In the present study, the motivation of 2 young children with hearing impairments was continuously assessed and analyzed as they were given auditory and language training. Motivation included endogenous and exogenous motivation, and autonomous and other-directed motivation. The preschoolers' related psychological needs (i.e., feelings of relatedness, competence, and self-determination) were also assessed, as was the mothers' approval, praise, criticism, and other involvement (encouragements, reproof, direction, and instructions) given to their children in response to a success/failure situation. Effects of the mothers' feedback and involvement on their children's changes in intrinsic motivation and related psychological needs were also investigated. The main results were as follows: (a) When the mothers' feedback and involvement were appropriate, their children's endogenous motivation and related feelings of competence increased, based on their feelings of relatedness; subsequently, autonomous endogenous motivation evolved with growing feelings of self-determination during early young childhood. (b) In a success situation, the mothers' emotional feedback promoted their children's feelings of competence. (c) In a failure situation, the mothers' emotional feedback suppressed their children's feelings of helplessness. (d) The mothers' encouragement promoted their children's self-achievement, whereas the mothers' reproofs enhanced their children's self-control.

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The present study examined factors that affect planning in ill-defined problem-solving by children with mild to intellectual disabilities. The participants, 24 five-year-olds and 24 eight-year-olds without disabilities, and 35 children with mild (17 children, average age, 15 years old) to moderate (18 children, average age, 12 years old) intellectual disabilities, matched on mental age (MA) with the other children, were requested to build something like a staircase with small blocks, so that a doll could "walk up the mountain." The trends in the participants' performance in generating ideas, preparing behavior, building the structure, and self-evaluating were analyzed. The main results were as follows: (a) the understanding of the instructions prior to planning by the children with intellectual disabilities with mental age of 5 years old did not follow the problem requirements; (b) the children who were over the mental age of 5 were reluctant to use knowledge related to the contents of the instructions; (c) the children whose mental age was 8 showed a tendency to do local planning; and (d) because the rule was understood only vaguely, a rough goal state generated their ideas, and the children could only partially accomplish the goal.

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The present article, which aims to provide appropriate information and proper support for youth with developmental disabilities, reviews the literature on factors associated with instances of juvenile delinquency that were caused by the youth's developmental disabilities, focusing on what is known about juvenile delinquency in youth with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent studies have revealed 2 specific risk factors. One is a reflection of the individual's developmental disabilities, and the other is based on influences from the individual's environment. However, emphasizing only risk factors when providing support to youth and their families and guardians in relation to the youth's delinquency would mean that social significance has not been taken fully into consideration. The present authors contend that it is necessary to introduce the role of protective factors, and to focus on the youth's internal worlds, in order to accomplish a more comprehensive study of instances of juvenile delinquency that have been caused by the youth's developmental disabilities.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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