Abstract
The aim of this study was to find what kind of childcare content area “physical and mental health” childcare workers emphasized. We asked eighteen childcare workers to answer three types of questions by free description. The first question was what kind of area “physical and mental health” childcare workers always feel important. As a second question, we asked them to write the content area “physical and mental health” practiced by childcare workers for all pre-school children. As a final question, we asked them to write the content area practiced by childcare workers for pre-school children with special-needs. As for the results, we obtained three main findings. First, it was important for childcare workers in this study to regulate children’s life and physical activities, whereas it was unimportant to guide about food education, enjoying a sense of fulfillment for physical activities, and extracting independent activity related to physical and mental health. Finally, for pre-school children with special-needs, it seems that they focused on physiological and psychological fullness. We discussed from the viewpoint of improvement in current practice. For a future direction, it is necessary to repeatedly examine what childcare workers emphasize on childcare content area “physical and mental health” in another nursery pre-school.
