| Research Abstract |
Although it is necessary to provide an appropriate educational service for students wit ,learning disabilities (LD), there is no formal education system for them in Japan. However, since 1993, students with LD who are informally instructed in resource rooms for students with speech impairments or who are emotionally disturbed has increased. First, we conducted a survey of 283 speech-impairment resource room teachers of elementary schools. The results showed that (1) the percentage of students with learning disabilities (LD) for all students involved in resource room was only 6.8% ; (2) urging motivation, enhancing self-esteem, and improving communication skills were especially considered as important curricular contents for LD students ; and (3) most resource room teachers offered counseling and advice for the interaction woth the regular class teachers. Secondly, we attempted to empirically classify 183 students, who received resource room services under the category of LD, sampled fr
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om 78 elementary schools. Four factors were extracted from individual profiles of 11 skill areas. Cluster analysis using factor scores revealed 4 types of LD : (1) mixed psychosocial difficulties, (2) listening, speaking, and reasoning difficulties, (3) reading, writing, and math difficulties, and (4) visuospatial difficulties. The latter two types were regarded as true LD or LD without comorbid conditions. Thirdly, we performed a two-year follow-up study to clarify the current educational situation of 21 students with LD in 12 speech impairment resource room of elementary schools in Sendai. Regardless of the merits of resource rooms for meeting student's needs, the results indicated that poor academic skills persisted against remedial efforts. Since there were some students with LD who showed a drop in attendance when they went to junior high school, cooperation and communication between teachers of elementary school and junior high school are needed to implement effective resource room service for students with LD. Less
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