Students gain experience in designing, setting up, and maintaining learning environments.
Principles of environmental design and materials selection are grounded in developmental theory about the needs of all children. The broad focus includes settings in homes, group centers, hospitals, and institutions. Each student will visit a center. This course offers students the opportunity to examine critically the parameters of several programs for normal and special needs infants developed by such researchers as Gordon, Badger, Honig, and Levenstein. A special session on understanding the early intervention law is included.