Abstract
Informal assessments were conducted in individualized learning settings, and its significance was examined from a cognitive developmental perspective. First, three students aged 8-9 who had no or few words were given the learning by after-school day service staff. They showed qualitatively different attitudes to the educational materials according to each cognitive development. Second, once-a-month homebound intervention was performed by author for a 5-year-old boy without intellectual disability, who had strong behavior disturbance and drawing difficulty. When learning refusal was strong, it was effective to adjust the approach going back to the early cognitive developmental stage shown by above three cases with few words. After one year and five months, he enrolled in a regular school. Now, at the end of the first grade, he still enjoys going to school and has begun writing some essays with a little support. It is suggested that focusing on early cognitive development affected his motivation to learn.
TopIntroduction
Special Needs Education in Japan
In 2007, Japan signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and launched a Special Needs Education System in the same year. There was a paradigm shift from the traditional special education approaches, in which children with disabilities were educated separately from the mainstream, to having children with special needs educated in all schools (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [MEXT], 2007). Along with this, the prevalence of special educational support expanded from 1.2%, the rate of members limited in special classes and special schools, to approximately 8%, including the members of regular classes.
There are four options for K–12 education in Japan. Special Needs Education is implemented in regular classes, resource rooms for members who attend regular classes, special support classes, and special support schools providing highly specialized support.
Overall, contrary to the declining birthrate trend, the proportion of children with special educational needs continues to increase in Japan. In addition, inclusive education is steadily progressing in kindergartens and regular schools, whereas the proportion of children coming to special support schools, requiring the special care and expertise, has not decreased. In the national survey conducted in 2012, students with special educational needs, the members in regular classes without intellectual disability, were estimated to be 6.5% in K–12, but in 2022, 8.8% in K–12 (MEXT, 2022). On the other hand, OECD (2012) reported that there were 0.6% children (pre-school infant and students aged 6-18), in Japan, enrolled in special support schools in 2010. But it reached 0.98%, in 2018, and the percentage was increased with age (kindergarten sector: 0.08, elementary school sector: 0.69%, junior high school sector: 0.93%, high school sector: 2.1%) (Japan League of Developmental Disabilities, 2022, p. 178).
The situation of students with special needs is diverse. Currently, while the number of students with severe motor and intellectual disorders (SMIDs) requiring medical care is increasing in special support schools, students who have severe behavioral difficulties also can be found in the same situation. Diversification and the number of students exceeding the capacity have been issues for special support schools in Japan.
Kojima et al. (2011) revealed that teachers with experience in special education had stronger opinions about the necessity as well as a greater awareness of it. Whereas Kikkawa et al. (2022) mentioned that it is an important issue in Japan that there is still preference of regular class teachers to maintain their traditional approach. It may be caused not only by reflecting the minimal training and support from universities and schools (Kikkawa et al., 2022), but also by the fact that regular class teachers in Japan are responsible for comprehensively managing a classroom with a maximum of 40 students.
In the elementary school sector of special support schools, one class has only six students, and there are even three-student classes in which one class can receive even better care. While it is desirable to enhance the inclusive environment and urgently necessary to raise the special needs education expertise of regular class teachers, it may be natural that caregivers who need highly specialized support tend to choose special support schools.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Zone of Proximal Development: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is defined as “between what a child can do alone and what he or she can do in collaboration with adults and older children” (Vygotsuky, 1934 AU31: The in-text citation "Vygotsuky, 1934" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. /2001 AU32: The in-text citation "Vygotsuky 2001" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. , p. 298). This is very famous term especially in the Education field. He stated that a good teaching works to evoke a set of functions in that place. In this chapter, the author is trying to explore the meaning of it in the practice for children with disabilities.
Inclusive Education System: Discussions about the education of children with special educational needs in regular school have been prevalent since the 1994 UNESCO Salamanca Statement defined ‘inclusive education’ (Miyadera, 2021 AU29: The in-text citation "Miyadera, 2021" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ). Later, United Nations (2006) AU30: The in-text citation "Later, United Nations (2006)" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. stated that “States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning” in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and States Parties. Therefore, Inclusive Education System is implementing in every situation in Japan. But the term, ‘Inclusive school situation’ is a general term presenting one of those situations in normal schools rather than special schools.
ADHD: Abbreviation for ‘Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.’ It represents syndromes characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and is one of the neurodevelopmental disorders in DSM-5. Hyperactivity in young children or intellectual disability are not unusual but diagnoses of ADHD is indicating the condition in which the above symptoms are particularly prominent compared to children of the same chronological age, despite no or inconspicuous intellectual disability.
Special Support Education: Revision of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) in UNESCO (2011) defined Special Education Needs as ‘Education designed to facilitate the learning of individuals who, for a wide variety of reasons, require additional support and adaptive pedagogical methods in order to participate and meet learning objectives in an educational program.’ It is called ‘Special Support Education’ in Japan, which includes visual impairment, hearing impairment, intellectual disabilities, physical/motor disabilities, health impairments, speech and language impairment, autism, emotional disturbance, learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and multiple disabilities as the participants.
Supporter: In this chapter, the term ‘supporter’ means comprehensively ‘the site-person’, for example, teachers, staffs of social welfare, or caregivers, who directly supports people with disability. But in the section of the first half of “MAIN FOCUS OF THIS CHAPTER,” it means especially the staff of after-school day service place who directly supports service users (students with special educational needs).
Cognitive Development: “Cognition” is explained in the APA Dictionary of Psychology ( https://dictionary.apa.org/ ) that “all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving. Along with affect and conation, it is one of the three traditionally identified components of mind.” On the other hand, it is commonly described in cognitive developmental psychology, for example, “how people feel, perceive, judge, and distinguish the surrounding environment factors using various senses such as touch, sight, and hearing, etc.” In addition, it is important that cognitive development in human beings represents “certain universal order” in cognition (Piaget, 1936 AU27: The in-text citation "Piaget, 1936" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. /1953; Bruner, 1969/1974 AU28: The in-text citation "Bruner, 1969/1974" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Sensorimotor Period: Among Piaget's cognitive development stages, it refers to the stage of exploring the outside world mainly through touch sense and movement until about 24 months after birth. It is a stage where language has no or not fully functioning except for labeling function even if language is expressed. Piaget further divides this stage into six phase according to behavioral characteristics (see Table 1 ).
Ohta Staging: It is an evaluation method for cognitive development using the Language Decoding Test-Revised (LDT-R) (see Tatematsu, 2018, p. 139, Fig. 5). Each stage divided by LDT-R is expressed as “Stage” or “Ohta Stage.”
Informal Indicators: The key actions reflecting the child’s cognition. It represents a person's cognitive states and is observed primarily in interaction with objects. It may be the narrowness of the visual precepted space or the small memory capacity. It is described as informal because it is difficult to clarify in general developmental evaluations. From the process of discovering these indicators to establishing policies to approach, it is called informal assessment in this chapter. They are difficult to notice in everyday life, and the devised three-dimensional teaching materials designed to suit their cognitive development help to find out those indicators. It is easy to share with on-site staff because the behaviors are developed in front of their eyes as concrete actions. The author’s role is to instruct supporters to notice the indicators while sharing the video. Interpersonal behavior that occurs secondarily in interaction is also included in informal indicators. For example, whether the person look at the supporter when he/she succeed, whether he/she asks for help when tasks are difficult to perform. The author carefully chose the three-dimensional teaching materials to be the trigger of finding those indicators. Especially the size is important.