May 5, 2009
Designing Spaces for Children
Well-designed spaces can keep children safe as well as enhance their
organizational skills, academic skills, decision-making and personal
independence. Good design, including space for each family member to store
personal things and space to be alone, can strengthen families by reducing
conflict. Finding personal storage may be as simple as a box under the bed or
having ones own room.
The first consideration when designing spaces for children should be safety.
Children need safe places to explore and learn. In a young childs room, remove
or secure furniture that could overturn easily if climbed, pushed or pulled.
Avoid placing furniture near windows to keep children from climbing onto a
windowsill or falling out a window.
Install a protective shield over a radiator or heater vents if children could
get burned. Make sure window cords have a safety breakaway feature and are tied
up and out of childrens reach. Keep electrical cords from lamps and radios out
of childrens reach. Avoid furniture with sharp edges. Cover electrical outlets
not in use with plastic plugs designed for this purpose. Get down on your hands
and knees to see potential safety problems from a childrens point of view.
Giving young children a safe space to explore minimizes the number of times you
need to redirect their behavior.
To gain a fresh look at the space in question and to help children be successful
at keeping their space picked up, get rid of clutter by clearing the room of
unnecessary items. Put some things away for later use, give others away or have
a garage sale. Throw away broken or worn out items. Children do not need to be
able to look at and play with everything they own at the same time. Too many
items can be confusing. They will be like new toys when you bring them out
again.
Now, look at storage options for items that are left. If children are expected
to put things away, everything must have a place where it belongs. Labeling
those places is often a helpful way for children to remember where things go. If
children are too young to read, picture labels work well. Tape a picture of a
shirt to the front of the drawer where shirts are kept, put a picture of socks
on the front of the sock drawer. Avoid large toy boxes, as they become a junk
heap of lost and broken items. Bookcases, plastic bins and cardboard boxes work
well. Clothing hooks and closet rods may need to be repositioned so children can
reach them, allowing them to take care of their own clothing.
The rooms design should be able to grow with a child. Go easy on a theme. Use a
removable wallpaper border, picture, bookend or lampshade. These items are
relatively inexpensive and easily changed when your child outgrows a theme.
Flexibility will keep the need to redesign to a minimum. When thinking about
purchasing furniture, think about potential for multipurpose as your child
grows. For example a shelf that can hold toys now and books later. A sitting
bench with storage under the seat can hold a toddlers toys, a young childs
boots or a teens schoolbooks. The same bench can be placed at the foot of the
bed as a footboard, seating in a reading corner, or at a small table for a tea
party.
Infants and toddlers need safe spaces to explore, lots of care and supervision,
interesting things to do and look at and sturdy furniture to hold on to and pull
themselves up with. Floors should be clean and warm for crawling and walking.
Leave as much floor space as possible for playing. Eye and hand coordination are
enhanced it interesting things can be looked at and touched. Open low shelves
for toys work better than a toy box. Children can learn to make decisions if
they can see a variety of toys and pick a toy from the shelf rather than dump
the toy box.
If a toy box is used make sure it is safe. Children have died or been seriously
injured by poorly designed toy boxes. Children can become trapped inside a toy
box or have fingers smashed and pinched by lids and hinges not designed with the
safety of children in mind.
Preschoolers need furniture, equipment and environments sized for their success,
an open space to play, safe environments that promote independence and
exploration, and be given responsibility for keeping their space organized (they
will need your help) so they can have decision-making opportunities.
Good room design can help preschoolers make good decisions and learn to care for
themselves and their room. A picture label of toys on a low shelf shows your
child where an item belongs. Putting toys away teaches children how to sort out
and match things up as well as making cleanup faster and more fun.
Preschoolers will need some help or supervision during clean up as they can
easily forget what they are supposed to be doing and start playing with
everything again. Remember size and scale for preschoolers by hanging pictures,
mirrors, closet rods and clothes hooks at their height and eye level. Preschool
age children learn independence when they can do many tasks for themselves. A
child-sized table and chair can be a good investment. Having a special place to
work on projects without having to clean up for meals can encourage creativity
and lengthen your childs attention span. Self-grooming will be easier if the
child can reach the sink with the help of a sturdy stool or box.
Elementary age children need space to use study skills and complete large
projects, areas to display artwork, storage for their collections and privacy.
As children reach elementary age they may need space to hang artwork they create
or a place to display a collection they have started. Children of this age have
strong color preferences that change often. Its a good idea to put a favorite
color in inexpensive accessories rather than on walls or expensive draperies or
bedspreads. Help children learn good study skills by providing a space for
reading or studying away from the TV. Provide a bulletin board to post
assignments and a special place where books, assignments, notes to parents and
permission slips are put as soon as they come home. Children of this age often
need extra storage space for musical instruments, sports equipment or 4-H and
scouts projects.
There is no one formula for designing spaces for children. But by taking into
account the needs of each child and available resources, families can encourage
desired behaviors, foster learning, skill development, responsibility & prevent
potential conflicts.
