Development of a Tool for Collaboration between the Fields of Medicine and Education Based on “Inclusive Needs-Child Record”

Abstract

With regard to the diagnosis of developmental disorders in Japan, it has been reported that it takes a long time (3-10 months) for children to be examined to find out if they have a developmental disorder due to the limited number of medical specialists and specialized healthcare institutions. To resolve this problem, collaboration between the fields of medicine and education has been suggested, by using the "Inclusive Needs-Child Record (IN-Child Record: ICR)." ICR, however, was originally created for the teachers in the field of education, and as such, there are many items therein that are not needed by medical specialists. As such, the necessity of coming up with a new tool has arisen to facilitate the communication and collaboration between the fields of medicine and education. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a tool for effectively providing medical specialists with the information on children possessed by teachers, who spend the longest time with the children. The new tool was designed by combining ICR with DSM-5. To determine the core information that medical specialists need to know for the diagnosis of developmental disorders, a survey was conducted among 1,059 children from elementary and junior high schools in Okinawa Prefecture. From the results of the survey and of the correlation analysis between ICR and DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition), the items that should be included in the new tool were selected, with focus on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Finally, the tool for collaboration between the fields of medicine and education was established, consisting of 35 items in four domains. Through the future research, the tool needs to be further developed after verifying its reliability and validity. instance, it takes 3-10 months for children to receive their first medical examination in the majority of healthcare institutions that provide developmental disorder diagnosis services. Furthermore, as the examination based on which it is determined if a child has a developmental disorder includes an in-depth investigation of the child's infanthood and growth process, the diagnosis takes 1-2 hours per patient, which limits the number of patients that can be examined in a day (MIC, 2017). ＜Key-words＞According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), an estimated 6.5% of the children attending school may have a developmental disorder (MEXT, 2012). MEXT has recommended the utilization of the standard checklist that enables the identification of children with an early-stage developmental disorder in schools from kindergartens to high schools (MIC, 2017). If the teachers and school administrators, who spend much time with the children, can provide medical specialists with the information on such children's behaviors, it will enable the medical specialists to understand the children and to expedite the diagnosis process. Furthermore, if there are standard scales with c...