This fascinating book examines theories of children's perceptions of space and place and explores how these theories are applied to the world of children. The focus is on children in large real world spaces; places that children live in, explore and learn from. An international team of authors compare the experiences of children from different cultures and backgrounds. This book will appeal t o environmental and developmental psychologists and geographers, and also to planners by linking research on children's understandings and on their daily lives to recommendations for practice.

In the first two volumes of the series we elected to cover a broad spectrum of topics in the environment and behavior field, ranging from theoretical to applied, and including disciplinary, interdiscipli nary, and professionally related topics. Chapters in these earlier vol umes dealt with leisure and recreation, the elderly, personal space, aesthetics, energy, behavioral approaches to environmental problems, methodological issues, social indicators, industrial settings, and the like. Chapters were written by psychologists, sociologists, geogra phers, and other social scientists, and by authors from professional design fields such as urban planning, operations research, landscape architecture, and so on. Our goal in these first two volumes was to present a sampling of areas in the emerging environment and behavior field and to give readers some insight into the diversity of research and theoretical perspectives that characterize the field. Beginning with the present volume, our efforts will be directed at a series of thematic volumes. The present collection of chapters is focused on children and the environment, and, as much as possible, we invited contributions that reflect a variety of theoretical and em pirical perspectives on this topic. The next volume in the series, now in preparation, will address the area of "culture and the environment. " Suggestions for possible future topics are welcome. Irwin Altman Joachim F.

This is an essential text for students, teachers and practitioners in a range of early childhood education and care settings.

As a developmental psychologist with a strong interest in children's re sponse to the physical environment, I take particular pleasure in writing a foreword to the present volume. It provides impressive evidence of the con cern that workers in environmental psychology and environmental design are displaying for the child as a user of the designed environment and indi cates a recognition of the need to apply theory and findings from develop mental and environmental psychology to the design of environments for children. This seems to me to mark a shift in focus and concern from the earlier days of the interaction between environmental designers and psy chologists that occurred some two decades ago and provided the impetus for the establishment of environmental psychology as a subdiscipline. Whether because children-though they are consumers of designed environments are not the architect's clients or because it seemed easier to work with adults who could be asked to make ratings of environmental spaces and comment on them at length, a focus on the child in interaction with en vironments was comparatively slow in developing in the field of environ ment and behavior. As the chapters of the present volume indicate, that situation is no longer true today, and this is a change that all concerned with the well-being and optimal functioning of children will welcome.

How does the built environment affect children - their health, their behaviour, education and development? To support them, what do we need to consider and what do we need to do? Can our surroundings foster environmental and social awareness and responsibility? Based on Christopher Day's experiences designing schools and early childhood centres in the United States and Britain, this groundbreaking book sets out to answer these questions and to offer solutions. Children all too often find themselves living in alien surroundings designed with the needs of adults in mind, cut off not just from the natural environment but also childhood itself. Society's reaction - to cocoon children from the outside world or to resort to drugs to control behaviour - fails to address the fundamental causes of problems which lie in the environment not the children themselves. One of the world's leading thinkers on the impact of buildings on people, Christopher Day's insights offer new light on one of the most important issues for today's society.

Since the first edition of this book, American cities have experienced great changes with revitalization and enrichment by ever-increasing and diverse immigrant groups from around the world. As in the past, cities become home to those seeking new opportunities while also harboring those suffering economic deprivation. The chapters in this book discuss the cost in human terms of some of the missing opportunities for urban children and youth, and guide practitioners in their attempts to understand the impact of social policy and social service agencies on clinical practice. Key social factors, e.

Presents a developmental approach to children and their understanding of space and spatial relationships. Traces development from the earliest concepts of the self in space, through the location of objects, to movement through the immediate area, route and landmark learning, and the development of images of distant places. Also covers applied topics--includes a detailed chapter on the special problems of blind children and techniques for working with them.