The purpose of this study was to examine the processing involved in the Reading Span Test (RST), which measures the working memory capacity, and to clarify the characteristics of strategies in working memory for verbal stimulation in the deaf and hard-of-hearing depending on the communication mode. Thirty deaf and hard-of-hearing students were classified into two groups based on their communication mode: oral-dominant and oral/sign group. Subjects performed the RST and memory tasks of two kanji words with different mental images level, to examine the differences in memory strategies for target words during RST and the relationship between performance across tasks. The results showed that although there were no differences in RST performance between the groups, indicating that there are differences of strategies for memorizing target words. In the oral-dominant group, uses a strategy that utilize semantic information, and indicating correlation between the RST and memory task of high-mental-image, suggesting that efficiency in the use of semantic encoding processing/strategies is related to the RST. On the other hand, in the oral/sign group, uses a strategy related to phonological and visual information, and indicating correlation between the RST and memory task of low-mental-image, suggesting that efficiency in the use of phonological codes is related to the RST.

This study conducted an interview-based survey of 6 individuals with hearing impairment to elucidate the process of how they acquired the skill of expressing their needs for reasonable accommodation of their impairment during their university years and as well as how this skill was utilized. A qualitative analysis described the following processes of acquiring the skill. In the pre acquisition stage, the participants tended to give up on understanding when they could not obtain necessary information, and parents and teachers explained the necessary accommodations to the persons involved on behalf of them. In the next stage, the participants realized the necessity of expressing their needs by themselves and receiving support services through actual experience. After participating in the training program, being more involved with others, and explaining their needs, they were able to clarify their needs and acquired the skill with an increased sense of purpose. In the utilization stage, they expressed their needs for accommodation and engaged in constructive dialogue by utilizing their prior experience. Contrarily, they sometimes chose not to express their needs, depending on the relationship and situation. Furthermore, it was revealed that the process of acquiring and utilizing the skill was cyclical rather than linear.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the current status and issues of class consultation for regular classes with children with developmental diorder. A questionnaire survey was administered to consultants specializing in special needs education, developmental disorders, and consultation, and responses were received from 67 respondents (response rate: 50.4%). As a result, 45 respondents (68.2%) indicated that they had received requests from elementary and junior high schools to provide class consultation to regular classes where children with developmental disorders were enrolled. Based on the results of the quantitative text analysis, the most difficult aspects of class consultation were schedule adjustment, time constraints, and assessment of students and consultees. The results also indicated that consultants need to have knowledge not only of special needs education but also of subject education, while making proposals that match the actual situation of the school and understanding the strengths of each teacher's expertise in order to facilitate class consultation.

We explored parenting stress and the use of food allergy information in mothers of children with food allergies. Further, we considered methods for parenting support based on the utilization of online food allergy information. Questionnaires were distributed to mothers (N = 77) of children between the ages of 0 and 12, who had food allergy, and visited Hospital X. One-way analysis of variance and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used for statistical analyses. Parenting stress scores in mothers of 0- to 3-year-old children with food allergies were high, with 44.8% of these mothers scoring in the Higher satisfaction with online allergy information was shown to correlate with lower parenting stress. By improving information on food allergies available online, it may be possible to improve satisfaction in mothers of children with food allergies, thereby reducing their parenting stress. 80th percentile or above. This suggests a high level of parenting stress. A significant negative correlation was found between satisfaction with online food allergy information and parenting stress.

A stimulus equivalence procedure was used to teach English to two autistic children with intellectual disability and their development in terms of derived relations was examined. The children received direct instructions pertaining to the relationship between cards containing English letters and those comprising Japanese characters. In order to control exclusion, untaught stimuli were also included in the test. Results indicated that for taught relations, both the children answered the questions with 100% accuracy in five consecutive sessions. Their number of correct answers also increased with each session for some of the derived relations. However, the two children differed on the number of sessions they required to satisfy the attainment criteria and develop an understanding of the derived relations. With regard to untaught stimuli relations, a difference was observed between the two children in terms of the rate at which the number of correct answers they provided increased progressively. The discussion focused on the difference between the two children on two aspects: i) The number of sessions required for each child to satisfy the attainment criteria in terms of the number of correct answers; and ii) the increase in the number of correct answers for questions that assessed their comprehension of untaught stimuli relations.

