8.8% of public elementary, junior high kids in Japan may have developmental disorder: poll – The Mainichi

2 comments

1. > The random sampling survey targeted some 88,500 students enrolled in regular classes at public elementary, junior high and high schools across the country between January and February, with their homeroom teachers asked to fill in check sheets designed to discern developmental disorders among children. The response collection rate was 84.6%.

   So they’re just *assuming* that these students have disorders without actually testing and diagnosing them, and are trying to pass that assumption – based on the opinions of people who aren’t medical professionals and do not have any qualifications that would allow them to diagnose someone – as if it were a fact. In other words, fake news.

   I’m all for students bwith disorders getting the proper help and support that they need and I understand that more attention needs to be brought to such issues, but this is some seriously shitty reporting.

2. This is great news. Its sad Japan is 30-40 years behind the USA in terms of recogising these issues.

   I was being treated for ADHD and a learning disability and dyslexia back in the late 80s. We are only just now seeing some awareness in Japan in the last 5 years. I am proud of Japan for finally taking steps. I have seen first hand and a number of schools and administration step up the awareness and support of these issues.

   I have had to fail students in the past that I KNOW had autism or adhd and I could do nothing to help them because the school said, “we can’t do anything unless they tell us”, and they didn’t really have accommodation to offer to start with.

   IMO its very much a “you build it and they will come” sencrio.
   If you don’t have a support system in place, then student are not going to come ask for support!

   I went to a state uni in the USA more than 20 years ago. They had an entire department of specialists just to help with students with disablities from simple adhd to blindness or miblity issues. I will never forget the lady who I worked with. She was 3 feet tall and had no arms. to use the phone she would smack it with her shoulder, it would fly in the air and she would catch it in her neck then dial with a pencil. Her handwriting was better than mine by miles. She was so inspiring. So strong-willed. So fucking positive that it was infectious. I would not have been able to graduate uni and then one day become a professor myself had I not gotten some help and accommodation while in public school and a state university. And in my case, in uni, I didn’t need much. I just needed a quiet testing area for a few tests from time to time. I still do. I can’t take the JLPT in a noisy room. I forgot to ask them last time and almost had a panic attack because of a tapping pencil 5 rows behind me. I had to call the test proctor to go tell the person to stop and felt like a fucking asshole and couldn’t stop thinking about the whole ordeal the next 3 hours. And that is what is it like to have a fucked up ADHD brain. And with a simple thing like a quiet room I can function “normally”