HEAD START CENTER DESIGN GUIDE

3.5 Children

Pre-school and younger children may spend 9 or more hours a day at the center. For most of their care, children remain at the facility. There are occasions when the older children go on field trips with teachers and center volunteers. Best practice suggests that the center should promote a child's optimal development by providing safe, interesting, and appropriate environments that allow the children to engage in developmentally appropriate activities.

Children's needs usually correspond to their age. Although each child develops according to his or her unique schedule, children can be characterized as belonging to general age categories of development, with each age group having a different set of needs. To meet these needs, the space for each age group will be designed differently.

The following three broad age groupings will be referred to throughout the design guide. In any individual center, actual age ranges of groups may overlap. Age ranges for purpose of center design follow:

• Infants (birth to 12 months)
• Toddlers (12 to 36 months), including sub-groups of:
  • Younger toddlers (12 to 24 months)
  • Older toddlers (24 to 36 months)
• Pre-school children

3.5.1 Infants

For the infant, the environment must provide many opportunities for activities throughout the day. Best practice indicates that the infant classroom needs to be warm and nurturing. Infants are usually brought in by their parents. Clothing and supplies, usually carried in a diaper bag, are placed in each infant's cubby storage space. Diapers and wipes are stored in separate compartments at the diapering area within easy reach of the changing table. Strollers or tote bags left at the center during the day should be stored on pegs or rods in storage areas. Formula and breast milk should be kept refrigerated and clearly marked.

As infants mature, their sleep needs decrease from the frequent naps of young infancy to a few naps at regular times during the day. Because each infant may have a unique schedule, a variety of activities can take place in the infant room at any given time, ranging from playing, diaper changing, and eating to sleeping, cuddling, and nursing. This variety of activities requires quiet areas that are separate from more active areas, while still allowing for adult supervision of all children.

Most infants have not begun toilet training, so frequent diaper changes are needed. When teachers are with an infant at the changing table, they also need to supervise and keep an eye on other infants. Visible connection between teacher and infant should be maintained to the maximum extent feasible. The design and location of changing tables should reflect this requirement. Teacher views into the activity area should be unobstructed while they are in the diaper changing area. Conversely, when infants are in the activity area, they must be able to see teachers. Section 7.7.3 includes information about diapering station design.

During the first year, the infant's diet progresses from nursing and bottle feeding to soft foods and finger foods. For young infants, eating is a nurturing time, with the infant either nursed by the mother or held by a teacher or parent during bottle feedings. Most infants start to eat soft foods between 5 and 6 months. At around 9 months, infants, seated in low chairs, begin to feed themselves and drink from cups. This process can be a very explorative and messy. At or near 12 months, infants eat at low, round tables. The dining atmosphere changes from a quiet, intimate environment to an active, social event.

Developmentally appropriate activities for this group include interaction with teachers, children, and other infants; experiencing the environment through all the senses; and physical movement through the space. Infants need a safe, stimulating environment where they can explore, absorb, and organize information about their world. They exercise muscles by crawling and climbing on soft surfaces and over slight level changes. They can pull to standing and practice walking by using low grab bars.

Manipulative, stimulating toys and other learning materials help infants learn about objects and enable them to develop motor coordination. Toys should be placed on low, open shelving where the infant can see and grasp them. In rooms with high ceilings, mobiles may be hung from the ceiling at least 6.6 ft. above the floor.

The classroom should offer a limited number of interesting attractions for crawling and standing infants, particularly at eye level (12 to 18 inches above the floor). The environment, including toys, aids the infants' language development. The design and scale of furnishings and equipment in the infant room should support the infants' activities, while assisting the care-giving adults. The design must allow teachers to see and hear all the infants at any given time and quickly reach any of them if the need arises. Infants also must be able to see the teacher, as they need the psychological security of a teacher's presence.

Infants spend time in their outdoor play yard under the supervision of teachers and safely apart from, but usually in view of, the older children. Infants, particularly those who are crawling and starting to walk, require outdoor opportunities to explore and move about the safe world of the infant play yard.

Teachers may assist infants in their exploration of the world by taking them on strolls through the building and outdoors. Infants, riding in groups in multi-passenger strollers, benefit from social interaction and the sensory stimulation offered by these excursions.

Conditions that will enhance the quality of care teachers can provide indoors include:

• A large-motor activity motor area away from the main circulation flow that is soft and easily cleaned, with a provision of continuous soft mat. Typically, the area should be defined by a low (12 to 18 inches) padded bumper, which may or may not be built-in, to contain the crawl area and provide for adult seating near infant's level.
• Low padded risers for level change.
• Visual contact with the exterior at an infant's eye-level.
• Cribs that can be directly observed by teachers.
• Cribs located under soft, preferably dimmer-controlled lighting.
• A limited number of toys easily accessible to infants from open shelving.
• Continuous impervious flooring in the feeding area.
• Space for infants to eat in a social environment, as opposed to being isolated in lined up high chairs.

