A model of child and sports relationship based on ergonomic factors affecting physical formation

It has been known, for long, that sports activities play a significant part in physical and social development. Human organism was created and designed for movement. The fact that this design and development is affected by the awareness gained, particularly, during childhood period, has been asserted by several researchers. Unfortunately, in our country, this awareness has not been raised at the desired level yet.A child is a being with an innate need for development and movement. Childhood period refers to the years during which the child develops the most quickly and efficiently, and sets the most interaction with the environment. It is essential to provide an education in a way that fulfills the child?s individual characteristics and needs in this period. Based upon the necessity to raise awareness for doing sports during childhood, the significance of the place to do sports is also regarded to play a big part in developing this awareness.The places, where children perform any physical and mental activities, must be in compliance with them. The arrangements providing compliance are also defined as ergonomic arrangements. These arrangements include anthropometric, physical, spatial, psychological, informatics, and safety arrangements.In this regard, a literature review, from general to specific, was conducted, and a model of child and sports relationship based on ergonomic factors affecting physical formation was developed in the context of the study. With the developed model, the relationship between child and sports in the architectural design process for children?s sports facilities were introduced; the ergonomic arrangements for children were determined; and the factors affecting the design of children?s sports facilities and the essential principles were set forth.