木製玩具のデザインが子どもの発達に及ぼす教育的効果の検証と考察

抄録

With the promotion of the maintenance and utilization of domestic forest resources, a variety of educational activities, called “mokuiku,” which aims to raise awareness of forestation through hands-on experience with wood from early childhood, have been developed with a focus on “mokuiku” toys. In a preliminary study, through a survey and analysis of wooden toys, the author created an index that clearly indicated their educational characteristics and the relationship between children’s developmental stages and design. In this study, we created five prototype designs based on this index, and examined how they would affect children’s growth. The evaluation results of the experiments at the nursery school confirmed the educational effects of each of the prototypes on the nursery school children, including the development of fingertips, concentration, imagination, and coordination, suggesting that the toy designs created based on the indexes may promote children’s growth and development.