Behavioral Characteristics in a Children’s Hospital Focused on Children with Physical Disabilities

초록

This is a pilot study aimed to investigate users’ behavioral characteristics in a children’s hospital in Seoul, particularly focused on child patients with physical disabilities. Fifty children under the age below 12 years were observed, while waiting, resting, or playing before and after doctor’s consultation or physical exercise therapy at the three major outpatient’s common spaces in the hospital such as the lobby, the waiting area in the pediatric department, and the play area in the rehabilitation department. The children’s general information such as a gender, an age group, and the presence of an adult patrol or a sibling were collected. The male (80%), 5-7 years (36%) and 7-9 years old (38%) in the age group, and parents in accompany (84%) were the most common cases of the children. Then, four behavioral characteristics such as a physical, emotional, cognitive, and social type and associated detailed behavioral activities in each type were analyzed in relationship to a space where the behavior took place, design elements facilitated in the space, and a time lapse when the behavior lasted. The intent was to find out not only the most frequently occurred behavioral types and activities, but also to examine certain spatial conditions that may be supportive of the children’s behaviors when using the space and design elements. Absence or insufficiency of spatial elements were also investigated that could be necessary to afford diverse behavioral types and activities especially by the children with physical disabilities. As a result, the physical (48%) and the cognitive (33%) behaviors were the most frequent behavioral types in all three outpatient spaces, whereas the emotional (8%) and the social (10%) behaviors were not observed sufficiently. Children with physical disabilities showed the most fundamental behaviors such as walking (25%), standing (21%), and sitting (20%) in the physical behavior category, watching (44%) and touching (32%) in the cognitive c