Adults Are From Earth

8/8/2019 Adults Are From Earth

1/8

Adults are from Earth; Children are fromthe Moon

Designing for Children: A Complex

ChallengeBy Randy White

2004 White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group

One of the challenges we constantly face when designing for children is to create anenvironment (including equipment and furniture) that produces the desired behavior andoutcomes - and deters undesirable behavior. This challenge holds true whether we'redesigning a children's environment for entertainment, edutainment, play or enrichment (earlychildhood education). Just as there is a gulf of misunderstanding between genders, oftendescribed with the analogy "women are from Venus; men are from Mars," likewise there is agulf of misunderstanding between most adult designers of children's environments and the

children they're designing for.

Kids will do the darnedest and most unexpected things when it comes to interacting with theenvironment. If you have any doubts about this, consider a recent news story:

A 7-year-old boy crawled inside an arcade-type crane machine at a Piggly Wigglysupermarketin Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and then couldn't get out. The website forAction 2News in GreenBay, Wisconsin, reported that when firefighters arrived, the child was sitting inside themachine among the stuffed animals. He had crawled into the 8-inch by 10-inch vending slotwhile his father talked on a pay phone three feet away. The child remained calm during thehour that it took a locksmith to free him, then made a quick dash for the restroom, said firedepartment officials.

This story from the news is a good illustration of how children will make things in the

environment that aren't meant to be interactive, interactive. And the younger the child is, themore likely this will happen. This is because of the vast differences in the way children andadults look at their environment. Adults view the environment in terms of form, shapes, andstructures and as background. So if something like a couch is in a public place, adults willinterpret it only for its socially acceptable use, for sitting upon. Children, on the other hand,interpret the environment holistically and evaluate it for all the ways they can interact with it.They use the environment to aid their development and improve themselves. They look for theenvironment's affordances -- the opportunities it affords them to do things. Also, childreninterpret the environment in terms of its possible function rather than its form. So in the caseof the couch, because children haven't yet acquired the social norms for its accepted use (andaren't developmentally ready to accept social norms for behavior), they see the couch assomething that affords them opportunities for bouncing on, sprawling out on, climbing on,jumping over and hiding behind. A rock, if small enough, is perceived by a child as somethingto grasp and throw it affords grasping and throwing. If the rock is larger, it could affordstepping on, looking under or climbing on.

Another simple example is a long straight hall in a building. A child sees it as affording her achance to run, and run down the hall she will. Similarly, a wall 3-feet high is perfect for walkingand balancing on. In all these cases, the child is not misbehaving. She is doing exactly whather brain is biologically wired to have her do, based upon the environment's affordances andher developmental age. She is fulfilling what is known as her development tasks, one of whichis to explore and interact with the environment. When a child behaves in an environment in away that adults see as improper, it is not usually the child's fault, but more often adults' faultfor not designing the environment appropriately for children.


2/8

Environments for children need to be designed with careful consideration of four basicenvironmental needs children have:

MovementThe environment needs to offer children an invitation to move within safe and tolerablelimits, and every child will move to a different drummer. If too restricted, childrenbecome frustrated and fidgety, or they try to gain access to prohibited components ofthe environment.

ComfortA feeling of comfort is important to children's use of and exploration of theenvironment. There needs to be moderate and varied levels of stimulation for all thesenses. Behavior is optimized at a comfort zone of stimulation, neither too little or toomuch. An overload of sensory stimulation and noise will exacerbate children's feelingsof discomfort and result in undesired behaviors.

CompetenceChildren need to feel successful in negotiating the environment. Yet the world at largeforces them to constantly confront intimidating and frustrating experiences. Successfulchildren's environments are designed to make children competent inhabitants andusers.

Control

Children need the ability to exercise control over the environment and acquireincreased levels of autonomy. Children must have experiences that allow them toexperiment and make decisions.

The balance of this article explores in greater detail the elements of design required toaccomplish these four goals and create successful environments for children's use.

One of the challenges in designing environments for use by children is to offer them theaffordances for the desired behaviors. Through deliberate design, you can keep children fromusing the environment in inappropriate ways by eliminating affordances for undesiredbehavior. When it comes to leisure and play areas, this is accomplished by offering childrenage-appropriate affordances that produce the desired outcomes. If children are drawn to theentertainment and play components, they will not be drawn to inappropriate use (in an adult'seyes) of the other elements in the environment. This requires that children be challenged andnot become bored. Otherwise, they will start interacting with those other elements orsometimes become aggressive in their behavior. Of course, there is also the issue ofeliminating affordances for the wrong behavior, such as not having throwable stones, or wallsthat can be climbed and walked, or long straight halls.

