This study aimed to investigate whether and when the pragmatic abilities in adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder（ASD）catch up with a typically developing（TD）group. The Test of Pragmatics of Japanese for Children （TOPJC）was administered to 62 individuals with ASD and 144 TD individuals ranging in age from 12 to 33 years and correlation analysis was applied to the numbers of correct responses and age; the numbers of correct responses between the two groups were conducted were then compared. The results showed no correlation between age and the number of correct responses in TD individuals. The adolescents with ASD under 19 years old were still in the process of acquiring pragmatic abilities, but caught up with the TD group after the age of 19. Additionally, adolescents with ASD younger than 19 years were still developing irony comprehension. The results indicate that assessment using the TOPJC is useful for adolescents with ASD younger than 19 years as well as children younger than 13.

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Vocabulary development is a core element of language acquisition and one of the foundations for the expansion of linguistic skills at all stages of language development. In this study, we examined 316 children aged 2-7 years using vocabulary reception and expression tasks to collect basic data pertaining to vocabulary development from early to late childhood. We used a vocabulary of 100 words in each task, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adjectival verbs selected in a preliminary study. The results showed that vocabulary reception and expression increased with age for all parts of speech, suggesting no difference in the acquisition of this vocabulary by region or gender. Further, we observed an increase in the average percentage of correct responses with age for almost all the vocabulary words, all of which showed 75% passing rates. The data obtained in this study could serve as indicators for the early detection of language development delays and as instructional support.

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Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder（ASD）have a difficulty understanding facial expressions. This study investigated the ability of recognizing facial expression and labeling of emotional words in school-age Hard of Hearing children（HH）with ASD. Four groups of children participated: eight children of HH+ASD, 15 with HH only, 12 with ASD, and 40 Typically Developed（TD）．For the first task of Matching Emotional word（ME）wherein 32 pictures were presented to each child, and the subject categorized the responses into four basic facial expressions（happiness, anger, surprise and sadness）．The second task was Free Labeling of facial expression（FL）． Five different facial illustrations were presented, and the subject were instructed to label them freely with words. The ME and FL scores of the HH+ASD were compared to the other groups. In addition, correlation between vocabulary and ME as well as FL were analyzed. As the results of the examinations, both ME and FL scores of HH+ASD groups were significantly lower than TD, but no difference was observed among the HH only group. ASD group showed similarity in scores and answering strategies. As for the vocabulary, no correlation was found between the tasks in HH+ASD, but in HH only group. HH children with low vocabulary tended to have low labeling. This research suggested that HH+ASD children had difficulty in basic facial expression recognition as well as the use of emotional words to sense the feelings and/or emotion of others based on the facial expression.

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This study investigated differences in maternal verbal output and toddlers’ behavior between mother-child dyads playing with hand-operated toys（manual toy condition）and switch-operated toys（automatic toy condition）．The participants were 10 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder（ASD）aged 29-35 months, 10 toddlers with typical development（TD）aged 23-29 months, and their respective mothers. Results showed that the frequencies of mothers’ output were significantly higher in the manual toy condition than in the automatic toy condition for both groups. In addition, the speech of the mothers of TD children showed a larger repertoire of independent words in the manual toy condition than in the automatic toy condition. In the speech of the mothers of ASD children, the verb- final morphemes with pragmatic functions were more varied in the manual toy condition than in the automatic toy condition. The results suggest that play using manual toys provides a communicative environment that tends to be rich in maternal verbal models and encourage verbal interactions.

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Introduction: This study aimed to elucidate the use of communication strategies （CS） in elderly cochlear implant （CI） users. Methods: A survey was conducted by self-reported CS questionnaires on 66 CI users, who had postlingual hearing impairment and aged over 65 years. This study classified CS into self-help and demanding types, and based on types of utilization, they were further categorized into “execution” or“ non-execution.”Results: Approximately 70-80% of participants “executed” CS. Furthermore, women or participants who had a long cochlear implant wearing record used the CS more frequently. However,“ non-execution” of CS was observed in approximately 50-70% of those who could not hear in daily conversational situations. Conclusion: This study elucidates the importance of CS coaching and the groups who need support.

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We report on the progress of special education classes of a girl with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss for two years after entering elementary school, who was diagnosed with hearing loss at age four and started wearing a hearing aid. Her grammar skills were appropriate for her age, but her passive vocabulary was agedelayed. She was given special education classes in a resource room to improve her hearing loss and passive vocabulary skills and demonstrated noticeable improvements in passive vocabulary, both on tests and in real situations. We discuss the results of this report in light of current research findings.

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The number of bilingual individuals in Japan is increasing due to globalization. More and more researchers show interest toward language disorders among bilingual individuals. This study investigated whether any trends exist in the severity of the disorder or recovery patterns based on the language pair when a bilingual individual had aphasia. The literature review included bilingual patients who spoke Japanese and another language. I sorted 23 papers into specific categories: general information, language disorder symptoms, and severity of the disorder. Upon analyzing the severity of the disorder and recovery patterns, I discovered some tendencies: 1）patients with the language pair of Korean and Japanese often had similar severity of disorder and recovery patterns in both languages or“ parallel recovery”; 2）patients with the Japanese and English language pair often had non-parallel recovery. Based on these findings, bilingual patients with aphasia possibly have different severity of disorder and recovery patterns based on their language pair.

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[in Japanese]

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