Hello, I’m Wang Yanlin, a second-year student of master’s in public health
in our empowerment sciences lab.
I hope that you can take good care of yourself in the coming new year. Now
I’m very glad to share a precious learning tour of Toy Art Museum and Doronko
Child Care Center in Fukouka with you.
From safe wooden toys for babies to world games for adults, the toy museum
is a museum that can be enjoyed by all ages. The volunteer introduced us that
the aim of Toy Art Museum is that creating a museum that offers rich encounters
and a variety of opportunities for people of all ages, from babies to the elderly.
We carried out three days of focus group interview about the volunteer activity
in the Toy Art Museum. The current number of registered volunteers is about 380,
ranging from teenagers to eighties.
Through focus group interview, we feel that volunteer as a guide to play, they
are also as a bridge between toys and children, and between children and parents.
The Toy Art Museum is a precious place that making more friends who have the
same skills and hobbies, and release pressure through playing. Most of the
volunteers also told us that they can get happiness and relax from the smiles
of children.
Addtionally, on the afternoon of the first day, we arrived at the Doronko Child
Care Center with Anme-sensei. Tanaka-sensei received us and we toured the
entire Doronko Child Care Center. The Doronko Child Care Center is a three-floor
building with a Sakura tree on the top floor, which is a good place to communicate
and have a relax in spring.
During the facility tour, we should respect the children's desires, promote children's
growth and development by being aware of their subjectivity and individuality,
which we were deeply impressed by the Doronko Child Care Center's activities.
Finally, we had the honor to take a group photo with the staffs and Santa Claus in
Toy Art Museum on Christmas Day. This visit to Toy Art Museum and Doronko
Child Care Center in Fukouka has benefited us a lot. I hope we can have more
opportunities to learn and see more with teachers in the future.
Hello everyone. I am Gao Haotian, a research student of empowerment lab.
It is my honor to record this event.
The theme of today’s café is Young Carer Empowerment - What can schools
and adults do? We were fortunate to invite Chihiro Wakamatsu-san who is vice
president of DC NETWORK as our presenter. And thanks to Watanabe sensei
who host this café.
Firstly, Wakamatsu-san introduced herself and what is young carer. Young carer
means Children under the age of 18 who assume care responsibilities that adults
would assume if they had a family member in need of care, performing household
chores, caring for family members, nursing care, emotional support, etc. Being a
young carer usually has some negative effects on school, friendships, and employment.
Secondly, Wakamatsu-san shared her own experience. She details everything
from her grandmother's diagnosis of cancer, through clinical treatment to home
health care, and finally to her death. And think from every step. She stressed
that attention should be paid to the following points:
-Understand that "what you see" is only part of the picture, and follow the process
-Assess the burden of caregiving in its entirety: physical, mental, and social (including economic).
-Focus on family members other than the primary caregiver.
-Create a "safe place" to stay.
-No third party to "make sense of the experience".
After that, in the case study part, Wakamatsu-san summarized three points:
1. Unite the government, childcare and education institutions, and the community.
2. Take the first step!
3. You can go on with your life.
At last, Wakamatsu-san mentioned what should we keep in mind when providing
support. She expressed, you never know when you'll become a carer. And inspired
us to continue to work hard in our daily life and work.
I learned from this conference that it is not just the adults in family care, but many
children give a lot to the health of their family members as well.
It is well worth looking into how to alleviate the pain of the person being cared for
and how to reduce the mental and physical burden on the caregiver.
We all look forward to the next Future Café!
Hello, everybody. I'm Luo Qihang, a new research student in our empowerment lab.
It is my honor to attend and record this meeting.
The theme of the meeting is ''smile action'' to think about what we can do now
and increase the smiles of children.
Sawada-sensei presided over the meeting this time.
Firstly, Tomisaki-sensei gave us a brief introduction to pediatric epilepsy. To assist
children targeted at this disease, she introduced us to a new drug named "Midazolam",
and described it in detail, including indications, precautions, dosage, and administration.
Participants exchange views on the drug on the feasibility of applying it to children.
