Abstract
To clarify the information necessary for accepting a child with foreign roots in nursery schools, we conducted a questionnaire survey of nursery schools that accept children with foreign roots and their parents in Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, where there are many international students, and in Kure City, where there are many foreign technical intern trainees. As a result, it became clear that both cities do not know the overall number of children with foreign roots or enrollment information for each nursery and that nursery schools are concerned about the fear of accidents due to language barriers, lack of understanding of culture and food, and difficulties communicating with parents. Therefore, there are requests for materials introducing the culture of the child’s parents’ country, prior understanding of nationality, language ability, and dietary considerations at the time of acceptance, provision of information on the city’s support system, and assignment of additional nursery school staff. On the other hand, parents of children with roots in foreign countries had more difficulties with the childcare staff than those with lower Japanese language skills in communicating with their children, and they requested the need for documents and postings in English, interpretation and communication support tools, materials introducing their own culture, and halal food. Responding to such requests as soon as possible is necessary, but budgets are limited. The authors created and distributed a tool for communication by finger pointing, consisting of “simple Japanese,” English, and illustrations, which the nursery schools highly appreciated.