Children become bored when there's a mismatch between what they have the ability to do andwhat they are expected or want to do. They enjoy themselves when their skills match thedevelopmentally appropriate task at hand. If they're challenged beyond their capability, theybecome anxious and often claim boredom as a defense. If not challenged enough, they're


3/8

bored. In either case, a bored child will find ways to be challenged by climbing, running orother behaviors that match their abilities. Children prefer and are most drawn to playenvironments with high degrees of challenge, diversity, novelty and complexity. The type,quality and diversity of children's play environments directly affect the type, quality anddiversity of their play.

Since children's developmental tasks and skill levels change constantly as they age, the point

where boredom sets in is a moving target. Children's physical (fine and gross motor),intellectual and social skills are constantly advancing. This means that children's environmentsmust offer what is known as graduated challenges, a range of challenges, as even the sameage children have different levels of skills and acceptable challenge.

The ability children posses to interact with, control and transform their environment is veryimportant to them. Children want to explore, manipulate and transform the environment.Environments that include loose parts that children can manipulate, move and construct withare immensely more engaging than static equipment and environments.

Most of young children's play centers around their incredible imaginations. The environmentneeds to promote and support imaginative role-play with props and loose parts. However, theenvironment needs to be open-ended so children can use their imaginations to develop theirown play scripts. Highly scripted, structured and overly themed environments stifle children's

creativity, short-circuit extended play and can quickly lead to boredom.

An important aspect for children's use of the environment is that they are more interested inthe process ofusing the environment than achieving an end result like adults do.

And then there are the concepts known as anthropometrics and ergonomics, (sometimesreferred to as human factors engineering) which means designing things to match children'sphysical sizes and abilities. This includes such characteristics as height, grip, reach, field ofvision, etc., so that tasks can be performed with a minimum of stress and maximum ofefficiency and safety. It doesn't do any good to design equipment that doesn't fit a child'santhropometrics and skills and isn't ergonomically correct. Either he will not be able to use theequipment or he will feel incompetent trying to, and neither outcome will make him desire toreturn. And poorly designed equipment, furniture and environments that don't matchchildren's anthropometrics can actually be dangerous. If a shelf is too high and a child wantssomething on it, she will often find a way to get to it -- likely in an unsafe manner such asclimbing on lower shelves that may not be designed to support the weight of a child.Ergonomically incorrect environments can injure children. Research is now showing thatchildren, with their still growing musculoskeletal systems, may be susceptible tomusculoskeletal injury (MSDs) by using improperly designed equipment such as standardadult-size computer keyboards and ergonomically incorrect computer workstations. Surveysreport a high incidence of children's computer-related aches and pains, including discomfortwith wrists, necks and hands.

OK, as complicated as all this sounds, it gets even more challenging.

There's the issue of children's attention spans, which can be much shorter than that of adults.So something that at first interests a child can 10 minutes later become boring. To overcomethis challenge, the environment must offer a wide variety of options. Too little a variety ofequipment and materials limits children's play options and leads to increased levels ofboredom and aggression. Another factor that drives the need for variety is known as multipleintelligences. The theory of multiple intelligences challenges the traditional notion thatintelligence is a single, fixed commodity. Rather, it says we all possess eight distinct andsomewhat autonomous intelligences to differing degrees linguistic, logical-mathematical,musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalist. We tend to bemost interested in activities that match our stronger intelligences. There are also distinctdifferences between the interests of girls and boys. Therefore, the variety of activities mustappeal to the broadest range of multiple intelligences and to both genders.


4/8

The scale of the environmental space also influences children's behavior. Research shows thatthe more child-scaled the environmental space, the higher the quality and complexity ofchildren's play will be, and the longer they will be preoccupied in the play. In other words, achild-scaled environment increases children's interest and concentration, and it delaysboredom. In a large space, children are encouraged through reading the environment to moveabout from one thing to another, whereas in small contained areas, they are more focused.Areas for different activities need to be well defined with identifiable boundaries in ways that

children can interpret. The relationship between areas and activities, what we call adjacenciesandzoning, also has an impact on children's behavior and the quality of their activities.Institutional size and looking buildings and large entries, lobbies and public spaces are veryintimidating and uninviting for children. Children are most comfortable with residential lookingbuildings and residential scale spaces.