Secondly, Kato-sensei discussed her first-hand experience of the Shizuoka
typhoon disaster. After typhoon No.15 brought pounding rain to the region on
Sept.25, driftwood blocked the running water to the river. The longest time
without running water is up to 13 days. Water outages had a serious effect
on local people's daily life, especially in kindergartens. As working parents of
dual-income families have to go to work, they have no other option but to enroll
their children in kindergartens. Such a disaster brought several negatives on
children, namely psychological torture and material lack.
Thirdly, Sawada-sensei, a physical therapist, showed us ''NICU'', the Neonatal
intensive care unit. She mainly introduced us to the NICU's strengths in the
following areas, antenatal care, in-hospital care, and post-hospital care. In
addition, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, which can help children recover, was
also mentioned in her presentation.
Fourthly, Zhang san gave us her presentation, the theme is "The association
between home-rearing environment and children's behavioral development."
The project aims to study the influence of the home-rearing environment on
children's behavioral development. She finished her study through the children's
behavioral development questionnaire and parenting environment assessment tool.
The results of the study show that personal relationships with parents and
childcare professionals are indispensable for the mental and physical stability of
Children.
Fifthly, Wang san was the last presenter, whose theme is "The association
between home-rearing environment and children's social skills development."
She evaluated by using the social skill evaluation scale from three aspects:
self-expression, self-inhibition, coordination, and home-rearing environment
indexes. The results of the study show that the home-rearing environment
appears to have affected children's social skills.
After the personal presentation, sensei exchanged their opinions and experiences
on children protection issues and methods.
I can learn from this meeting that many peoples dedicated themselves to the
service of children's smiles and health because they believe that children are
the future and that these aspirations are worth striving for.
We all are looking forward to the next meeting!
Hello everyone, I’m Zhang Zhizhen, a research student of our empowerment lab,
here pleasure to report on the meeting of empower skills for evidence based child
care held last weekend.
The purpose of this meeting is to draw out the power of each staff member and
to create actionable practice methods from child-caring workplaces when using the
5 evidence-based tools, which provide comprehensive child-raising and child-rearing
support for "the best benefit to children". Members of Evidence Based Child Care
Empower Skills for Child care Professionals, the managers and teachers in management
position of kindergartens, was invited to participant this meeting. Kato-sensei, from
Hutaba kindergarten, presided over the meeting this time. And thanks to empowerment
lab member Zhao Ruifeng-san for his assistance of arranging the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, Anme-sensei kindly greeted participants and gave a
speech on creating a vibrant workplace environment for energetic childcare staffs.
Sensei briefly introduced the definition of empowerment. By telling: there are existing
scientific evidences shows that being praised also fosters compassion, sensei
demonstrated part of the research methodology in empower skill based child care
and how important for child care staffs to equip empowerment mindset. And then
Anme-sensei recommend the relevant websites of our empowerment lab, we have
picture books, YouTube videos as publicity and application materials for child care
empowerment, furthermore for primary and middle school students empowerment.
Everyone in child care skills research group can feel free to use these materials
if someone needs them.
After Anme sensei’s speech, Sakai-sensei, the leader child care staff of Ogura
kitahureai kindergarten, told how to use the tool correctly and shared examples
in child caring evaluation measurement. Sakai-sensei started with introducing
the motivation to be occupied in child caring among Japanese child care staffs.
From this, she highlighted the importance of professionalization in childcare education.
A qualified child care staff should equip good communication skills, which is
the premise for staffs to use developmental assessment tool and Childcare
environment evaluation tool.
The next speaker, Tanaka-sensei, introduced the discipline to be followed as
child care staffs and the future dream of child caring. Therefore, Tanaka-sensei
proposed child care staffs to keep energetic and positive when facing child,
colleague, guardian of the child, and the community. This requires the promotion
of the whole society. He emphasized that in order to change the current situation
and achieve the future dream of child caring, learn from the evidence-based tool
is necessary.
After the speeches of several sensei, host Kato-sensei let the discussion part
very orderly. From the child care staffs’ perspective to see the 5 evidence-based
tool, we also got a clear understanding of how the follow-up work would be carried
out after the questionnaire reached each kindergarten. It is my pleasure to see
practice and theoretical research always promote each other like this.