In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey among teachers in schools for children with factor analysis (main factor method, promax rotation), three factors were extracted, namely, “skills related to the lesson based on assessment (Factor I),” “basic knowledge related to the lesson (Factor II),” and “practical skills related to the teaching profession (Factor III).” The importance was high in the order for factor II, followed by factor I and factor III. No difference in importance was observed in attributes such as teaching experience and differences in disability. In the future, it will be necessary to consider improving the professional development of teachers in special needs education schools from the perspective of integrating "training stage," "recruitment," and "In-service Training," as well as special needs (intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, health impairments) to examine the professionality of teachers required in the special education teacher training course. On the basis of examining the training stage.

China’s Regulation on Education for People with Disabilities (2017) and the Plan for Upgrading the Level of Special Education Phase(2014) mandates that children with disabilities for whom attending school would be difficult and who require care at home are to be provided with homebound instruction. In the view put forward in this law, homebound instruction is an important part of special needs education. The purpose of this study is to clarify the current situation of homebound instruction in China. Analyzing the impact on homebound instruction from the perspectives of teachers' pandemic. professional level, school types, and economic differences between regions. And investigating issues related to homebound instruction in China under the current situation such as the COVID-19

In this study, questionnaires on the skills sought from people with intellectual disabilities in competitive employment and on areas for improvement in employment support were administered to the following: (1) places of business and (2) special support schools (for those with intellectual disabilities) to examine the similarities and differences in their recognition of the challenges of employment support.The results suggested that both sides emphasize general daily life and that the school requires a high level of relationship and communication skills. Concerning challenges in employment support, comparison of the top-ranked response items revealed that businesses sought information on disability characteristics and direct support for the person concerned, whereas teachers at special support schools sought improvements in understanding and information sharing around employment support systems, and indirect forms of support, such as support for parents/guardians. Furthermore, it was found that approximately half respondents in both groups sought improvements in information sharing on post-employment counseling agencies and the person’s own relationships/communication; conversely, they perceived less need for improvement in the use of individualized transition support plans. The above results suggest that it is necessary to further examine the current situation and consider improvement measures for the areas that need improvement.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual status of support for hearing-impaired children studying in regular classes and the attitudes of support staff. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 support staff for hearing-impaired children. The cooperators were students who had experience in supporting hearing-impaired university students and who were majoring in education for the hearing impaired at university. As a result of the interview survey, 12 categories were identified. In addition the results of this survey revealed that support was developed with an awareness of the following: (1) support through various means to enable children to effectively utilize information accessibility as well as the written form of spoken and sound information, (2) response according to the child's developmental stage, content of educational activities, and experience with information accessibility, (3) relationships with hearing children based on hearing-impaired children, and (4) consciousness of the need to encourage active communication between hearing-impaired children and hearing children without the need for support staff. The importance of supporting hearing-impaired children with a view to their independence after graduation from elementary school was also discussed.

This study analyzes the four plans and compendiums that form the basis for curriculum development for schools for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in China. Furthermore, it outlines their characteristics, including the diversification of educational targets and the transformation of educational goals. Additionally, it delineates the research trends in curricula for children with IDD, focusing on the development of compulsory education curriculum theory in school based curriculum research, as well as the development of curricula and school education based on the Compulsory Curriculum Standards for Schools for Children with IDD (2016). By organizing the results of related practical and theoretical research, our study clarifies the status and challenges of curriculum reform for children with IDD. Specifically, school-based curriculum research has been developed in the form of total or partial curriculum development, the revision of existing curricula, and the selective incorporation of curricula from other schools, focusing on principles such as “student based” and “life-oriented” education. To better meet the educational needs of students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities in schools for children with IDD, it is necessary to develop an intellectual disabilities education curriculum that is applicable to diverse students, and study new educational curricula and methods.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the difficulties experienced by visually-impaired international students in their daily lives. We conducted a semi-structured interview on the issue of everyday difficulties experienced by 10 visually-impaired international students. Another interview with the same content was also conducted with 10 sighted international students. The difficult situations of these international students were divided into 6 broad categories and 14 subcategories. In addition, through these data significant difference was found between the responses of the international students with visual impairments and sighted ones in the categories “space”. Finally, there were 6 situations characteristically difficult for international students with visual impairments related to “religious reasons”, “dining table”, “goods”, “halal food”, “ATM” and “welfare service”.

