【報告】書籍「発達が気になる子が輝く柔道＆スポーツの指導法」の英語版を制作

NPO法人judo3.0は、2020年に制作した書籍「発達が気になる子が輝く柔道＆スポーツの指導法」を英訳し（一部加筆修正）、2024年12月、”Judo for Neurodivergent Children: Practical and Inclusive Instruction Guide”を制作しました。アマゾンで電子書籍版とペーパーバック版を入手することができます。

英語版前書き

Preface to the English Edition

This book is an English translation of “Teaching Methods for Judo & Sports that Help Children with Developmental Concerns Shine,” published in Japan in March 2020 by NPO judo 3.0 (with some additions and revisions).

What Makes This Book Unique

While abundant information exists about developmental disorders, there have been few practical, systematic guides for judo instructors working with neurodivergent children. This book’s strength lies in bridging this gap by carefully selecting and organizing both academic and practical knowledge into a useful guide for judo instructors.

How did we create such a specialized guide? There are two key points:

First, this book emerged from the collaboration of four judo instructors with different backgrounds: Kenichi Nishimura (university professor in special needs education), Toshihide Nagano (inclusive youth judo club instructor), Shigenobu Urai (instructor at a welfare facility for neurodivergent children), and Shigeyoshi Sakai (director of an NPO promoting inclusive judo). This diverse collaboration enabled us to connect academic knowledge with real-world teaching experience.

Second, since 2016, NPO Judo 3.0 has conducted training sessions on teaching judo to neurodivergent children across Japan, featuring these four authors as instructors. Through continuous dialogue with over 500 participants, we explored what knowledge would be most valuable for inclusive judo instruction and refined our training program.

This book was thus born from the cooperation of four diverse experts and the results of training sessions for judo instructors. We believe this unique background has enabled us to create a practical and valuable guide that genuinely serves the needs of judo instructors.

Chapter Overview

The book is divided into four chapters:

Chapter 1 focuses on understanding how exercise and judo can benefit neurodivergent children—in other words, how judo instructors can contribute to them. This chapter examines developmental disorders from a physical perspective, with particular attention to the effects of exercise on the brain and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

Chapter 2 addresses how judo instructors should respond to children’s problematic behaviors. Many instructors fall into a frustrating cycle: they do nothing before problematic behavior occurs, scold the child, see no improvement, yet continue the same ineffective scolding (“How many times do I have to tell you?”). This chapter introduces Applied Behavior Analysis principles adapted for judo instruction to break this negative cycle.

Chapter 3 focuses on creating exercise programs for children who do not progress well in judo. If neurodivergent children enjoy judo and continue for a long time, there are few problems. However, many neurodivergent children struggle to progress in judo due to motor coordination difficulties, and they sometimes lose interest or quit. Simple repetition practice of judo techniques isn’t practical. This chapter focuses on the order of physical development, paying attention to balance, core movements, and active play, which are the foundation of complex movements.

Chapter 4 focuses on community management. Teaching neurodivergent children successfully requires support from the entire judo community – fellow instructors, parents, and other students. This means that judo instructors have a dual role: not only teaching children but also managing the community. This chapter explores how judo instructors can build an inclusive community, using real examples from a youth judo club and a welfare facility.

Target Audience and Terminology

This book is primarily written for judo instructors, but it can also be valuable for those who exercise with neurodivergent children, like sports coaches, physical education teachers, social workers, and parents.

When we use the term “neurodivergent children” in this book, we refer to two groups: those with formal diagnoses of developmental disorders (such as ASD, ADHD, SLD, or DCD) and those who display characteristics of these conditions without meeting full diagnostic criteria. The latter group is more prevalent in typical judo settings, and instructors often work without knowing their students’ diagnostic status.

We chose the term “neurodivergent children” to include both groups mentioned above and to recognize neurological differences as natural variations in human development.

Aims and Social Impact

This book serves two fundamental purposes:
First, it aims to expand access to judo’s developmental benefits for neurodivergent children worldwide. Current research emphasizes they need exercise, yet many children lack access to it.

Second, it proposes a renewed social role for judo as a provider of developmental support. While judo’s potential in this area is substantial, it remains largely untapped. Some research suggests that around 10% of children – a significant portion of the child population- may be related to developmental disorders. If local judo clubs can accommodate these children’s needs, judo could attract many new students and play a more critical role in society. In Japan, registered judo practitioners have dropped from 200,000 to 120,000 over the past two decades, showing that judo needs a new social role.

We would be happy if this book could be of even slight help to dedicated instructors worldwide committed to supporting neurodivergent children. In an era of increasing global division, judo can bridge cultural, linguistic, national, religious, and ideological differences. We hope this book catalyzes international collaboration in addressing this vital challenge.

The Authors