The prospect of designing any environment for children can be intimidating for many people, as they are not sure where to start or how to go about it. It is a complex process, but for the person who just wants to improve their learning environment, simple changes can make a world of difference. Adding a variety of activities and physical spaces within your room, as well as a variety of sensory detail, adds richness to your environment. Adding these things in a way that they are able to change regularly ensures that your environment will have an enduring interest for your children across time.
A child's development is directly linked to its ability to interact with its environment. Children develop an understanding of themselves through their interactions with events and materials outside themselves. All environments have the ability to contribute or retard this process. Anita Old states that " the motivation to interact with the environment exists in all children as an intrinsic property of life, but the quality of the interactions is dependent upon the possibilities for engagement that the environment provides".
A first step in making changes is to acknowledge the role of the environment in children's lives. The environments that children experience in their early years of life are responsible for creating their understanding of many concepts, giving them spatial awareness, educating their senses, nourishing their curiosity, and encouraging their interaction. For some children with special needs this process does not happen so spontaneously. For these children you need to be aware of their skill level and preferences in order to piece together activities and sensory information in a way that will entice them to interact with their surroundings.
When running a practical workshop, I get the participants to name their favorite recreational environment as a child. Ninety nine percent of the time, they name an outdoor environment. I also get them to list their reasons for choosing this environment and these consistently include:
Child playing in ball pool.
A child's development is directly linked to its ability to interact with its environment. Children develop an understanding of themselves through their interactions with events and materials outside themselves. All environments have the ability to contribute or retard this process. Anita Old states that " the motivation to interact with the environment exists in all children as an intrinsic property of life, but the quality of the interactions is dependent upon the possibilities for engagement that the environment provides".
A first step in making changes is to acknowledge the role of the environment in children's lives. The environments that children experience in their early years of life are responsible for creating their understanding of many concepts, giving them spatial awareness, educating their senses, nourishing their curiosity, and encouraging their interaction. For some children with special needs this process does not happen so spontaneously. For these children you need to be aware of their skill level and preferences in order to piece together activities and sensory information in a way that will entice them to interact with their surroundings.
When running a practical workshop, I get the participants to name their favorite recreational environment as a child. Ninety nine percent of the time, they name an outdoor environment. I also get them to list their reasons for choosing this environment and these consistently include:
Child playing in ball pool.
- Constant variation - seasonal change;
- Flexibility/manipulable parts;
- Physical challenge and interest;
- All kinds of sensory richness - visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory;
As many of these elements as possible should be present in any children's environment in which learning takes place. There is no better world to witness wonderful examples of variety and richness of textures, colours, light effects, smells, sound and even tastes than the natural one.
"The textures, colours and forms applied to all the surfaces of the environment are the close-at-hand qualities of the environment with which occupants come most in contact, and what they "read" continually in experiencing a setting". It is these features that leave the most lasting impression of an environment on children, as these are the features that are happening on the child's scale. For children with special needs, the detail of colour, texture, smell and lighting can have a much greater impact, depending on their disability. These things can be a source of discomfort and pleasure, as well as information, entertainment, education and reward.
Texture, colour, smell, lighting, sound. These are your best tools. It is through these features that you can soften an institutional space as well as add richness and constant variation.
No comments:
Post a Comment