SAFETY AND

ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT FOR
YOUNG CHILDREN
CSZD2313
CHAPTER 1
HIGH QUALITY ENVIRONMENTS
Introduction

• An environment is a living, changing system. More than the physical space, it includes the
way we structured and the roles we are expected to play. Physical environments play an
important role in the behaviors or cultural practices that take place within them. The quality
of the environment, the presence and condition of its features and the level at which it is
maintained, are among the factors in the quality.
• Designing and supporting places which maximized the chances for a child’s cognitive and
social development are among the campaigning issue where environmental psychology can
offer convincing evidence, in support of those arguing for the rights of the child.
Introduction

• The growth and development of children is influenced and shaped by their environment. The growth
of children can be enhanced through responsive care and care, a healthy diet, clean and safe home
and school, access to dental and health care, and a drug-free society, violence, excessive traffic
congestion, and environmental pollution.

• Children's intellectual and psychological development is nurtured through an environment that

provides new challenges, opportunities for learning, and positive social interactions. For these
reasons, careful attention should be given to providing a physical, cognitive, social, and psychological
environment that will have a positive impact on the growth and development of children.
Identifying High-Quality Programs

• In the current situation, the majority of families / parents depend on childcare institutions/school.
➢ Some families just want their children to benefit from the experience of socializing with peers.
➢ some parents want their children to develop through early intervention programs for group or individual learning
processes to enhance their developmental domains.
➢ some parents need a safe place of education / care center before and after regular school hours.

• High-quality programs
➢ Children show long-term gains in language and cognitive skills, improved readiness for school, and fewer problem behaviors

• Obstacles / challenges
• Cost and location
• Time
• No references and knowledge
Identifying High-Quality Programs

• How to educate Family / parents?

➢ consult a professional organization, search information from professional website, community survey etc

• The characteristics of quality early childhood programs:-

• small group size
• low teacher-child ratio (fewer children per teacher)
• teachers who have advanced educational training in early childhood education, child development, curriculum, and positive
behavior guidance
• physical facilities (clean, safe, spacious, licensed)
• program philosophy; developmentally appropriate goals and objectives
• nutritious meals and snacks
• opportunities for family involvement and collaboration
• attention to cultural and linguistic diversity
• toys and educational activities (developmentally appropriate, variety, adequate in number, organized learning experiences)
• health services (trained personnel, etc
Resource and Referral Services
• Parents can request a list based upon their specific child care
needs, such as location, cost, preferred hours, philosophy, and
child’s age – Website, Community services etc.
• Enourage parents to spend time to explore, survey and make
enquiry to find the best program that suits their personal needs
and preferences.
• Improve the quality of the program.
• Providing staff training for early childhood teachers.

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Features of High-Quality Programs
• Teacher Qualifications
✓ Teachers who have a strong background in education, experiences and knowledge in the
development and early education of children can communicate well with parents / families,
can understand and respect diversity, can provide appropriate and effective learning methods
for the different level of development and can provide positive learning outcomes for children
• Staffing Ratios
✓Preschoolers -provide one full-time teacher for every seven to eight children 3
to 6 years of age. Malaysia ? (10-15)
✓Infant toddlers - one full-time teacher for every three to four children
✓small group size and low teacher/child ratios improve the quality can improve
educational experiences

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Group Size and Composition
• ages of children that can be enrolled
• group size per classroom
• maximum enrollment per program
• special populations of children to be served (e.g., children with
behavior problems, children who have developmental disabilities,
infants, school-age)
• teacher-child ratios

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Program Curriculum
• Quality early education programs are able to meet the needs of
children in all areas of development as follows:
✓physical
✓cognitive
✓motor
✓social-emotional
✓language
✓self-care

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Program Curriculum
• The characteristics of program and curriculum content :
✓Can meet the interests of children.
✓Helping children to acquire new skills, knowledge and
development.
✓Providing play activities, non-academic activities can reduce the
risk of children becoming too tired and / or losing interest.

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Health Services

• High-quality programs take this role seriously and address

children’s health needs by:
• Provide written policies and procedures
• maintaining comprehensive health and safety records
• Provide training to administer first aid and emergency care
• Providing clean, safe indoor and outdoor environments
• Provide emergency response plans
• Provide for health, safety, and nutrition education

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Health Services

• Basic records :
✓children’s health assessments
✓attendance
✓emergency contact information
✓developmental profiles
✓staff health assessments
✓fire and storm drills
✓injuries
✓daily health checks

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The Factors in Physical Environments

• Many aspects of the school’s children attitudes and mood such as

their concentration, interest, attention, stress, fatigue and arousal
probably affect their scholastic performance. These qualities may
in turn, be affected by the psychosocial factors, work organization,
educational methods as well as the physical environment as
climate, light and noise.
• Environments can be defined based on their objective, hard and
quantifiable physical properties, Specific aspects of the physical
environment include: lighting, noise, colour and air quality.
1. Space

• Indoor and outdoor environments are arranged to encourage different types of

play which are interesting, safe, appropriate and challenging for children.
Appropriate space should be set aside for play. It should be big enough to allow
for the free-ranging activities of a child in relation to her age and developmental
progress. Play space should be safe and should also lend itself to exploration
and investigation by the child.

