Useful Concepts to Explain Developmental Disorders to Teachers to Help Them Understand Their Students

Abstract

  Currently, the idea that developmental disorders may be associated with various problems that occur in schools has been well established. It is necessary to assist in various ways students with developmental disorders. However, acknowledging that the cause of various problems is from developmental disorders can easily lead to the oversimplification that the problem behavior of students is always from developmental disorders. However, it is more useful and less harmful to focus on the behavioral characteristics of each individual and make a specific response rather than over-emphasize the diagnosis. Therefore, apart from diagnosis, the author constructed a computer system model in which explanatory concepts are described in one dimension. Based on those concepts, and using various analogies, the author constructed training programs for teachers, and tested the programs in public high schools, junior high schools and elementary school to examine their validity. Post-program feedback (on a five-point scale) showed that the programs were generally well received: easy to understand explanation (4.70), easy to associate with actual cases (4.44), easy to think of concrete measures (3.88). In follow-up interviews, teachers expressed understanding of the training content and commented about their students based on that understanding.