This study aimed to examine the influence of family resilience and cognitive appraisal on psychological crisis experienced by parents of children with developmental disabilities, using the ABCX model. We administrated a questionnaire or an online survey to 144 parents of children with developmental disabilities. The results showed that higher stressors and appraisal of thread and lower controllability indicated higher psychological stress among parents. It was observed that higher family resilience and controllability indicated higher mental health. Moreover, lower stressors and higher family resilience indicated higher family adaptability. There are no significant association between psychological crisis and the second-order interaction effects of stressors, family resilience, and cognitive appraisal. These results didn’t support the hypothesis that, based on the ABCX model, interactions between stressors, family resilience, and cognitive appraisal can reduce the psychological crisis experienced by parents with developmentally disabled children. The study suggests that low psychological crisis experienced by parents may be influenced by higher family resilience and lower threat to stressors, along with higher commitment and controllability.

We trained emotional self-regulation in two children with an autism spectrum disorder. Precursor behaviors preceded inappropriate behaviors in one child who understood self-emotions and situations in which they occur to some extent. However, the other child who had difficulty understanding self-emotions exhibited fewer precursor behaviors. In the “coping behavior training” phase, the children selected and performed coping behaviors when they became frustrated or anxious during games. Subsequently, in the “coping behavior and attitude feedback” phase, the trainer provided feedback on the following behaviors during the game, rules-following, cheering, willingly preparing and cleaning up, and being patient. Consequently, the first coping behavior training procedure was effective for the child who could understand self-emotions and exhibited precursor behaviors. However, the coping behavior training and attitude feedback procedure were more effective for the other child. We have discussed conditions where coping behavior training or attitude feedback is more effective.

This study examined the possibility of selecting educational priorities based on （1） functional assessment of cases and （2） eight training perspectives for acquiring decision-making for goal setting in Jiritsu-Katsudo education. The participants were primary and middle school special support class teachers （N＝38). The training included analyzing behavioral problems through the functional assessment of antecedent and consequent conditions and studies prioritizing educational tasks （evaluating instructional tasks from eight perspectives on a fivepoint scale). We examined the training efficacy using pre- and post-training exercises. The analysis of exercise descriptions indicated that pre- and post-training descriptions of antecedent and consequent conditions increased from 10 to 29 and 0 to 27, respectively. Changes in the descriptions of the target participants’ “priority” pre- and post-training were as follows: Increased frequency of use of 8 viewpoints （including different pre- and posttraining perspectives）（N＝14), use of multiple viewpoints out of 8 （0 viewpoints used before training）（N＝15),use of viewpoints different from before training （frequency is and unchanged）（N＝3). There were also changes in descriptions of “urgency of improvement”, “the impact on others”, and “frequency of behavior”, in the pre- and post-training of all participants. These results suggested that the number of participants describing the antecedent and consequent conditions increased after the training. This finding supported previous research suggesting that combinations of lectures and exercises based on behavior theory improve descriptions in antecedent and consequent conditions. In addition, there was a training effect because most participants used one of the eight perspectives after training, which was not the case before training, and selected the educational task’s priority. Future research should examine the efficacy of practical studies in education after training and the environment for acquiring accurate Jiritsu-Katsudo knowledge and skills.

This study developed a family-based cognitive behavioral therapy （FCBT） program for anxiety symptoms of children with developmental disabilities and maternal mental health problems and examined the program’s efficacy. Five mothers of children with developmental disabilities aged 10-12 years participated in the program. A follow-up study indicated a significant effect on reducing the children’s generalized anxiety disorder symptoms and a partial impact on maternal mental health, parenting stress, and parenting styles. These findings suggest the need for randomized controlled trials, assessment by third parties, and opportunities to interact among parents.

This study examined the efficacy of piano fingering instruction for children with ID and ASD. A child with ID and ASD participated. Based on WISC-IV and behavioral observations of the participant, we determined that the target behavior was playing the keyboard with the five right-hand fingers, and that the teacher’s modeling and two visual prompts were used as instruction. We conducted a Pre-Post-Test to evaluate the results, which indicated that the participant’s fingering improved in the post-test due to the instruction. This study demonstrated that WISC-IV and behavioral observations could determine target behaviors and instruction. Future studies should investigate how to teach children with different cognitive profiles and use more reliable experimental study designs.

Study objective: We taught a child with autism spectrum disorder and severe intellectual disabilities enrolled in a special needs class to respond to questions using the expressions “This one,” “Yes,” and “No.” Design: A multiple baseline design across behaviors was used. Setting: A special needs classroom. Participants: A child with autism spectrum disorder and severe intellectual disabilities participated. Intervention: We used three training steps. (1) The teacher asked, “Which one is a (stimulus name)?” We asked the participant to respond by pointing to the stimulus and saying, “This one.” (2) The teacher pointed to the stimulus and asked, “Is this a (stimulus name)?” We asked the participant to respond by saying “Yes,” if the stimulus was correct. (3) The teacher pointed to the stimulus and asked, “Is this a (stimulus name)?” We asked the participant to respond by saying “No.” if the stimulus was incorrect. Measures: We conducted five trials in one session and calculated the correct response rate for each session. Results: The correct response rates increased after the intervention and had a large effect size. However, there was a significant variance in the “yes/no” responses. Conclusion: The child quickly acquired the responses. However, there was a large variance in the “yes/no” responses. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the number of stimuli in the early stages of the intervention to increase the correct response rate.

This study investigated the efficacy of a Roman letters teaching method for children in elementary school special needs classes using the stimulus equivalence paradigm. Participants were children with intellectual disabilities and/or autism (N＝4). We mainly used a multiple-baseline design. The procedure included five phases and a generalization test. We mainly taught the responses to the alphabet and the Roman letters using responses derived from the stimulus equivalence paradigm. The independent variables were printed materials, paper cards, oral instructions, blackboards, and notebooks. The dependent variables were the number (or the rate) of accurate, written or verbal responses. The results indicated that all the participants acquired alphabet writing because they could convert between upper and lower cases, spell orally, and read and write Roman letter words. Elementary schools already use the materials used in this study, which increased the social validity of this study’s method.