Wearing a mask at a childcare site. Problems such as it is difficult to convey facial expressions to children

Wearing a mask at the childcare site Issues such as it is difficult for children to convey facial expressions 7:19 on June 28

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With the spread of new lifestyles to prevent the infection of the new coronavirus over the long term, the wearing of masks has become established even in the field of childcare, but there are problems such as it is difficult to convey facial expressions to children. Experts point out that "children read various things from facial expressions and mouth movements. It is important to devise ways to convey facial expressions while considering safety."

At the Fukui nursery school in Kochi City, all nursery teachers wear masks, but in the class of 0-year-old children, when children were eating baby food while wearing masks, some children swallowed food without chewing It was.

For this reason, the nursery teacher took off the mask temporarily without talking, and showed a good example of "Kam" when the children muffled, and the children became able to imitate their mouth movements and eat well.

Also, when playing with play cards in the class of a one-year-old child, the child could get angry when the nursery teacher performed the eating gesture with the mask on.

And when I took off the mask temporarily, the toy foods were brought to my mouth one after another.

At a nursery school, a questionnaire was given to 20 nursery teachers about wearing masks, saying, "It was difficult for me to learn words and songs by looking at my mouth," or "When teaching a word, I showed my mouth. I can no longer do that."

Shuichi Watanabe, the director of the Fukui Nursery School, said, “I had more voices than I thought it would be difficult to support childcare. I would like to discuss it with everyone and think about how to work.”

Professor Tomohiro Ikuta, a soybean professor at the Faculty of Education of Tamagawa University, who is investigating the problems of childcare by the new coronavirus in this situation, says that children imitate their mouth movements and read their feelings from the facial expressions of adults. However, it is important to devise a way to show facial expressions depending on the situation while considering safety, which makes people worried if they cannot see their facial expressions.

Professor Soybean Ikuta said, “I think many people now realize that there are many things that can be conveyed to children through facial expressions. It is difficult to do, but at the same time, we consider safety and support the growth of children. I have to do that."

Parenting while masking

Regarding raising children while wearing a mask, the mother also said, ``I was riding a bicycle on the way back and forth from the nursery school and talking about what happened on one day, but the conversation was lost because my voice was hard to hear. ”, “When not only adults but also children are wearing masks, I sometimes worry that my facial expressions are difficult to read and I feel sick,” etc. We heard voices calling for the need to devise and raise children.