It is essential that the architects and engineers verify dimensions and indicate the location of all major equipment, particularly cribs and feeding components, on the architectural plans. This will ensure the proper fit and clearances are achieved.

3.5.2 Young Toddlers

The toddler classroom hums with activity as toddlers quickly move through their space, involved in all the activities available to them. This environment should be stimulating, offering the child a safe, yet warm and nurturing place to spend the day. At the beginning of the day, toddlers arrive at the classroom with their parents who may assist them with removing their outdoor clothing and storing items in their cubbies. Young toddlers will usually have diaper bags to store in their cubbies and supplies to be placed at the diapering area. Older toddlers may bring toys from home, perhaps carrying them in satchels or backpacks, which can also be used to carry such things as papers and artwork home at the end of the day. Satchels and backpacks may be stored in the cubbies or within the classroom on hooks provided.

Toddlers are in the process of gaining independence and advancing in their feeding, toileting, and dressing skills. Furnishings and equipment need to be scaled for this age group to encourage growth toward independence. Older toddlers may nap only once a day on cots or mats which are stored while not in use, while younger toddlers may nap more often and need a crib in a quiet area. Most care functions take place in the classroom with the teacher's assistance. Toddlers gather at child-scaled tables for snacks and lunch. They can feed themselves with some assistance from their teachers. Toddlers are beginning toilet training and require a child-scaled toilet area in their classroom. Young toddlers still need a diapering area as well as child-sized toilet facilities.

3.5.3 Older Toddlers

Older toddlers are busy experiencing their environment and developing large muscle skills as they take part in active play. They are mastering walking and are beginning to develop running, jumping, and climbing skills. Toddler rooms need to provide stimulating opportunities for active crawling, pushing wheeled toys, climbing in and out of play components, cruising (movement through space to view and select from a variety of activities), as well as beginning to walk and climbing up and down stairs. Toddlers tend to move about quickly, often in groups rather than individually, and the design must allow for this group action. Features such as wide access to enclosed lofts and generous, clear pathways that avoid sharp corners should be provided. Younger toddlers may need to be transported in multi-passenger strollers.

This age group is involved in other developmental activities as well, such as beginning block and social play, and space must be provided for these activities. Simple books, pictures, puzzles, and music help them develop language skills.

Toddlers thrive on exploration and creativity, enjoying fantasy activities, playing with props, and making choices. Manipulative toys and materials should be located on low, open shelving where the toddler can see and easily reach them.

Teachers in this classroom assist and interact with the toddler, encouraging the development of greater independence. Though space generally should be scaled to child size, the classroom design must also permit teachers to reach all spaces. A diaper-changing table should be provided in older toddler classrooms, even though older toddlers are typically toilet trained. This addition will help teachers cope with the occasional accident and will allow greater flexibility. Providing retractable steps that pull out from beneath the diaper-changing table, so teachers do not have to lift children is particularly important for this older age group.

While toddlers are beginning to develop, they need easy visual access to their teachers for security and comfort. A functional and nurturing feature that is highly recommended is a simple series of three to four low risers which several toddlers at a time can occupy. This arrangement also provides excellent seating for adults while they interact with several children for example by reading them a story.

Toddlers, accompanied by their teachers, spend time in their outdoor play yard, apart but not visually or acoustically separated from older children's play yards. The outdoor space offers many opportunities for activities, such as cruising, climbing, and manipulative play involving materials such as sand and water. This group also may take part in activities in a multiple-purpose area. Toddlers, with their teachers, may go outside the building on excursions, allowing for more exploration and interaction. Older toddlers may walk hand-in-hand with their teachers.

3.5.4 Pre-School Children

Pre-school children are expanding their vocabulary and developing language, small-and large-muscle coordination, and complex cognitive and social skills. Pre-school children should busily pursue all the recommended activities available to them in an environment that is safe, durable, and interesting without being overstimulating.

These children arrive at the classroom with their parents or on the school bus. After storing their outdoor clothing and personal items, they begin their day in the center. The pre-school classroom needs large, bright, unrestricted spaces, as well as intimate, quiet, carpeted areas.

Pre-school children usually need a nap or quiet time. This normally occurs in the classroom space on cots or mats that are stored when not in use. Mealtime is an opportunity for social interaction.

Children at this age are actively exploring their environment and exercising large-muscle skills by running, jumping, galloping, riding wheeled toys, and playing ball games. The pre-school classroom requires a large amount of architecturally unrestricted available space, which teachers and children can divide into smaller learning environments. The number of children in the group and the type of activities in which they are involved affect this space requirement. Because they have typically become more independent, they tend to initiate their own activity by accessing materials and displaying their own work.

Other activities for this group are dramatic play, music, art activities, puzzles, block play, and storytelling. Children are involved in projects, including art, manipulatives, simple food preparation, simple math, problem solving, and science.

Pre-school children spend a lot of time in their outdoor play yard as weather permits and also in a multiple-purpose space, if provided. They participate in many of the same activities in the play yard as those pursued in the classroom. Children also go on field trips, either walking with their teachers or being transported.