The causes of speech disorders were studied in 127 children who had consulted our speech and hearing clinic for children with complaint of retarded onset or development of speech during the period from November 1961 through August 1962. Diagnosis was made on the basis of history, physical examination, various methods of audiometry and mental development tests, and the following results were obtained :
(1) Out of a total of 127 children, 27 or 21.3 per cent were hearingimpaired children without mental deficiency (Group I) ; 18 or 14.3 per cent either hearingimpaired or mentally deficient children (Group II) ; 42 or 33.1 per cent feeble-minded chi ldren with normal hearing (Group III) ; 9 or 7.1 per cent border line cases without hearing impair ment (Group IV) ; and remaining 31 or 24.4 per cent showed neither hearing disorders nor mental deficiency except retarded development of speech (Group V).
(2) Blood relation of parents was found more frequently in the hearing-impaired group (Group I & II) than in the normally hearing group (Group III, IV & V).
(3) Maternal diseases during pregnancy, such as hyperemesis, gestational toxicosis, icterus, genital bleeding, influenza; rubella, etc, were most frequently observed in the mentally retarded group (Group III & IV).
(4) Pathological delivery, neonatal asphyxia, pre mature infants, various diseases of the central ner vous system in infancy were found most frequently in the feeble-minded group (Group III).
(5) Postnatal head-injured cases were frequent among the children in the hearing-impaired group (Group I & II).
(6) Severe dyspepsia or malnutrition during in- fant life was thought to be an important factor among the chidren in the Group V as well as in the Group III.
(7) People related by blood to the children belonging to the Group V frequently tended to have retarded development of speech or stuttering in past history. The relative number of males and females in this group was approximately 2 boys to one girl.
抄録全体を表示