I'd like to share with you how the director, deputy director, and people from headquarters recently went to see the "Children's Perspective" exhibition.
We found on social media an exhibition called "A Child's Perspective" being held in Aoyama, Tokyo, and someone suggested that we go and experience what kind of world the children who spend time with us childcare workers are living in, and this opportunity was made possible!
First of all, a surprise was waiting for us at the entrance to the exhibition hall!
We decided to experience the weight of a child's head, and calculated the weight of a child's head in terms of an adult's body to be a whopping 21kg! When you hold this weight, it's unbelievable, and when you imagine children moving around with a head this heavy and large, it makes sense why we've always wondered why children behave like that, "They're wobbly," or "They have a hard time getting up."
Next up was the breakfast experience! We got to experience what breakfast would look like from a child's perspective, but in adult size, the milk and cups were huge! When you imagine that there is an even heavier liquid inside, it is very difficult to pour something into a cup, and in everyday life you would wonder "Why does it spill?", but this experience made you think "This is really difficult!"
Next, I tried to carry an adult-sized school backpack that an elementary school student carries! It was heavy too... It was so heavy that it made my back arch a little, and I felt like I was back in elementary school.
In addition, with Baby Voice, I experienced that even if I tried to communicate something, my words would come out as crying and the other person would not understand. I experienced that in everyday life, children cry to let adults know that they are hungry, that they want their diapers changed, or that they are sleepy, and I was reminded that it is really important to respond to children's voices and crying in daycare centers and child-rearing.
Finally, we went to a corner where we could see the perspective of a child being scolded by an adult! Using VR, the adult seen from a child's perspective was converted to adult size, and we experienced being scolded by a 4-meter adult looking down on us! As expected, the first thing we felt was the sense of intimidation being looked down on from above! And fear! It made us realize how big adults seem to children. It also made us realize that this is why it is important for adults to first put themselves at children's eye level and accept their feelings in order to reassure them.
I feel that there were many things in the exhibition that I went to this time that I would never have been able to experience in my daily life and that I would never have noticed without experiencing it. I would highly recommend that those who work with children in daycare or parents try it out!
English 
Japanese