Abstract
To show the regeneration process of speech of a 9-year-old autistic boy with mental retardation and epilepsy from the developmental point of view is the purpose of this paper. The records of his speech, talken during a 50-minute play therapy once a week for about two years, are detailed and analyzed. The main observations are as follows: (1) The amount of speech and the articulation score fluctuate irregularly from day to day. The regeneration of speech, however, goes slowly with some aspects of the normal speech development on the whole. (2) As he grows older, the lengthening of the sentence in his speech goes slowly in form without enrichment in contents. (3) Reflecting his cognitive deviation, the lengthening of the sentence progresses only in the specific topics such as eating and rarely comes up to other subjects. (4) Though he is over 11-years old, the passive reply and the soliloquy which is often designative or incomprehensive are dominant in his speech. (5) Some developmental changes are observed even in the soliloquy, the echolalia and the language imitation. (6) Some autistic speech disorders, such as no calling one's name, the language poor in vocabulary on the matters of general interest, the repetition of phrases, the whisper and so on, still remain in his speech. (7) Lack of linguistic functions such as assertion, possession, calling, displaying, inviting, admiring, consoling. proposing, permitting, instructing, speaking for an other person is the characteristics of his speech. On the contrary, those of appealing, greeting, explanation, imitation and request are now developing in his speech. (8) The functional level of his speech is somewhat similar to that of a 20-22-month-old boy.