Other factors also influence children's enjoyment of play and entertainment. Indoors thisincludes the dcor, colors, lighting and acoustics. And outdoors, nature and the abundant useof plants in informal settings have been shown to enhance children's concentration, reducetheir stress, increase their feelings of well-being and help them further develop imaginationand a sense of wonder. Children have a strong preference to play outdoors in a naturalenvironment, as opposed to one built indoors.

Predictability and routine are important to children, as well. It helps give them a sense of

control over the environment and their daily lives. There needs to be a balance between nottoo much sameness and not too much change and contrast -- what is called differences-within-sameness. This concept is best exemplified by nature, with its subtle changes of wind, light,sounds and its seasons. If an environment a child repeatedly visits is constantly changing, thechild will experience discomfort and anxiety.

A well-designed environment can be deciphered by children. They can orient themselves,recognize how the space they are in connects to adjoining spaces and figure out how to get toa desired destination - a concept know as wayfinding. Children's short stature makes thisespecially challenging unless the environment is designed from a child's-eye view. Youngerchildren don't read. So where signs work for adults, the environment itself needs to bedesigned to give children equivalent non-language wayfinding communication. An importantaspect of younger children's orientation is known as transitioning. Children cannot process newenviorments as quickly as do adults. They need more time to adjust. The use of transitioning

spaces and transparency from space to space greatly assists children with transitioning.

Safety is also a crucial consideration. The environment must be designed not only to preventunsafe behavior or situations and injury, but also designed to minimize injury when an incidentoccurs. Situations where a child cannot evaluate the risk, such as head and fingerentrapments, need to be avoided. However, to be interesting to children, equipment mustpresent some risks, but risks where a child can evaluate the challenge. What are consideredrisks for older children can be hazards for younger children. Environments consideredappropriate and safe for older children will often be dangerous to younger children, requiringage segregation of areas. Environments with activities that are safe when children aresupervised can be dangerous if children are left unsupervised.


5/8

Children's familiarity with each other also affects their play and interactions with otherchildren. A group together regularly in a childcare setting will interact differently both with theenvironment and with each other than will children who do not know each other. The sameenvironment design won't necessarily work for both groups.

Another consideration: Children are also more sensitive to environmental hazards than adultsare. This includes chemicals, VOC emissions (volatile off-gassing organic chemicals from

building materials) and foods they are allergic to. Good air quality is also essential. Toxicityand sanitation are especially important considerations for the youngest children who will oftenmouth anything they come into contact with. Many designers overlook the aspect of selectingnon-toxic indoor plants and outdoor vegetation in children's environments.

Accessibility for children with disabilities is another design challenge. Unfortunately, theAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA) fails to adequately address children's accessibility, as itfocuses mainly on wheelchair accessibility for adults. Even the alternative ADA children'sstandards fail to address the environmental challenges faced by children with non-wheelchairmobility disabilities, including walkers, leg braces, limited vision, Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD) and Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The other problem is thatfollowing ADA standards during the design process can often make the environment andequipment unusable by able-bodied children. An approach known as universal design isrequired to make environments truly usable by the greatest number of children. Universal

design is an approach to design that honors human diversity and addresses the right foreveryone from children to the elderly to use all environments, products and informationin an independent, inclusive, and equal way.

Durability and maintenance are important considerations in designing any environment forchildren's use. Children will give things more wear and tear than adults do and will definitelyget things dirtier faster. Materials need to be durable and easy to clean and maintain. Usingmaterials and finishes that can be sanitized is important, especially when with infants andtoddlers will be present in the environment being designed.

Designing for children is no simple task, since most adult designers have a completelydifferent perception of the environment than the users they are designing for. If you putchildren in an environment not properly designed for them, all kinds on unexpected andundesired behaviors and outcomes result. Children are going to use the environment in ways

that their biology tells them to, so it's the responsibility of adults to design children'senvironments carefully to produce the desired behaviors. Positive outcomes for children'sbehavior in a leisure or education setting will be produced only when the environments havebeen design with a thorough knowledge of child development, play, anthropometrics,ergonomics, environmental factors, wayfinding, environmental psychology and universaldesign.