The purpose of this study was to develop “tactile image-based word problem” and “manipulable teaching tools” to promote understanding of dividing fractions, which is generally considered difficult to understand, for students with visual impairment who have difficulty in learning using their vision, and to examine their usefulness. Eight students with visual impairment enrolled in the lower secondary departments of special needs education school for the visually impaired participated in the study, which investigated the usefulness of tactile image-based word problems compared with visual image based word problems. To examine the usefulness of manipulable teaching tools, instructions using dotted diagrams or manipulable teaching tools were provided following the cross-over method. The comparison task did not demonstrate the usefulness of the tactile image-based word problems, but there were many positive reactions based on the participants’ reflection. The manipulable teaching tools were more effective for appropriately recognizing the dividend and the divisor in formulating equations, and there were many positive reactions for the tools by the participants.

Enhancing the way we spend our leisure time is one of the required support to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. Several studies on leisure activities for children with intellectual disabilities have been conducted so far, but most of them are focused on leisure during holidays and long vacations. This study investigates how school-age children with or without disabilities spend their after-school time on weekdays and examines the preference of leisure activities and the evaluations and needs by their parents for how to spend after school through comparisons by the presence or absence of disabilities and grades. The results show that children with or without disabilities often spend their after-school hours on weekdays, at home alone or with family members; moreover, children with disabilities have a particularly poor repertoire of activities and many of which were passive activities such as watching TV or internet video. In the future, it will be necessary to provide after-school support utilizing resources other than family members, and important to secure opportunities to engage in various leisure activities and create a supportive environment for children with disabilities to learn required skills for novel activities.

It is important that the support be person-centered, based on the needs and expressed preferences of the students with disabilities who study in regular classes. In reality, teachers and parents consider the support that students need, and students’ voices are not often reflected. This study clarifies the current situation of students with disabilities in regular classrooms and examines issues related to their support from their perspective. A questionnaire and interview survey of students with disabilities at Z University was administered. The results suggest that five points are significant in providing support to students with disabilities in regular classes: a teacher approach that assumes that the students can do most things by themselves; support for school life outside of class; relationships with teachers; students’ acceptance of their own disabilities; and respect for the independence of students. In each case, support should be provided alongside respect for the individual's needs and preferences. The subjects of this study had the ability to explain their disabilities, their challenges, and their past experiences during their primary and secondary education. There is a need to explore methods of research for people who have difficulty communicating verbally or clearly expressing their own intentions and thoughts.

This paper summarizes the major approaches to Dynamic Assessment (DA) that have been developed so far, and reviews international research on DA in special needs education, with a view to future research. DA is classified as interactionist or interventionist according to the type of interaction between examiner and examinee. The tasks used in DA are broadly classified into domain-specific and domain-general tasks. In DA for children with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities and dealing with domain-general tasks, there are many interactionist approaches, and most of the studies have been experimental. In the future, while assuming the establishment of the reliability and validity of DA, there is a need for research that returns to the integration of instruction and assessment, which is the original goal of DA, through case studies in the field of education, and that sets the primary goal of linking the results of assessment to actual instruction.

The purpose of this study is to show the possibility of using the work experience reflection sheet developed for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as a support tool in employment transition support offices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people with ASD (N=2) and supporters (N=2) who had experienced interviews using the reflection sheet at the employment transition support office, and their impressions and evaluations of the reflection sheet were elicited. As a result, the use of the reflection sheet made it easier for the users to make sense of the mastery experience, and it was inferred that the self-efficacy for the task changed based on verbal persuasion such as clarification of the measures for the task and positive self-evaluation. The use of the reflection sheet elicited the users' narratives, which led to an increase in their motivation to work, and also showed that the users' self-understanding was deepened through the reflection interview. It was pointed out that the reflection sheets are effective for ensuring the quality of support for supporters with little experience. Future research needs to take into account the disability and cognitive characteristics of users, their history of using support, and other factors, as well as a detailed study using a research design that allows for quantitative analysis.

