2013 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 115-124
The present study investigated the current status of education for children with profound and multiple disabilities who need intensive medical care through a nationwide survey of special education schools for students with physical and/or health disabilities. The results revealed that approaches used to confirm external or internal changes in the children, and the frequency of use of assistive technology devices, were related to the children's degree of brain dysfunction. Moreover, teachers of children with profound brain dysfunction were reported to focus largely on providing sensory input, whereas those whose students had a relatively mild degree of brain dysfunction were said to tend to emphasize tasks with motor output, although all teachers were said to aim at improving the children's health and cementing or extending the children's interpersonal relations. Overall, the actual status of education in Japan for children with profound and multiple disabilities who need intensive medical care was rich in variety, suggesting a need for more practice reports that could provide teachers with useful information.
