On Monday, July 20th (a national holiday), fourth-year students from Professor Saori Tanaka 's seminar Department of Childhood Education Faculty of Human Sciences, held a participatory program called "The Little World Institute" as part of their course "Child Health and Safety," which allowed participants to experience the perspective of infants and toddlers. Approximately 100 faculty members, high school students, and other students participated.
This program is an educational and research activity aimed at deepening our understanding of infants' vision, taste, bodily sensations, spatial awareness, and the creation of safe environments, and at considering childcare environments and support from a child's perspective.
On the day of the event, based on research findings on infant and toddler development and physical characteristics, six experience booths were set up: "Foreign Language Picture Book Experience," "Experience the Stride Length of a 2-Year-Old," "Circuit Experience Recreating the Physical Characteristics of a 3-Year-Old," "VR Experience of Getting Lost," "Taste Experience Through Color," and "Experience How a 0-Year-Old Sees the World." Participants deepened their understanding of child development and the childcare environment from multiple perspectives while actually experiencing how infants and toddlers perceive the world in their daily lives. The experience also provided an opportunity to deepen their learning about the perspectives required of childcare providers and the importance of creating a safe environment.
In holding this program, we received cooperation from external experts and organizations, including DJ Kim Ji-sook of "LOVE FM" for reading Korean picture books, the experiential English learning facility "KITAKYUSHU GLOBAL GATEWAY" for a lost child simulation VR, and chef and childcare worker Yuki Kobachi for a taste experience using colors. This allowed us to create a rich learning environment.
Many participating students shared feedback such as, "By experiencing how children see and feel things, I realized the importance of thinking from a child's perspective as a childcare provider."
In the Tanaka Seminar, we will continue to integrate education and research to provide practical learning, aiming to cultivate childcare professionals who can approach childcare from a scientific perspective and think and act from a child's point of view.
[Department of Childhood Education / Cooperation: Library]
