The difficulties in coordinated movements among individuals with intellectual disabilities have been widely discussed. Some previous studies have addressed motor guidance for pre- and post-schooling children with intellectual disabilities; but there are few studies focusing on individuals beyond the school-age period. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct circuit training involving five gross motor activities for two junior high school students with intellectual disabilities, aiming to improve both gross and fine motor skills. Fifteen sessions were conducted over a period of three months. Two types of tasks for gross and fine motor skills were implemented before, during, and after the training period. The effects of gross motor skills were assessed through activities such as tray carrying and one-legged hopping. Fine motor skills were assessed through tasks like sticker placement and scissor manipulation. The results indicated improvement in both gross and fine motor skills of the participants when comparing the pre- and post-circuit training assessments. The findings suggest that circuit training has the potential to contribute to improvements in both gross and fine motor skills, indicating the possibility of enhancing coordination functions even beyond the school-age period.

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The speech and language disorder resource room provides essential support for elementary school students who stutter. However, clinical reports that verify its results are scant. Therefore, we reported the results of an instruction method that combined fluency shaping and the Demands and Capacities Model-based approach (DCM) in speech and language disorder resource room. One first-grade elementary school student who stutter participated in the study. We taught the participant fluency shaping techniques (slow rate, easy onset, and light contact) and attempted to decrease speaker’s motor, language, cognitive, and emotional demands on the participant. Resultantly, the stuttering frequency of the participant decreased from 73% to 10%, duration of stuttering decreased from 2,078ms to 788ms, and rate of stuttering severity at home decreased from 5 to 3. In addition, Communication Attitude Test scores decreased from 18 to 8. Therefore, the combination of fluency shaping and DCM was effective in improving speech fluency and communication attitudes. It may be a viable option for future instruction in the speech and language disorder resource room.

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Deafblind children often have difficulty in communication and need special guidance according to their developmental stage. However, in Japan, it is difficult to share and pass on the expertise of education for deafblind children, and improving the expertise is also an issue. Furthermore, there are few studies on teachers involved in the education of deaf-blind children. The purpose of this study is to interview teachers who have experience in teaching deafblind children and to clarify their teaching methods according to their developmental stages. The results of the interviews revealed that the nature of communication among deafblind children begins with the formation of connections with others and gradually increases in generality. With this change, the communicative needs of the deaf-blind children changed step by step, and the teachers provided various kinds of instruction to meet these needs. On the other hand, what a deafblind child can understand and express depends on the type of behavior and the situation and context of the situation, suggesting that a deafblind child has multiple stages. This suggests that a single deafblind child has multiple stages of development. This suggests that it is necessary to understand the development of deafblind children from multiple perspectives. In the future, specific case studies are also required to compensate for the difficulty in generalizing the research.

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Teachers should identify the preferred stimuli of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to support them by utilizing their preferred stimuli. We conducted a questionnaire survey of teachers in charge of special-needs schools for children with intellectual disabilities and special-needs classes for children with intellectual disabilities, autism, and emotional disabilities in Japanese elementary and junior high schools. The survey inquired about how teachers identify preferences and their frequency of doing so, how teachers use preferences, and the type of stimuli they use. The survey participants were teachers in special needs schools and elementary and junior high school classes (N= 173). The results indicated that many teachers identified children's preferences through behavioral observations and interviews, and half of them identified preferences at least once a day. These results suggest that teachers include preferences in teaching materials and assignments, although only a few use preferences as reinforcers. Moreover, teachers who use preferred stimuli as reinforcers often used praise and attention, whereas fewer teachers used physical contact and toys. The teachers who did not identify children’s preferences responded that they lacked competence, among other reasons. We have discussed why only a few teachers use preferred stimuli as reinforcers and the need for systematic teacher training in preference assessment.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of preschool teacher’s using fingerspelling (Japanese manual alphabet) among preschool children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The participants included four teachers, with two teachers assigned to younger children aged 3-4 years old and two teachers assigned to older children aged 5-6 years old. The teachers used sign language and fingerspelling, along with the accompanying spoken language for communication. Conversations between the teachers and children were recorded to investigate how the teachers employed fingerspelling. Also, during the recorded conversations, each teacher was asked about their method of using fingerspelling and their intentions behind using those methods. As a result, teachers in charge of older children used fingerspelling slightly more frequently, and more types of vocabulary used fingerspelling than teachers in charge of younger children. When teachers presented a Japanese word using fingerspelling, it was observed that they used techniques that combined other visual stimuli, such as presenting a word in sign language that has the same meaning (characteristics of all teachers), or showing the actual object or a picture card related to that word (characteristics of teachers in charge of younger children), or writing the word, or a sentence containing the word (characteristics of teachers in charge of older children). Therefore, it was thought that teachers intend to lay the groundwork for children’s using fingerspelling in preschool younger children, and expand children’s Japanese vocabulary through the use of fingerspelling in preschool older children.

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The subjects of this study were two children with profound brain and respiratory disabilities and in whom we had difficulty differentiating between sleep and arousal. We measured their nasal skin temperature at sites of educational approaches. We investigated the validity of evaluations using nasal skin temperature by comparing them with heart rate obtained using a pulse frequency monitor that the children consistently used. The results showed a greater than 50% matching rate between accelerated heart rate as a reaction to an external stimulus and a reduction in temperatures, calculated by the difference between the nasal surface and the forehead. Further, with stimuli that resulted in this effect, biases were confirmed in other sensory system categories. Therefore, these findings suggest that nasal skin temperature may be utilized when searching for unwanted forms of stimulation that cause unpleasant emotional states in children with profound brain and respiratory disabilities.