In this study, the multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to investigate whether the interrogative questions including "What is this?" "Where is this place?" "Who is this?" could be taught, by using the picture cards including unknown and known stimuli for a child with autism spectrum disorder who had a limited repertoire of interrogative questions. During the intervention period, if the child did not ask a question or asked an incorrect question when presented with an unknown stimulus, the instructor presented a prompt with text, to encourage the child to express the question. And the prompts were gradually faded out. As a result, the target behavior "What's this?" was maintained after the intervention by asking questions to unknown stimuli. On the other hand, "Where is this place?" was maintained immediately after the intervention, but no response occurred in the follow-up period. In addition, the number of the question "Who is this?" was decreased after the intervention and remained at a low level until the follow-up period. The reasons why the unknown stimuli presented on the picture cards used in this study was not effective in the acquisition of interrogative questions "where" and "who" were discussed.

In this study, we reviewed previous studies about assessments of cognitive abilities and cognitive education programs for preschool children to examine the current situation and the issue in the future of cognitive education in early childhood. As a result, to assess the cognitive abilities, the standardized psychological tests, experimental tasks about the specific cognitive functions, and questionnaires were used. It was considered possible to evaluate the children’s cognitive abilities more accurately and minimize the burden on the child by using these assessments in combination. In addition, it was pointed out that cognitive education programs mainly emphasize interaction with others to promote understanding toward tasks. Most previous studies showed improvement in cognitive abilities of subjects, but some studies showed insufficient impacts on their academic skills. As future issues, it was considered necessary to study a simpler, more reliable and valid assessments and to examine the intervention effects of programs.

In this study, a child with autism spectrum disorder who showed difficulty taking turns with others while playing was instructed in alternating turn-taking behavior in a play situation where playthings were not handed over. The child and the instructor alternately turned cards on a table. Additionally, a circle sheet was placed on either the name sheet of the target child or the instructor to explain the order of turning. In the instruction, the target behaviors were to answer the order correctly and wait for the instructor. The verbal praise and foods were presented when the child answered the order correctly; consequently, the child was able to answer the order correctly. However, for the waiting behavior, in addition to the verbal instruction “you are off,” it was mandatory to present the card just before turning it over and to remove it after turning it over. The results of this study indicate that in addition to the child being able to visually confirm his turn, setting up an environment, wherein turnover is indicated during play and providing instruction on how to wait for a partner, can promote alternating turn-taking behavior even in play situations where playthings are not handed over.

This report examined the effects and issues of online on-demand lecture and on-the-job training with online case studies for teachers of resource room instruction. For the lecture, we analyzed the contents of the questionnaires answered by the participants after the course. In the case study, we examined the "individualized teaching plan" of one case selected by each participant from the students in charge, using the records of online discussions among the participants, university teachers, and supervisors for teaching plan" before and after the revision, and the participants' reflective records. As a result, through the lecture, the participants were able to understand the philosophy and laws related to special needs education, basic knowledge about developmental disabilities in general, and the importance of understanding and raising awareness of disabilities. However, there were some difficulties in understanding the actual conditions of different children as well as how to provide guidance and support according to individual needs, such as how to conduct specific assessments and tests and how to utilize the results. In addition, through the case studies, the participants provided specific examples school education at local educational authorities who participated as advisers, the "individualized of support to the students, and it is thought that they can utilize the knowledge gained in the training and provide support to the students.

Previous studies have shown that cognitive processing ability is involved in the reading and writing abilities of Hiragana voiced and semi-voiced sounds and special syllables in children with Down syndrome. In this study, we conducted reading and writing instruction for voiced sound, semi-voiced sound, and special syllables with cognitive processing ability, and examined the ideal way of instruction. The target children were three girls with Down syndrome in the 4th to 6th grades of elementary school attending a special school. As a result of the assessment, child A has improved reading and writing ability of voiced sound / semi-voiced sound, child B has reading ability of special syllable, writing ability of voiced sound / semi-voiced sound, and child C has improved reading ability of voiced sound / semi-voiced sound. Guidance was given for the purpose of. As a result, it was suggested that teaching phonological information processing ability is effective for teaching special syllable reading ability and voiced sound / semi-voiced sound writing ability for children with Down syndrome who have not acquired phonological information processing ability. In addition, in the online instruction, it was shown that it may be easier to tackle the problem by considering the formation of the report and the question format that is easy to answer.