The Residential Space as Favouring of Daily Activities

Affordances of Five-Year-Old Children

Abstract

An ergonomically suitable environment for children should be able to promote independence in their daily activities and contribute to the development of their social and cognitive skills. This article presents research that aimed to assess how five-year-old children perceive the main residential environments in terms of facilitating their daily activities, aiming to offer design recommendations. To achieve this objective, the research used the Theory of Affordances and photographs of domestic environments to investigate how the participating children perceived the elements and characteristics of these spaces, identifying which ones favored or limited their daily activities. The children's ability to reach and access objects, the presence of ludic aspects in the environment and the clear understanding of practical functions were considered elements that promote the autonomous performance of activities. Based on these results, a set of design recommendations was developed to help improve daily activities and, therefore, the socio-cognitive development of five-year-old children.