Possibilities for Psychological Support and Health Literacy Education for Sick Children

This paper focuses on communicative activities to help children develop health literacy, which is widely required for healthy and non-disabled persons, but is also important for those with special needs. However, considering its potential in special needs education practice, it would be useful to refer to medical practice based on health communication to focus on students’ disabilities and diseases. Health literacy is based on the theory of health promotion, and is positioned as a type of critical literacy when working with the wider environment to maintain and improve one’s own health, the health of others around one, and the health of community members. The concept is considered important in health education. Through the examples of communication activities, it was suggested that it would be effective to utilize the methods of medical communication to provide learning and support that is tailored to the health conditions of individual students. The content of self-care activities in the national curriculum is comprehensive, covering all disabilities, and teachers and curriculum planners are required to make learning activities specific to the individual conditions of each school.