重症例に対するスィッチ・ディバイスを用いた作業療法の効果(第1報)—認知的側面について

The effect of occupational therapy using switch devices for mentally and physically handicapped subjects(primary report) : About cognitive skills

要旨：重症心身障害例14名に対して考案したスィッチ・ディバイスを用いて，電動のおもちゃやラジオ・カセット等の操作などの作業活動を試みたところ，12名で活動の遂行が可能だった．スイッチ操作と機器作動の因果関係の理解は，12ヵ月程度の理解力があれば速やかに成立し，それ以下であれば反復していく中で次第に成立する傾向が認められた．このような能動的活動の実施により，それまでの受動的な訓練では得られなかった身体的改善も観察された．知的能力が低い例で活動の持続が可能であり，その逆に知的能力の高い例では，活動に飽きる傾向が観察された．これは活動の挑戦性と個人のスキルの関係についてのフローモデルに従って説明できた．

　Activities using switch devices were tried in performance studies involving fourteen severely mantally and physically handicapped subjects, and twelve subjects could perform the activities, and two could not. The subjects who had cognitive skills higer than that of a normal 12 month-old could understand immediately the causal relevance between the switch operation and the apparatus working. Those with lower cognitive skills took more time to understand the causal relevance. Physical improvement, which had never occurred as a result of passive exercises, were also observed through the activities. Observed was the tendency of skilled subjects to become bored and the tendency of less skilled subjects to continue their activities. The Csikszentmihalyi's flow-model could explain this tendency.