ReunamoEdu on mukana kiinnostavassa Suomen ja Japanin välisessä tutkimushankkeessa, jossa tutkitaan ääniympäristön vaikutuksia lasten toimintaan varhaiskasvatuksessa. Aineistoa kerätään suomalais- ja japanilaispäiväkodeissa vuosina 2026-2027 Kehittävä Palaute -tutkimusmenetelmällä. Hankkeessa mukana myös Helsingin yliopisto. Lue alta prof. Chizuko Tatemoton (Hyogon yliopisto, Japani) koostamat lähtökohdat tutkimukselle.
What kind of university is Hyogo University?
Hyogo University Junior College opened in 1955 as Mutsumi Gakuen Women’s Junior College (at the time), and Hyogo University opened in 1995. Since then, it has developed into a university with 5 faculties and 7 departments, 2 graduate schools, and a junior college with 2 departments. In 2025, the university will celebrate its 30th anniversary and the junior college will celebrate its 70th anniversary.
Our university trains highly practical business people who are active in society, specialists in the fields of health, early childhood education, and social welfare, school teachers, nursing professionals, and other personnel. We have also developed as a university rooted in the community, actively working to solve local issues. In recent years, we have been focusing on international exchange so that students can take on various challenges, not only in the local community but also in the global society.
Research summary
This study will clarify what kind of sound environment exists in childcare settings in Japan and Finland, how infants behave at those times, and what the challenges are in the sound environment. We will then make an international comparison while taking into consideration the childcare systems of both countries, and based on the evidence obtained from the results, we will contribute to the creation of a relaxing childcare environment where diverse infants can grow together by jointly developing an international childcare environmental sound program centered on maternal heartbeat sounds.
① A study on the relationship between environmental sounds in childcare and infant behavior (FIN/JPN)
In childcare settings in Japan and Finland, we will study the relationship between the state of environmental sounds in childcare and infant behavior at that time. First, we will grasp the characteristics of infants using the ”SDQ (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire)” and the ”SP Sensory Profile (Tsujii, 2015)”. In the study, we will measure the sound pressure (dB) of the childcare environment, record the childcare environment sounds and daily childcare activities, and use ”Reunamo’s observation tool” developed by Dr. Jyrki Reunamo, an research collaborator, to non-participantly observe infants’ behavior in terms of attention, involvement, emotions, social orientation, interaction, etc., and enter the coded behavior into the Cloud. Then, we will verify the results through an analysis of approximately 6,000 observation data from each country and make an international comparison. This will clarify the childcare situations in which it is appropriate to use sound and rhythm to create a relaxing childcare environment.
② International joint development of a childcare environmental sound program based on the survey results (FIN/JPN)
We will jointly develop a childcare environmental sound program that uses sound and rhythm to contribute to the creation of a relaxing childcare environment in a place where diverse children spend their time together. Specifically, we will implement sound sources that have been found to be positive for children in previous studies, with a focus on maternal heartbeat sounds, into ”EDU Ambience pro” (an audio digital tool that can be used on any device) by EDU Ambience, a Finnish research partner company. Next, we will create a childcare curriculum that uses childcare environmental sounds for childcare situations where it is appropriate to use sound and rhythm to create a relaxing childcare environment, as revealed in above study. In this case, we will devise a short program to create a relaxing childcare environment for each variation of childcare situations by using the sounds and rhythms implemented in ”EDU Ambience pro” as childcare environmental sounds. We will complete these programs through trial and examination in the practical fields of Japan and Finland.
