In Japan, the number of students with special needs has become apparent and increased as a result of the 2007 legal reform. Moreover, policies aimed at achieving a convivial society based on Society 5.0 are placing greater emphasis on supporting students' learning environments with an awareness of their future employment prospects. These policies are also providing more diverse support and assistance in students' daily lives than ever before. Furthermore, the customization of assistive devices is costly, time-consuming, and limited in availability for educational purposes. In light of the aforementioned circumstances, the objective of this study is twofold: first, to engineer and enhance learning assistance devices for children with physical disabilities by leveraging 3D printers; and second, to establish a sustainable framework for providing these devices. This initiative stems from a request made by a special needs school.

The research methodology for this study included the following: interview surveys, establishment of design requirements, device prototyping, implementation experiments, continued model improvement, and establishment of a sustainable support system. The target child was a female elementary school student enrolled at Iwakuni Comprehensive Support School, and the objective of the support was to enhance her learning outcomes by addressing spasticity in her right arm. Direct communication with the children was predominantly positive and negative, and the conditions for development were established based on the observations of the assigned teacher and the results of interviews. The fundamental conditions for development, as determined through a combination of interviews, observations, and physical characteristics, are outlined as follows: the fixation method should be of the holding type, with the closest resemblance to teacher assistance; it should be versatile and removable from a desk that is not occupied by the child; it should not reduce the working range; and it should prevent swaying around the top, bottom, left, right, and center. It is imperative that the child develops a sense of familiarity with the device and be intrinsically motivated to learn. Furthermore, anticipating the long-term viability of the initiative, it was determined in advance that the 3D printer should be designed to be produced by a 3D printer that can be introduced by the supporting school in the future, and that the size range should be within the range that can be produced by an inexpensive 3D printer.

Consequently, following three rounds of implementation experiments and a phase of model enhancement, the assistive device was deployed in a practical setting. In the initial model, the effect of reducing learning time to approximately 40%-50% compared to unused time was observed in certain studies. Subsequent to the implementation and refinement of the model, the final iteration exhibited a reduction in learning time relative to the initial model, accompanied by an enhancement in learning efficacy. In addition to the observed learning effects, other notable outcomes were identified, including enhancements in upper body posture and the accompanying refinement of eating movements. To create a mechanism to continue the above support, we are providing design data for support devices. This will make it possible to sustain independent learning support by the support school or parents once the 3D printer is installed.

Keywords: Assistive device, 3D printer, education support, development, support school, sustainability.