2 Parts Module 2: Assignment: What Does It Mean to Have a Child-Centered Environment? https://www.mediafire.com/file/4i1gbnswg06m3rb/MSEC6104_Mod2Assign_ComparingVisualPerspectives.pptx/file Child

2 Parts

Module 2: Assignment: What Does It Mean to Have a Child-Centered Environment?

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4i1gbnswg06m3rb/MSEC6104_Mod2Assign_ComparingVisualPerspectives.pptx/file

Child-centered environments are designed in response to such questions as the following: How do children view and experience their surroundings? What are their unique needs? How can this environment be arranged to be nurturing, aesthetically inspiring and pleasing, and ease access and transitions? That is why child-centered design is also called “empathic design.”

As you know, young children have a unique point of view. Their perspectives on the world are quite different from adults. Keep in mind, children’s visual views of the world are greatly determined by their height. They also have myopic (or binocular) vision and tend to see what is immediately in front of them. Adults, on the other hand, have a bird’s-eye perspective of the environment and see up and over and, therefore, have a much more global visual view.

For this Assignment, you will consider the following questions as you evaluate key elements of child-centered design:

• What do children see and experience from their visual viewpoints?
• How can taking time to analyze visual perspectives influence child-centeredness and child-centered design?
• What recommendations can I make to ensure that early childhood environments are more child-centered, and why is this so important to fostering children’s healthy development and learning?

Resources

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.Click the weekly resources link to access the resources. 

WEEKLY RESOURCES

Part 1: EVALUATING VISUAL AND SENSORY ENVIRONMENTS

For Part 1 of this Assignment:

• Observe two settings in your community, such as the children’s book section/reading area at a local library and a local playground. While you are there, note how each of the settings looks from your visual perspective as an adult and from the visible perspective of a preschool-age child. In other words, choose various viewpoints and mentally (or through photographs) note how each viewpoint looks at your height and then get down on your knees and note how each perspective would look from a preschooler’s height.
• Review the pairs of photographs taken in a preschool setting from an adult’s visual perspective and from the visual perspective of a preschool-age child  in the Comparing Visual Perspectives PPT Download Comparing Visual Perspectives PPT.
• Then complete each section of the Visual and Multisensory Perspectives template Download Visual and Multisensory Perspectives template.

Part 2: CREATING AN ASPIRATION BOARD

For Part 2 of this Assignment, you will create an aspiration board illustrating  what you “aspire” a child-centered environment to be. Your aspiration board should take the form of a narrated PowerPoint presentation that you have designed. Include the following:

• A title slide
• At least 3 slides with photos or other illustrations and bullet points that explain what you would like to hear, smell, see, and touch in at least 2 places in your child-centered setting—in other words, how you would want the environment to make you feel, as a child. Be sure to include your narrative about this experience in the notes section of each slide.
• At least 6 ideas that you recommend for making your ideal setting more child-centered based on the empathic design approach. You can use images and sketches as well as narrative descriptions. Justify the importance of each recommendation with citations and quotes from the module’s resources or other quality resources that you identify.
• At least 2 slides with your rational and advocacy statement responding to the following:
  • How can child-centered environments nourish and inspire children’s healthy development and foster discovery learning in the content areas through aesthetics and beauty?
  • As an early childhood professional, how would you advocate for the value of child-centered environments for all young children?
• A reference slide listing all resources in APA format

By Day 7 of Week 4