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To investigate the effect of writing “correct and well-organized letters” for academic achievement, we examined the relationship between Kanji writing score and academic skill using two scoring criteria, “correct and well-organized” and “dis-criminative,” in Kanji writing test with 155 first to sixth-grade elementally school students enrolled in regular classes. We also examined the relationship between Kanji writing score and visual information processing ability. The results showed significant correlations between Kanji writing score and academic scores, Japanese and mathematics using the either scoring criteria, but no significant differences were found between those correlations. In addition, the correlation between Kanji writing score and visual information processing ability was high in the lower grades with “correct and well-organized” criterion and the correlation decreased in the higher grades. This indicated that visual working memory was overloaded to be attentive to detail of the Kanji letters for “correct and well-organized” letter writing. Our results indicated that educational instruction of Kanji writing with “correct and well-organized” criterion was not necessary for academic achievement and that the instruction could cognitively overload children with developmental dyslexia who have visual information processing disorder and with developmental disorders who have working memory deficit.

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This exploratory study aimed to investigate the career thoughts and working motivation of 535 inmates with low recidivism risk who had received vocational training at two Private Finance Initiative prisons in Japan. The study conducted a survey and used confirmatory factor analyses to examine the subcategories of career thoughts hindering working, career thoughts improving continuous working, and job motivation, based on previous studies in career psychology. While the study confirmed several subcategories as defined in previous studies, it also encountered some challenges, including ceiling effects among several items and inadequate model fit, particularly for job motivation. In addition, the study examined sex differences in career thoughts hindering working and career thoughts improving continuous working. The results indicated that female inmates had greater job expectations after their release and recognized important values, but also had a feeling of exclusion and anxiety about working due to their imprisonment compared to male inmates. Furthermore, females demonstrated lower coping skills when dealing with stress and undesirable situations than males. Overall, the findings suggest the need for further research on psychological and situational factors related to inmates' work careers to better support them in overcoming the challenges they face during their reentry into society. This study provides insights into the career thoughts and working motivation of inmates and highlights the importance of addressing gender differences when developing interventions and support programs for inmates. The study's limitations and implications required future studies.

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The purpose of this study was to review overseas research on the emergent literacy of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired young children and to examine educational issues related to reading and writing for hearing-impaired young children in Japan. As a result, the study on the emergence of emergent literacy in hearing-impaired children showed the need for a longitudinal study across the entire early childhood period with a large number of hearing-impaired children, based on objective observational studies. In particular, it was necessary to observe the children's interest in letters, books, and to examine whether the emergence of emergent literacy and the process of literacy development were similar to those of children with normal hearing. The relationship between the development of working memory and narratives related to the development of emergent literacy is a topic for future study. In terms of the environment, the study focused on how picture books are read and shown to children, and there were few studies on the relationship between parents and children formed through discipline and the development of emergent literacy, indicating that this is an issue for future study. In addition, the relationship between the type of environment in which children are exposed to means of communication and the development of language skills is also an issue for future study. Finally, there are still no indicators to comprehensively evaluate the above issues, and it is necessary to create instructional plans and evaluate instruction based on these indicators.

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For people with intellectual disabilities, support for employment and that for leisure have been given importance in the transition from school education to employment. Despite the fact that employment and leisure activities are mutually influential for all people, including those with intellectual disabilities, the factors that support these two types of activities have usually been addressed in separate studies. The purpose of the present study was to review the previous research on employment and leisure support pertaining to people with intellectual disabilities. A second goal was to address the current status of each of these two areas of support, focusing on their common issues and examining the relationship between employment and leisure support. The most frequently encountered issue in common with both employment and leisure support for people with intellectual disabilities was a lack of support for building human relationships with their supporters and those who spend time with them for work or leisure. The relationships between people with intellectual disabilities and their supporters were either role-dependent, changeable, or limited to the place of support. In the future, the support provided during the transition period from school education to employment for people with intellectual disabilities could be more beneficial if it emphasizes the building of long-term stable relationships that are not dependent on roles or places. Further study should focus on the following: (a) examining the relative stability of the various human relationships in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, and without them, (b) comparing these relationships each other, (c) determining the number of more stable relationships and who is or could be key people for people with intellectual disabilities.

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This research consists of two studies. Study 1: development of the Screening Test of Absenteeism Risks (STAR) that aims at evaluating school absence risks and suggesting support plan. Study 2: analyzing risk factors on school absence and clinical features of absenteeism risk group on elementary school students (grade 4-6). Participants ware 225 elementary school students (grade 4-6). Study 1 demonstrated the reliability of the STAR as well as convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity. Study 2 suggested an association between the days of being late for school, "communication with classmates", "request for help", "sleepiness", "solving problems in Japanese", and "homework" and the number of days absent. In addition, a risk group for school absenteeism was identified among children in school attendance status. This school absence risk group tended to be absent and lateness more days than the children in the adaptation group, and their STAR scores tended to be higher. These results suggest priorities for target children and interventions in preventative efforts to address absenteeism. It was also expected to be used as a screening test for STAR. One of the challenges was to develop a questionnaire for subjective evaluation of the children's condition.

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