1998 Volume 39 Issue 2 Pages 236-244
We, the subcommittee members, created the National Rehabilitation Center ‹S-S Test› for language retarded children with sign-significate relations in 1987, and subsequently developed comprehensive intervention programs. The developmental processes of two children with delayed language, who participated in comprehensive intervention programs based on the Sign-Significate Relations Model are reported. One was a 3-year-old languageless child with severe mental retardation who initially could not understand or speak any words, but after two years of comprehensive intervention became able to understand almost a hundred individual words (object names and some verbs) .
The other subject was a 4-year-old autistic child who could understand 3-word sentences but could not speak (severe expressive language delay) . After one year of training, he learned to speak fluently. The important points discussed are as follows:
1) improvement of assessment batteries and intervention programs for languageless childern
2) daily life structured programs for family members and care staff
3) acquisition model for expressive language including speech, gestures, figurative symbols and literacy
4) comprehensive intervention programs
5) Test of question-answer interaction development for evaluating ability of conversational behaviors.
