Purpose: The “individual learning support plan” and “individual teaching plan” were mutually provided by the special support school for the physically handicapped, and the information on “rehabilitation goals” was mutually provided by the rehabilitation center. The purpose of this survey was to clarify the status of utilization and usefulness of the information provided by each institution.

Methods: Twenty-four homeroom teachers and three physical therapists involved with students attending a rehabilitation center were included. A questionnaire was used to investigate the status of shared decision-making practice, the child’s affiliation, the classification of the child, the classification of goals, the degree of change in the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), and the utilization and usefulness of “individual learning support plan”, “individual teaching plan”, and “rehabilitation goals”.

The contents of the open-ended statements regarding the usefulness of the information provided were subjected to qualitative descriptive analysis.

Results: About half of the children showed improvement of 2 or more points in COPM. Nearly 100% responded that the “Rehabilitation Goal Sheet” and “individual learning support plan” and “individual teaching plan” were useful. The qualitative analysis confirmed the utilization and effectiveness of the information provided by each institution.

Conclusion: It was suggested that the provision of information in both the support school and the rehabilitation center enabled a more multifaceted picture of the children’s actual condition. From the qualitative analysis, the PTs were asked to deepen their understanding of independent activities, and the teachers were asked to set quantitative evaluation and specific goals as future issues.

Purpose: This study explores the research abstracts presented at the 1st–9th “Annual meeting of the Japan Society of Pediatric Physical Therapy” through bibliometric analysis, identifying trends and yearly shifts in pediatric physical therapy research.

Methods: Two reviewers independently coded the research abstracts that met the inclusion criteria, analyzing 553 abstracts. The analysis focused on the first author’s affiliation, study design, study purpose, participants’ diseases/conditions, and outcome categories.

Results: Case reports emerged as the predominant study design, and the most common research purpose were anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Cerebral palsy was the most common disease/condition among participants, followed by healthy children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders. In terms of outcomes, “movement and mobility” within the activity and participation category was most often addressed. There were 206 case reports, of which 81 (39.3%) had “no quantitative outcome.”

Conclusion: The findings provide insights into the prevailing directions of pediatric physical therapy research, potentially guiding future studies and contributing to the field’s quality enhancement.

Purpose: Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a potential method for evaluating the overall body condition in people with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID). However, previous studies insufficiently explore the body composition characteristics of this population. Notably, people with physical disabilities exhibit a spectrum of motor functions, including bedridden, turning over, sitting, standing, and walking independently. Despite this diversity, comparative studies investigating body composition in relation to specific motor functions are lacking. This study aims to elucidate the body composition characteristics among people with SMID-related physical disabilities and compare them across varying levels of motor function.

Methods: This study included 72 participants, and their body composition was assessed using BIA via the In Body S10. Participants were categorized into four groups based on their motor function: (i) bedridden, (ii) turning over, (iii) sitting, and (iv) standing and walking.

Results: Across all groups, participants exhibited higher body fat percentages, extracellular water to total body water ratios (ECW/TBW), and lower body mass index, skeletal muscle mass index (SMI), basal metabolic rate, and phase angle (PhA) values compared to normative ranges. The bedridden group demonstrated significantly lower body weight, basal metabolic rate, SMI, and PhA, and significantly higher body fat percentage and ECW/TBW compared to the standing and walking group.

Conclusion: BIA-based body composition assessment revealed distinct characteristics associated with different motor functions in people with SMID. Those with severe motor impairments exhibited a deterioration in body composition.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a new assessment scale, the “Seirei Oozora Ryoiku Center Clinical Respiratory Care Necessity Assessment Scale for Patients with Severe Motor and Intellectual Disabilities (S-CARES),” to conveniently and comprehensively evaluate the respiratory function of patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID), and to examine its reliability and validity.

Methods: This study included 103 SMID patients. The S-CARES was used to assess respiratory function by evaluating physical function, respiratory status, and the necessity for respiratory care. The reliability and validity of the scale were also evaluated.

Results: S-CARES showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.898) and inter-rater reliability (weighted kappa coefficient between 0.922 and 1.0, P<0.001). Additionally, a strong correlation (r=0.894, P<0.001) with the medically dependent SMID score was observed, confirming its criterion-related validity.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the S-CARES can effectively assess the severity of the respiratory function status of patients with SMID. Its application has the potential to improve respiratory care and help prevent respiratory infections in patients with SMID. Future studies should explore the applicability and usefulness of the scale across different ages and severities of condition in these patients.

Objective: The way to measure fetal movement during maternal activity has not been examined. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review to clarify how objective and temporal measurement methods of fetal movement have been reported.

Method: We conducted literature searches in PubMed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. The search was performed based on three concepts: fetal, movement, and measurement. Titles and abstracts were screened and eligibility was evaluated by a review of the full text. We extracted information such as the fetal movement measurement method and measurement time.

Results: A total of 1,728 references were identified and 63 of these were selected for inclusion. Accelerometers and ultrasound were mainly used for objective fetal movement measurements. The longest measurement was 6.39 ± 1.2 hours and was made using an accelerometer.

Discussion: Many of the accelerometer measurements were used to evaluate quantitative aspects of fetal movement, while many of the ultrasound measurements were used to evaluate qualitative aspects. It became clear that it is necessary to select measurement methods according to the purpose.

Conclusion: The data suggested that an accelerometer would be useful when a method is needed to measure fetal movement during maternal activity.