In considering the lighting needs in a child's bedroom or playroom, safety is at the top of the list. Ceiling lights that provide sufficient light to fill the room are among the best bets to consider. This type of lighting is considered ambient lighting that provides sufficient illumination to fill the entire room. Ceiling lights are always a good bet regardless of the age of the child.
With small children and infants, ambient ceiling lighting provides the ultimate in safety because the child can not reach it and the adults in the home have control via a wall switch or dimmer. Dimmer switches are worth considering as a way to not only provide just the right level of ambient lighting but also as a way of providing a low lighting night light for those children who need a little light to feel comfortable and secure as they fall sleep.
In addition to ceiling lights, recessed fixtures and track lighting can also be a good source of ambient lighting. Children being children, they may tend to become very active and you want to insure that the majority of the lighting fixtures are out of arms way when the children's play starts to get a little rough. Besides protecting the light fixtures, recessed and track lighting can help avoid burn injuries or cuts, etc, if bulbs are touched or broken.
The basic rule of thumb is the younger the child, the more important it is to keep the light fixtures out of their reach.
As the child gets older, you can begin to add some task lighting to help them with close work such as reading, doing homework or playing with a computer.
Track lighting can be effective task lighting since this type of lighting can be adjusted by rotating or aiming it at the area that needs special illumination.
Depending on the maturity and judgment skills of the child, you can always move to a desktop lamp that is specifically designed for children. A child's lamp should be "bottom-heavy" to reduce the risk of it tipping over and the light element should be one of the cooler varieties such as a fluorescent to help reduce the risk of the child getting burned. Traditional incandescent fixtures put out a disproportionate amount of heat as compared to the illumination that they provide and should, if possible, be avoided.
Some parents take the additional step of finding a table lamp that can be attached directly to the table so avoiding any risk of the lamp being knocked over.
Lamps that are not properly positioned can provide unnecessary glare that will lead to eyestrain and fatigue. The lamp should be used to illuminate the reading material or the computer monitor and an ambient light source should be used to reduce or eliminate the contrast between the lamp light and what it is illuminating.
You will probably need to do a little experimenting to get this lighting balance just right. Even though the child will probably tell you that the initial placement of the lamp does the job just fine, he or she is probably not aware of the glare and more than likely will not have any ill side effects for a period of time. The best way to get this balance right is to set it up so that it works for you. The older we get, the more sensitive we are to sources of poor lighting.
If you're among the foster parents who children like to read, consider a lamp placed on a nightstand or table next to the bed. Be sure that it is in alignment with the child's shoulder when he or she is sitting up to read and make sure that the lighting comes from behind the shoulder and a bit off to the side to minimize the stress on their eyes.
In most cases you should avoid floor lamps in a child's room. While they may provide a nice decorative touch, they are easy to tip over and offer the possibility of injury.
Some accent lighting can also be considered to highlight special keepsakes, etc. Use small bulb fixtures and, again, keep the heat emanating from the fixture to a minimum.
Finally, a plug-in nightlight is a perfectly safe option to consider for a child's room. Beside providing that feeling of security, it allows the child to navigate more easily should they get up in the middle of the night.