In the 2009 amendment to the course of study for schools for special needs education, the new teaching guideline "independent activities" was introduced to teach skills that ease difficulties in learning and daily living. The present study aimed to clarify compatibility between the independent activities and ICF categories by conducting a survey of teaching staff in schools for special needs education. The independent activities consist of 6 major items accompanied by a total of 26 sub-items. The ICF involves 4 components: body functions and structures, activities and participation, environmental factors and personal factors. Thirty items at the first level of classification were employed for the present investigation, excluding personal factors. The independent activities were linked not only to activities and participation in the ICF, but also body functions and structures and environmental factors. Amongst the independent activities "psychological stability" had the largest degree of compatibility with ICF items (15 items); while "health care" and "understanding situations" had the smallest number (6 items). The results suggest that a combined use of independent activities and ICF categories provides a more useful and quantitative foundation to assess the independent activities and to facilitate individual teaching plans
