Research on the strengths of people with autism spectrum disorder has attracted attention in recent years, and research on this topic is expected to increase in the future. We conducted a literature review, organized past research, and indicated future issues. Researchers have described the strengths of ASD people since the first diagnosis of autism. Moreover, studies on savants’ abilities have increased approximately since the 1970s, and then studies on perceptual processing ability have increased as a characteristic more commonly seen in ASD. But researchers did not consider ASD people’s abilities as strengths in the past and did not use the term “strengths”historically. The term “strengths” have been used since the late 2000s, and research on the special interests of ASD individuals has progressed. Furthermore, researchers consider ASD people’s perceptual processing abilities as a strength, and studies on the assessment of their strengths have evolved. We can identify several reasons for the increasing studies focusing on ASD people’s strengths: changes in perspectives on disability represented by the International Classification of Functioning, development of strength-based approaches to mental health and welfare, and the rise of positive psychology. We have discussed notable issues in planning research on strengths and the need to develop tools to assess strengths and their applications in daily life.

Research has suggested the need for incorporating effective activities for social skills development in regular classes, including for children without disabilities. In a regular elementary school classrooms, children with autism spectrum disorder （ASD） often have social behavior problems. They need particular support to acquire social skills. Appreciating others is one social skill useful for developing the “sense of fellowship” among children. This study examined the effects of promoting saying “thank you” behaviors on the whole class, including children with ASD, in developing the “sense of fellowship” among all the children. The results indicated that problems in implementing SST and setting opportunities to receive social reinforcement limited the increase in target behavior occurrence frequency. Nevertheless, this study demonstrated the efficacy of using combined use of a token economy method. In particular, the overall target behavior’s occurrence frequency, including those in ASD children, increased when we used reinforcers criteria tailored for an individual child more than when we used a uniform standard for the classroom. Therefore, the procedures used in this study contributed to improving the “sense of fellowship” of children in the classroom. We also identified specific issues, including generalizations and maintenance of improvements in ASD children and the burden of implementing the procedures.

Recently, many children have difficulties in sitting with an appropriate posture for long periods. Unsuitable postures might lead to reprimands and cautions. The increase in reprimands and warnings at home and school might cause secondary disabilities and problems, such as aggressive behaviors and school maladjustment, particularly in children with developmental disabilities. Therefore, instructions focusing on specific behaviors such as maintaining the seated posture during learning are necessary. We examined the efficacy of visual instructions and feedback to promote class participation, focusing on maintaining a seated posture when studying. The participants were two first-grade students with autism spectrum disorder enrolled in a special needs class. The results indicated that developing an environment encouraging maintaining posture, evaluations at one-minute intervals, and visual feedback using a token economy system promoted participation in the class. It is possible to reduce the need for direct attention and reprimands for encouraging class participation when focusing only on the “posture.” Moreover, teachers and the target children highly evaluated the procedure’s validity. These results suggest that these procedures could help devise learning methods in special needs classrooms.

We examined a support program by teachers for developing and implementing behavior support plans for students with behavioral problems in special needs schools for intellectually challenged children. The program consisted of in-school teacher training to promote the development of behavior support plans, provision of tools, and support for developing and implementing these plans and promoting their execution. The program also consisted of individual support to facilitate executing the plans and opportunities to report on conducting the plans for improving, developing, and implementing them. Four teachers and administrators participated in the program as a support team. Then, behavioral support plans were developed and implemented by the target teachers. The validity of these plans increased after providing individual support. Moreover, the plans maintained their high validity in the second year. Self-evaluation by target teachers indicated that they positively evaluated implementing the behavior support plan, its efficacy for changing students’ behavior, and the cooperation with other teachers. In addition, implementing the plan had specific effects on decreasing students’ behavioral problems and increasing desirable behaviors, consistent with teachers’ self-evaluations. These results suggest that the support program conducted in this study encouraged teachers in special schools for intellectually challenged children to develop and implement behavior support plans and to conduct effective support. Nevertheless, we must address issues such as individual efficacy of opportunity settings implemented in the program and the fading out of external supporters in the future.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey of university students （N ＝215） to clarify the relationship between autism spectrum tendencies, anxiety, and action selection for university life problems. The participants responded to the autism spectrum quotient （AQ） and scenarios assumptions. We developed three scenarios with different action goals and clarity of achievement. A logistic regression analysis results showed that students with high AQ scores chose the “no switching” option in one scenario, whereas there was no association between AQ scores and action selection, in the other two scenarios. However, it was suggested that the characteristics of social skills as ASD tendencies may have an effect on action selection compared to cognitive flexibility in the scenario showing positive results. Analyzing anxiety, indicated that students with ASD tendencies might have high anxiety despite behaving similarly to others.

Studies have examined the role and significance of welfare workers for people with disabilities. These studies have indicated the significance of welfare workers for disabled people, especially in supporting coping with challenging behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder （ASD）. However, few studies have examined tasks and features that welfare workers consider difficult in detail. This study was conducted to clarify difficulties faced by welfare workers caring for people with disabilities, specifically for ASD persons displaying challenging behaviors. We administered a questionnaire to welfare workers caring for such people. The results indicated that 88.2% of workers had difficulties in supporting them. We conducted a one-way analysis of variance on differences in difficulties of providing support for such people between different welfare services. The results indicated a significant main effect of the difficulty supporting people in residential care. Multiple comparisons of differences among service types indicated a significant difference between supporting people in residential care and children’s developmental support. The results of analyzing open-ended responses on the workers’ difficulties indicated three categories: “how support should be,”“conflicting feelings about support systems,” and “how welfare services and systems for people with disabilities should be.” Moreover, analyzing the open-ended responses about necessary support and measures suggested three categories: “how support should be,”“investigations and research,”and“ welfare services and systems for people with disabilities.” These results indicate that difficulties reported by welfare workers require support for coping with challenging behaviors, support systems, and institutional problems.

This study examined the efficacy of teaching how to select a specified number’s position during arithmetic lessons on number lines in children enrolled in a special needs class. Two children in a special needs class of an elementary school participated in the study. The homeroom teacher individually instructed the children in the classroom. We used a multiple baseline design across participants. The participants were asked to select the position of a specific number on a number line by saying, “Here is 0, here is N（the rightmost number）”, and“ Where is M?” The test asked for a number line of a different length and a different number than in the training trial. The children’s selection accuracy improved during and after compared to before the intervention, and there was a large effect size. The limitations of this study include the untested social validity and indefinite reinforcement criteria.

The efficacy and social validity of hiragana writing material developed for children enrolled in specialneeds classes were examined. Three first-grade students enrolled in a special needs class taught by two homeroom teachers participated in the study. The study used a multiple baseline design across behaviors. The data were measured by shortening the baseline assessment as much as possible. The tasks included connecting pictures and hiragana letters with lines, kana copying, and kana writing using pictures as discriminative stimuli. The participants wrote kana letters using pictures as discriminative stimuli in the post-study test. The results of test accuracy as the dependent variable indicated that all the participants acquired hiragana writing skills. Moreover, the teachers responded positively to a questionnaire survey on the social validity of the teaching method. We concluded that the hiragana teaching method used in this study was effective. However, this method assumes that participants can copy hiragana letters smoothly. We suggest including measures for teaching children with writing problems in future studies.