Early childhood is the very important time throughout life as a critical period of development. It is the period to form the foundation of infants and little children’ healthy growth through the warm, affectionate, and stable parenting.
Recently, due to changes in the social atmosphere like free childcare, increase of working moms and nuclear family, the number of infants and little children attending daycare has increased and the admission age of a child care center is in the trend of going down gradually. Like this, parenting was accomplished at home mainly in the past, but recently the function of child care in the day care center is on the rise. Therefore, the interest and the need for high-quality child care are increasing.
Generally, when we think of ‘the quality of child care’, we are apt to think only the educational side like child care process. However, if we don’t consider the quality of child care center as a living space for 12 hours a day, ‘high-quality child care’ may lose the balance.
Infants and little children have the rights to live comfortably in the child care center like homes. Adults should plan and operate the environment of child care center in consideration of the needs and developmental characteristics of infants and little children to live in a comfortable state like at home.
Child care centers are different from the space for ordinary adults. The opinions of specialists who have much knowledge about the needs of infants and little children, behavioral characteristics, and the knowledge of child development must be reflected. On the other hand, because the child care specialists do not have the knowledge of architectural design, they must cooperate with the architectural specialists organically. In other words, it is essential for the child care specialists to work together with the environmental specialists in order to design and operate care environment suitable for the development of early childhood.
At present, in case of our country, the interests in child care is rudimentary stage. The function of child care at home is in the state of weakness owing to the increase of working moms and nuclear family, so the demand for high-quality care and attention will increase gradually. For this reason, the studies for the environment of child care should be accomplished vividly in various areas in order to obtain the more completed ‘the quality of child care’.