2023 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 18-27
In order to identify difficulties of supporters of children with developmental disabilities, 13 references were collected using the Central Journal of Medicine and CiNii Articles with the keywords “developmentally disabled children” and “difficulties,” and descriptions of difficulties were classified based on similarities and differences. The number of studies that corresponded to the keywords increased after 2008, and 12 of the included references were those published over the last decade. Study participants included a wide variety of childcare workers, teachers, physical therapists, and nurses. The difficulties facing supporters involved in supporting children with developmental disabilities were classified into 6 categories and 14 subcategories, which were further roughly classified into the following : “process of groping for proper support development,” “support for social skill acquisition,” “dealing with children in unusual situations,” “dealing with families,” and “immaturity of support systems,” “groping towards cooperation” and “underdeveloped organizational systems.” With the rapidly broadened circle of support for children with developmental disabilities, [groping towards cooperation] and [underdeveloped organizational structure] have been shown to be the common difficulties among supporters across occupational categories. The development of support systems should be an issue of significance. Although legislation to support children with developmental disabilities has been developed, back-up support for the supporters is considered insufficient, suggesting the need to consider specific measures to alleviate the difficulties faced by the supporters.
