Assessment of Selected Early Learning Centres for Space and Furnishing

The space and furnishings in an early learning centre should stimulate all aspects of children's development in a variety of ways, The way in which the environment is set up will influence how children respond to their environment and the kinds of activites they will engage in, and will thus influence their development. Space and Furnishings are one of the most vital consideration as it determines the comfort level of children as well as encourages their productivity and creativity in learning and growing. A meaningful environment has spaces with assigned purposes. In early learning centres space plays many different roles- it is to play, eat and sleep. It is also a place for children to belong and learn. A review of literature indicates that in the past ten years, there has been growing research and study into how the physical design of child care settings affects child development. Pre-school children are expected to sit about 30% of their time during school and teenagers, ages 13-18 years old, are expected to sit about 78% of their time. Sitting occupies a large percentage of waking hours at an age when the human body is still in growth (Dillon, 1976). Thus it becomes important to consider physical design of the early learning center, to ensure cognitive, social, and emotional development (e.g., size, density, privacy, well-defined activity settings, modified open-plan space, a variety of technical design features)In addition to meeting the needs of children, caregivers/teachers require space to implement programs and facilitate interactions with children. Although each child's development is unique to that child, age groups are often used to categorize developmental needs. To meet these needs, the use of activity space for each age group will be inherently different. In the present study 8 domains of space and Furnishings namely Indoor space, Furniture for routine care, play and learning, Furniture for relaxation and comfort, Room arrangement for play, Child-related Display, space for gross motor play, Gross motor equipment and space for privacy,were investigated in 10 different types of early leaning centers in Bangalore city.