Designing For All Childrenby Vicki L. Stoecklin

1999 White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group

Children need age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate physical environments thatsupport, promote and include child-directed and child initiated play and learning. Active,creative play and exploration is central to normal child development.

The physical environment can either contribute to children's development and support learningand exploration or become a permanent impediment to the above stated goals. The designand layout of the physical environment which includes the building, interior finishes, outdoorspaces, room arrangement and selection of equipment has a profound impact on children'sbehavior. Quite unlike adults, children figure out how to behave in most situations through


6/8

instantaneously reading the environment. Children also read the environment differently thanadults, not as background but as something to interact with.

The concept of designing for all children is based upon the tenets of child development whichrecognizes that each child is unique and passes through a series of recognizable stages ofdevelopment, which are different for each child including children with disabilities. Theunderlying definition of design for all children is similar in context to the definition of universal

design. Designing for all children means creating environments that can be usable by allchildren without the need for adaptation. It also means that the environments are free fromboth physical and social barriers. The following list of key elements can be used by designers,architects and early childhood staff in creating environments that are inviting and functional toevery child.

Equitable Use

The intent of all state and federal legislation for children with disabilities is to provide for equaland equitable access. Equal access does not mean segregating and stigmatizing any user,able-bodied or disabled. Designing for equitable use means creating a design that is functionalto a wide variety of users and one that allows for socialization between all children. Forexample, in designing a water play element for children our company chose to create a

universal design of multi-height tables that would allow for an undertable or side approach bywheelchairs of various heights, walkers of various sizes and design or standing children ofvarious heights. Children could then self select the height and design of the table which bestworked for them. This design solution also allowed for socialization to occur between all typesof children who used the table, both able-bodied, those using chairs or walkers and non-disabled children of various sizes. A far less equitable approach would have been to label eachside of the table by chronological age of the intended users and to then designate areas forwheelchair and/or walker access.

Equitable use means creating a design that works for all types of users and does not excludeany intended users. For example, the height of a transfer deck for a child using a wheel chairin the draft ADA Play Areas Rule is stated in a variable height measurement. Depending onwhat height you choose to make this transfer deck and if the adjacent stairs are going to beused by non-wheel chair using children, you may be creating a situation where the needs of

the wheel chair using child are superceding the needs of the other children. Young children ofall stages of development and older children with delayed motor development simply cannotadapt to inappropriate design. For example, if the stair next to a transfer station is too high,they just cannot use it. You can imagine the problems when access to the piece of climbingequipment creates a situation where no children can get on the equipment without assistancefrom an adult. This same principle can be applied to creating appropriate sinks and toilets forall children. Not only should these facilities work for the child with disabilities but it must workalso for the non-disabled child as well. If sinks and toilets are too high they can't be reachedand if they are too low you may be creating safety problems especially for very young orcognitively impaired children who might climb in them.

Another example of inequitable design is when the intended function of the design is lost afterthe adaptation is made. One piece of equipment that comes to my mind when thinking of thisproblem is the elevated sandtable. Sand serves as a sensory experience for children of allages, abilities and development. As a sensory experience, sand play is best executed as it hasbeen for probably centuries, with the child being immersed in the sand. I feel that designersand manufacturers are defeating the principle of equitable use when an equivalent solution forsandplay is the elevated sandtable. The elevated sandbox/sandtable creates a situation wherenow, no one can get in the sand including the non-disabled child. Anyway, at what one heightwould you put one elevated table to meet the needs of all children? Quickly answered, thatone magical height intended to meet all children's needs simply does not exist. A moreequitable design solution is to continue to use a traditional sandbox that could have added to ita transfer station for a child using a wheelchair and/or add an adapted stair for children usingwalkers, a child with limited sight or a child with underdeveloped motor abilities. In thismanner, all children can continue to experience the sensory experience of immersed sandplay.


7/8

Immediately from birth, children reply on touching, feeling and using their senses to provideinformation. We should create environments that are rich for exploration though all the senses:touch, taste, sight, sound and smell.

Designing for all children means creating spaces that are free from social barriers. Spaces,indoors and outdoors, must allow for positive interpersonal interaction and socializationbetween children with different abilities and of both genders. Spaces must be available for

small groups, solitude, quiet play, large groups and active play. Appropriate space will createopportunities for the development of self-confidence and social skills.

