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