Motor clumsiness, as typified by Developmental Motor Coordination Disorder (DCD), is also associated with weak mimetic function known as characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the neurophysiological basis of which is the mirror neuron system. Its activity is reflected by mu frequency over sensorimotor cortex among EEG oscillations, and mu power is reduced (mu suppression) during actual movement, observed movement, and imagined movement. In this study, mu rhythm was measured in 29 typically developing adults during (1) movement execution, (2) movement observation of others, (3) movement observation of objects, and (4) watching random dot pattern with metronome sound, and analyzed in relation to ASD and DCD tendencies. As a result, both weaker ASD tendency group and weaker DCD tendency group showed more mu suppression during movement execution and movement observation. These results suggests that the activity of the mirror neuron system is affected by tendency of ASD and of DCD, and take a charge of common background for clumsiness in both ASD and DCD.

The purpose of this study was to organize the previous studies on truancy, and to confirm the moves of recent trends. Over the past three decades, a considerable number of studies on truancy have been conducted in Japan. In this study, 967 previous studies on truancy from 1991 to 2021 were picked up, and these studies’ titles were used as the object data for analysis. To analyze such a lot of studies’ titles, KH coder was suitable to conduct a quantitative analysis of the text mining. From the result of co-occurrence network analysis, the theme of previous studies could be classified into eight categories. From the result of correspondence analysis, characteristic words for each era were extracted. Additionally, by linking the results of the co-occurrence network analysis with those of the correspondence analysis, it was found that themes of previous studies have shifted from the idea of preventing truancy to the idea of enriching out-of-school institutions for truants, reinforcing psychological approaches, and supporting for truants who are not attending to their universities or with developmental disabilities. Based on the results, this study proposed that truancy researches in the future will broaden its scope and become more specific and individualized.

This study aimed to identify Japanese elementary school students possessing twice exceptional potential by developing a prototype teacher's checklist focusing on the assessment of the gifted aspect of 2E, based on two checklists used in the gifted education of the United States. In this study, the reliability and validity of the checklist and the possibility of screening for 2E were investigated. Eight teachers from a public elementary school performed a survey of 38 children in a resource room using the prototype checklist. Every child was subjected to 2 subjects. The results showed a degree of internal consistency in the survey items. Moreover, in 17 out of 38 cases, the inter-rater reliability indicated moderate correlations, whereas no significant correlation was exhibited in the other 21 cases. Through this study, it can be inferred that the evaluation of twice exceptionality by teachers in Japan is currently inconsistent. Also, it is required to improve the reliability and validity of the checklist by expanding the scope of the targets such as involving the teachers in regular classes.

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of classroom management that make it easy for children with developmental disabilities to spend time in the classroom. Two homeroom teachers of a class with a good classroom atmosphere were selected for semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA). As a result, five categories were generated: "Classroom management", "Relations with children, "Response when problems occur", "Guidance for building smooth relationships among children" and "Response to children's actual conditions. It was found that the characteristics of classroom management that makes it easy for children with developmental disabilities to spend time in the classroom are based on classroom management that builds relationships that allow all members of the classroom to support and nurture each other, and the characteristics of a classroom that fosters a good classroom atmosphere by building trust between children and teachers. In the future, based on the findings of this study, it will be necessary to create a model that incorporates more multifaceted elements by conducting a survey of students with developmental disabilities as well as analyzing classrooms with a poor atmosphere.

In this study, we compared the effects of constant task condition and varied task condition on increasing on-task behavior in six children with ASD. We used mastered tasks and an adapted alternating treatments design was implemented to compare the correct responses and affects. The results showed that varied task condition was similar to constant task condition for correct responses and affects. Even with mastered tasks, repeated presentation occasionally resulted in an unsustainable decline in the correct responses. The results were discussed for the behavior of attention toward the task depending on how the task was presented and the use of mastered tasks.

We interviewed 14 students and their teachers to clarify the process that students with developmental disabilities and low self-esteem feel the effects and changes they experienced while receiving instruction in the resource room. As a result of the M-GTA analysis, a related model consisting of 7 categories and 29 concepts was generated: [Impressions before instruction], [Impressions during instruction], [Feeling of trust and security in the person in charge], [Feeling of need for instruction], [Interaction with others], [Psychological changes], and [Changes in interpersonal relationships]. Although the negative impressions that the students had before the instruction did not disappear, a process of psychological change and change in interpersonal relationships was found as the students received the instruction while feeling a sense of trust and security in their teachers. The results showed that the positive things that the students said were generally consistent with the things that the teachers valued in their instruction. In addition, the content of the instruction was related to changes in self-evaluation, and was thought to have an effect on changes in self-esteem.

The purpose of this study was to promote collaboration among homeroom teaches in special needs education schools for children with intellectual disabilities. We conducted two programs. One program was "collaborative assessment" in which teachers confirmed differences in their understanding of the target child, other was "5-minute meetings" in which homeroom teachers briefly discussed the target child after school. We examined the effectiveness and issues of two programs from a practical perspective. Action research was used as the research method. The participating school was a special needs education school with 28 classes, mainly for children with intellectual disabilities. One collaborative assessment and 13 5-minute meetings were conducted during the study period. The results of the questionnaire administered to teachers suggested that the collaborative assessment helped homeroom teachers better understand the target child, and that the 5-minute meetings positively impacted on the target child’s growth, the homeroom teachers' team teaching, and the lessons given by homeroom teacher teams.

The cause of learning difficulties among children with foreign roots tends to be considered low abilities of their second language, which are due to the language environment. Consequently, the identification of learning disabilities is delayed. This study reported a boy in the eighth grade who experienced learning difficulties correspond this case. His vocabulary, reading, and writing skills in Japanese were equivalent to or lower than children in the lower grades of elementary school, and he displayed low cognitive abilities for the development reading and writing skills. Since he had lived in Japan for about eleven years, his language skills in Japanese could not be attributed solely to environment factors, and he was suspected to be learning disabilities. We assume that teachers lack experience in teaching children with foreign roots, and they lack awareness of learning difficulties which are due to learning disabilities. These might result in delay in identification of learning disabilities among children with foreign roots.

In this study, a child with blindness in the second grade of elementary school was given introductory instruction to develop the ability to read maps in the Braille textbook for social studies, while alternating between concrete teaching materials and their diagrammatic representations. During tasks prior to the instruction, it became clear that one of the difficulties in reading diagrams was understanding the relationship between the diagram as a whole and its constituent parts. During instruction, we used three types of concrete teaching materials that have external reference cues such as coordinates or a frame: inlaid teaching materials, threading boards, and the game Othello. The child was asked to map these objects to diagrams, while also emphasizing the child’s verbalization of the images obtained through tactile perception. The same tasks performed before the instruction were repeated after the instruction, and it was found that the child was able to grasp different symbols in more accurate positions and showed improved ability to read diagrams on the basis of positional relationships with respect to the whole. In addition, analysis of the child’s finger movements during task construction showed an increase in the behavior of purposely checking positional relationships with the frame and others.