Flexibility and Independence

For any age child, the environment should foster independence. A developmental task ofchildhood is to move from total dependence on adults to a more mature independent stage.Independence can best be achieved by creating environments that can be used by childrenwith a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. When designing an interactivecooking station, we created a design of multi-height movable counter tops and multi-heightstools that could both be adjusted to meet the diverse needs of a group of children includingthose with disabilities.

Often times what happens in some settings over time is that the adults and sometimes thechildren learn to adapt to poor design. I remember observing this phenonenom in an earlychildhood inclusionary setting that had children with diverse abilities and disabilities enrolled.One of the four pieces of outdoor playground equipment had been adapted for children withdisabilities. As required by the current draft ADA Play Areas Rule, this particular piece ofequipment only had a transfer deck for children who were using wheelchairs. However, thisprogram did not have any children enrolled who used wheel chairs but it had a high number ofchildren enrolled who used a variety of walkers. I watched in amazement as teachers wereforced to take each child out of their walkers and carry them up the stairs. Not only does thistype of poor design foster dependence on the child's part but it created a situation very unsafefor the teachers and children. As a team, we chose to remedy the situation by creating amaster plan for the complete renovation of this outdoor play space to make it better meet theneeds of all children. Data was collected for this design project through extensive observationsof children and interviews with staff including physical therapists. In addition to the transfer

stations, we added a series of steps and ramps which could be used by children in eitherwalkers or wheelchairs.

Designing for all children means understanding that children come in a variety of sizes which issometimes not directly related to chronological age. Our team makes use of a variety ofanthropometric charts which are then adjusted based on the children's motor abilities and howthe design will be used. Many children with disabilities do not follow typical growth patterns.

Includes Safety

Creating designs for all children must include adherence to a variety of mandatory andvoluntary safety guidelines not only for children but for staff as well. The design must supportactive experimentation and risk-taking without being unsafe for children. The physical

environment and equipment must be arranged to minimize hazards and errors. It must alsosupport the role of staff and parents in assisting in the play and learning environment. Thedesign of outdoor playground equipment is tightly regulated and controlled by several safetyguidelines, however there are no standards for similar types of equipment and design used inthe indoor environment. I could list numerous examples of unsafe buildings, playgrounds,furniture and equipment I have observed in day care centers, children's museums, publicschools and children's play spaces. Dangers include inadequate or no shock absorbing fallzones which could prove lethal to a child, designs which encourage inappropriate behaviors,materials and plants which are toxic to children, and strangulation and body entrapmenthazards which can also be potentially lethal.


8/8

A Team Effort

The process of envisioning and designing environments that support competence,independence, exploration and inclusion is far more complex that following a list of suggestedguidelines. The product can only be as good as the process that creates it and the expertise ofthe design participants.

Designing for all children requires a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional design team from thebeginning. The team should meet in a concurrent format where experts who design the facilityand those who operate it create the design program, goals and requirements together at thesame table. Program goals, building use, children's needs, staff needs and parents need drivethe concurrent design process. Other issues that need to be examined up front in the processare furniture, equipment and operating costs prior to designing the physical space. Everythingimpacts everything.

The design team needs to be structured and sensitive to staff, parental and community input.The team should have members with specialized expertise in early childhood education,special education, child development, children's environmental design, architecture, landscapearchitecture, interior design, horticulture, acoustics for children, equipment selection, universaldesign for children and cultural competency. A team can bring the added benefits of a broad

view and collaborative creativity.

In summary, designing for all children asks us to more closely examine our values and beliefsand to learn to collaborate with others whose expertise may be different than our own. Asmuch as we may be different, we are all alike in many ways. Designing for all children finds away to support and encourage each child's abilities, similarities, and uniqueness.

References

1. Bunnett, Rochelle and Davis, Nancy Leigh, "Getting to the Heart of the Matter", ChildCare Information Exchange, 3/97, Vol. 114, pages 42-44.

2. Center for Universal Design, Definition of Universal Design, North Carolina State

University, 1997.3. Stoecklin, Vicki and White, Randy, "Designing Quality Child Care Facilities", Region IV

Quality Improvement Center for Disabilities Services Newsbreak, Chapel Hill, NorthCarolina, February, 1998.

4. Youcha, Victoria and Wood, Karren, "Enhancing the Environment For All Children",Child Care Information Exchange, 3/97, Vol. 114, pages 45-49.

Adults Are From Earth

Documents

Transcript of Adults Are From Earth