Educational Support by Hospital Schools After Students Are Discharged From the Hospital

• Published in: The Japanese Journal of Special Education Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 241 - 249
• Main Authors: TSUCHIYA, Tadayuki, KAWAMA, Kennosuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese; English
• Published: The Japanese Association of Special Education 2015
• Subjects: education for children who are frail or have health problems; information and communication technology (ICT) equipment; interaction and collaborative learning; visiting education in the home
• ISSN: 0387-3374; 2186-5132
• DOI: 10.6033/tokkyou.53.241

The present study investigated teaching support in hospital schools and how the students are supported after being discharged from the hospital. Of the schools participating in the survey, 38% had students who were enrolled after they had been discharged from the hospital; the hospitals also reported that there has been a tendency for the number of such students to increase. The most common support strategy for the students was commuting to the hospital school; next most common were self-study at home and attending a regular school. Direct support, in which learning took place in the home, was implemented by only 3 schools. This suggests that it may be important for the support system not to be limited to when the students are in the hospital and to include visiting education in the home. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) equipment could provide indirect support. However, only 1 of the hospitals in the survey was making use of information and communication technology equipment. Many reasons exist for the lack of a suitable environment or budget for the use of information and communication technology equipment. However, greater development of information and communication technology equipment is expected in the future. Therefore, while focusing on self-study at home at the present, it is also necessary to maintain information and communication technology equipment. Students may attend their regular school occasionally, prior to returning to continuous attendance. During the period when students are at their school irregularly, it may benefit them if their teachers took advantage of interactive and collaborative learning. It was also found that it was difficult to provide teaching support to students who return to homes that are outside the school district; methods to ensure such support should be found.