• Creating public and private zones in child care spaces is complex and should be
paid great attention to activity area in classrooms. Centre-wide gross motor or
group activity areas could locate away from rooms where infants sleep.
Unsuitable environment can create excessively noisy spaces. Children need
space where they can play with others but also smaller, quiet spaces for their
own solitary activity, providing opportunities for autonomy and independence but
also a secure base to which they can return or retreat, as and when necessary.
1. Space

• Indoor and outdoor places are both important. Children seek

adventure and challenge in their play outdoors; they explore places
and enjoy transforming spaces to create imaginary worlds. The
indoor space should be large enough to accommodate a desirable
number of children. The centre's capacity is determined by space
for indoor activities

• The child care centre must have access to outdoor play space. If
this is not possible, there shall be an additional indoor gross motor
activity area. The gross motor activity area shall exclude service
and children activities area.
2. Noise

• Noise is one of many factors that affect the classroom climate and the
children’s mood. Although extremely limited, the research on school
noise can be divided into two categories-studies that have looked at the
impact of external noise, generated by airplanes and surface traffic,
and studies of internal noise, generated by the daily activities of
teachers and students

• High background noise level is certainly a common and significant

problem at many day-care centres and schools. A number of measures
were taken to decrease the noise levels, including decreasing group
sizes. The optimal number of children was found to be 3 or 4 to 6 or 7
children per teacher in order to achieve low noise levels and also good
cooperation between the children.
2. Noise

• The noise level in preschool settings is not ideal. Most efforts to

reduce noise are directed at the classroom and at appropriate
selection of room adjacencies and scheduling of classroom
activities within the building. Careful preschool planning and
design of new buildings and thoughtful modification of existing
sites can alleviate noisy conditions in the school.
3. Air Conditions

• Earthman (2004) rates temperature, heating and air quality as the most
important individual elements for student achievement. Furthermore, it is
notable that air conditioning, ventilation and heating systems are found to
contribute quite distinctly to the level of classroom noise (Dockrell & Shield,
2004). The lung is not well formed at birth, and development of full
functionality does not occur until approximately 6 years of age. During early
childhood, the bronchial tree is still developing (Schwartz, 2004).

• Outdoor play time is important for children to get exercise and to learn motor
skills. However, when children are playing outside, they take in more air than
adults, and can be exposed to a lot of pollution. Children should be kept
inside when air quality is poor or should at least be discouraged from intense
outdoor activity. Educators and parents should be aware that nearby
construction and traffic can increase pollution (Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality, 2006).
3. Air Conditions

• The indoor location is important where children spend the most

time and children most spend their time in indoors more than
outdoors. Thus, indoor air quality is as important as outdoor air
quality (Anderson and Bogdan, 2007). Preschools can be prone to
poor air quality. Schools typically have more people in closer
spaces than other buildings. Children, because of their size, may
be more susceptible to pollution and contaminants than adults.
4. Color and Lighting

• Both colour and texture have a great impact on children. The sense of
touch is directly related to cognitive development, and colour has far-
reaching effects which influence behaviour. While cool colours tend to
have a calming effect, and warm colours tend to create warmth and
excitement, a consistent extreme of either in a centre is not desirable.
The overuse of a strong colour scheme should be avoided, as this may
result in over-stimulated, excited behaviour. Colour variety can come
from toys and the children’s art work, colour is used to designate area
for specific activities such as art or reading. Tactile experiences are
provided with water tables, plants, and a variety of furniture coverings
(U.S. General Services Administration Public Building Services, 2003;
Maxwell and Evans, 2002).
4. Color and Lighting

• In Boyatzis and Varghese’s (1994) research, children had positive

reaction to bright colours (e.g. pink, blue, red) and negative emotions for
dark colours (e.g., brown, black, gray). Read, Sugawara and Brant
(1999) found when subjects were in physical environments with either
differentiated space; differentiated ceiling height or wall color, the
preschool children’s corporative behaviour scores are affected. Hamid
and Newport (1989) found pre-school children’s strength to be affected
by room colour. The children’s strength was greater when the children
were in a pink room. When the children moved to the grey room, their
measured strength decreased if they had been in the pink room, but
increased after being in the blue room. The children’s strength was also
lower when they were in the blue room. Additionally, the pre-schoolers
were more likely to paint positive paintings in the pink room and
negative paintings in the blue room (Stone and English, 1998).
4. Color and Lighting

• The relationship between environmental color and mood is unclear. In some instances,
though, red and yellow colour (primary colours) appear to be stimulating in a child’s
environment as children respond to strong colours in their early stages of development and
blue and green colors tend to be calming (Stone, 2001; Poore, 1994). A school should be a
fun place that encourages learning. The use of full-spectrum color creates an energy that is
uplifting and positive. Children love color and respond it well but does not mean the only
approach is to use primary colors. Use of high-reflectance colors in corridors and stairways,
and sharp accent colors on railings and doors, can define points of orientation. In the
classrooms, the color palette should not a distraction; rather, it should promote concentration
through use of a neutral palette with accent brights (Marberry and Zagon, 1995).

• Classroom lighting plays a crucial factor in student performance. The importance of an

appropriate visual environment for learning tasks deserves careful consideration. The visual
environment affects mental attitude, and performance. Lighting of a school should be thought
an efficient component of the educational settings and good lighting contributes significantly to
the aesthetics and psychological character of the learning space (Phillips,1997).
Conclusion

• For indoor and outdoor areas, it’s necessary for children to have
enough space to act and move easily. Children should have enough
spaces, but too large areas are not suitable for them.
• Too noisy areas effect the children’s development and skills in a bad
way.
• Children are sensitive to diseases caused by bad air conditions. So
many materials (soaps, cleaning materials, toys, building materials, art
supplies etc.) cause gases. Gases effect the children by breathing.
• In classrooms, it’s important to use colors which provide concentration.
Its recommended to use neutral and bright colours together.
•
Conclusion

• Windows and doors should be designed to receive the daylight. A

good environment supports the children to feel safe, free and
secure.
• Feelings play an important role in learning. Design and
architecture has an impact on children physical, social, cognitive
and emotional development.
• Educators, environmental psychologists, educational
psychologists, program planners, architects and especially policy
makers need to work together in providing suitable environment of
preschools-