The present study used a questionnaire survey of 486 teachers from 218 schools for children with special educational needs in order to examine the teachers' knowledge about the behavioral phenotypes of 6 genetic diseases highly associated with intellectual disabilities, their awareness of the difficulties of each syndrome, and information that they need. Valid responses were obtained from 269 teachers (response rate 55.3％). Respondents' knowledge of behavioral phenotypes: 80% or more of the respondents answered “I know” to all questions about Angelman syndrome. However, more than 50% of the respondents answered “I don't know” to all questions about 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Difficulties faced by children with each of the syndromes: More than 90% of the respondents answered “there are a lot” of behavioral difficulties for children with Smith-Magenis syndrome, but fewer than 40% gave that answer with respect to children with Williams syndrome. In addition, the teachers wanted to know more about teaching methods and developmental trajectories. These results provided information about the teachers' knowledge of these behavioral phenotypes, their understanding of difficulties faced by the children who have each of these syndromes, and information that the teachers indicated that they need.

Most students with learning disabilities have difficulty writing kanji. Supplemental kanji instruction is important for them, but the need for remote instruction has increased due to the impact of COVID-19. The present study examined effects of online kanji-writing instruction and homework on improving kanji writing skills. A 6th-grade boy with developmental dyslexia (age 11 years) who had difficulty reading and writing kanji participated in the study. The online kanji-writing instruction program included content for learning the pronunciation, meaning, and form of kanji characters. In addition, homework was introduced to encourage the learning of accurate kanji forms. The dependent variable was the number of kanji words written correctly. A multiple-probe design across 3 sets of 4 kanji compound characters was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention. When the intervention was introduced, the number of kanji words written correctly improved. The participant's accurate writing of kanji characters was maintained at the time of a follow-up approximately 2 months after the intervention. The size of the effect was very large. Social validity results showed that the participant's mother gave a positive rating to the suitability and burden of the intervention methods and her child's willingness to learn kanji. The results of the present study suggest that online instruction in writing kanji can be effective when it includes practice in the pronunciation and meaning of kanji characters and homework. In particular, the homework appeared to be effective in maintaining the results of the intervention.

The present practical study used positive behavioral support for the behavior of a girl with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, and examined the validity of that support. The participant, 7 years 10 months old at the start of the study, spit at others and did not participate in any learning activities. The purpose of the intervention was to reduce her spitting and increase her participation in the morning and closing meetings. A functional assessment revealed that her spitting was attention-seeking behavior that started during relationship-building with her homeroom teacher. Therefore, it was hypothesized that an alternative communication tool would increase her verbal requests to the homeroom teacher, reduce spitting, and increase her participation in learning activities. The intervention consisted of using a 50-tone board, which is an alternative communication tool, introduced in stages in order to promote requests. After the intervention, her spitting occurred less frequently, and she participated in the morning and closing meetings. These results suggest that the supportive methods used may have been appropriate.

The present paper reviews national and international research on haptic perception in children who are blind. First, an overview is given of the characteristics of haptic perception and cognition in terms of the differences between haptic and visual perception and methods of tactile exploration, and perspectives on future research needs are discussed. Next, research on teaching methods for devising toys and tactile exploration in play that rely on haptic perception are reviewed, and future teaching methods needed to promote the development and learning of children who are blind are discussed. Finally, the present review of the evaluation of the development of children who are blind has found (a) studies that implemented some existing tests, (b) studies that modified existing tests so that they could be implemented using haptic perception, and (c) studies in which researchers developed their own tests to evaluate perceptual cognitive abilities relying on haptic perception. Future research needed to develop a method for the developmental assessment of children who are blind is discussed. Other issues for future research in Japan include the development of teaching materials and teaching tools suitable for haptic perception and teaching methods for conceptual learning, the development of a performance assessment battery for children who are blind, and tests of perceptual-cognitive abilities through haptic perception.