Normal-speaking and misarticulating children were compared on a speech-sound identification task which included both the sounds misarticulating subjects articulated incorrectly and correctly. The identification task was composed of four kinds of stimul; /s/-/t/ contrasts, dissimilar contrasts of the place of articulation, dissimilar contrasts of the place and the manner of articulation, and vowel contrasts. The subjects were 13 children who misarticulated /s/ and 20 normal-speaking children in the first grade of elementary school. The subjects were directed to listen to stimuli then point at a card which matched each stimuli. The subjects with functional articulation disorders with misarticulated /s/ were classifyed into three types as follows: those who didn't make any errors in identification task, those who made errors only in the identification of /s/, and those who made errors on account of their inattention to the stimulus.

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To investigate the emergence of communicative behaviour, the course of development of gestures and vocabulary in a normal infant was observed. Data was gathered for one normal male infant by using the diary method from six to eighteen months of age.
The following results were obtained from this one year period of observation.
(1) The order of the appearance of gestures fell into three groups: pointing, head-shaking, showing and hand-waving for the first group; hand-raising, nodding, bowing, out-stretched arms (vertically) for the second group; and out-stretched hand and beckoning for the third group.
(2) Although the gestures in the firstgroup emerged as early as nine months of age, they had no communicative function right after appearance.
(3) The gestures in the second group appeared later than the first group but had a communicative function during the early stage of their appearance.
(4) The third group of gestures did not appear within the observation period.
As a result of this study, we think that there is a stage in which an infant enjoys producing gestures without a communicative function before words and gestures are used for communication. We also speculated that this stage plays an important role in formulating the foundation of communicative functions.

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The purposes of this study were 1) to clarify the current status of the special classes for hearing impaired and speech disordered children, and 2) to show what teachers think about the licence of speech therapists (ST). Questionnaires were sent to about 503 special education teachers in Japan.
The main results were as follows:
1) The return rate was 61%.
2) Teachers for this study had various troubles, although they wanted to continue their job.
3) They consulted with approximately four or six children in a day. Only one or two teachers were assigned to the classes.
4) Most of them had not graduated from a special education course, thought that the higher training programs were necessary for speech therapy.
5) Half of the teachers in the special education classes answered that they should have the same licence as speech therapists employed in hospitals.

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This study examines the relationship between the expression of meaningful words and symbolic functioning and briefly describes a remedial therapy which is implemented in our Day Care Center based on a Ohta's developmental staging model. ‹A study› Sixty two autistic children were divided into two groups; the group with expression of meaningful words (meaningful word group, MWG, N=33), and the group without expression of meaningful words (no speech group, NSG, N=29). The NSG showed significantly lower scores on MA, IQ, DA and DQ than the MWG children did. However, there is no significant difference in age between the groups, The NSG also showed low symbolic functioning in terms of gesture, drawing and symbolic play, compared with the MWG. Ohta's staging clearly corressponded with competence in symbolic functioning.
‹Overview of a remedial therapy› In the Day Care Center, symbolic functioning of children is evaluated according to Ohta's staging, Children then receive stage-appropriate-tasks in a small groups.
It seems that stage-appropriate-tasks intrinsically enhance their motivation for learning, and facilitate their cognitive development.

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There is a deficiency in the characteristic speech and language through out the long-life of autistic children. They tend to speak only when spoken to and seldom initiate appropriate speech. This is a common language characteristic of autistic individuals with echolalia which can interfere with communication and social development. Therefore, the development of treatment programs for acquisition of functional speech and communication skills is useful in their real life. Recent findings should be viewed in light of several limitations of their application. Future studies may wish to address which more functional effects occur with autistic children.

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This report discusses how to intervene in severe autistic disorders based on a longitudinal study of four cases. Four points of view are important. First I propose the idea that patients should live their lives to the fullest, humanly while accepting various suppose (which means that they live with their family at home, or in their community). This is the basic starting point. In order to realize that, three other points of view are importat; (1) Speech therapists must invent individual alternative non-vocal communication systems and therapy strategies. (2) Speech therapists must advise the patient's family on how to teach the necessary words and skills for daily life by helping around the house. (3) Speech therapists mustn't drive their patient's family (especially the mother) to use too much energy on the patient.

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Several clinical issues which concern the acquisition of communication and constitute language intervention in autistic children in early childhood are discussed.
1) To increase the variety of activity and the functional use of objects.
2) The necessity for communication be regarded in a broad sense.
3) The importance of verbal comprehension and responsiveness to intervention activities.
4) To take account of the development of sign-signified relations.
5) Optimal mother-child relations.

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The major objectives of neuroradiological diagnosis of the patients with aphasia can be summarized as follows; 1) to clarify the classical lesions producing aphasia, 2) to reveal the underlying disease and its pathophysiology, 3) to identify the lesion producing non-aphasic speech disturbance. Brain imaging is useful in diagnosing such as cerebral vascular diseases and senile dementia producing aphasia. Computed tomography and MRI are designed to identify the organic lesions, while positron CT and SPECT are used to investigate functional disorders of the brain. In the diagnosis of cerebral vacular diseases, it is necessary to distinguish between a brain infarction and a brain hemorrhage. In the case of a brain infarction, it is necessary to make the diagnosis of thrombosis or emboism. Sometimes, the pathophysiology of the cerebral vascular diseases changes dramatically from the acute to the chronic stage. Paretic dysarthria is an important sign of non-aphasic speech disturbance. The neuroanatomical localization of the pyramidal tract should be understood in the neuroradiological diagnosis of the patient with aphasia.

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The neural mechanism underlying object naming was studied using a patient with multimodal modality-specific aphasia due to an operation of an epidural left parietal haematoma, and a patient with aphasia complicated by semantic amnesia following evacuation of a left putaminal hemorrhage. Information on the form and material of an object analyzed in the sensory association cortices seems to be compared with the semantic memory stored in the inferior temporal lobes, resulting in recognition; the information from the semantic memory may be converted to a phonemic image by the lexical system and retained in the left superior temporal lobe; memory of the skilled movements stored in the left inferior parietal lobule may be retrieved for the articulation of the syllables, and based on this information, the left motor cortex seems to send commands to the articulatory apparatus. Corresponding to the location of the lesion, naming disturbances due to agnosia of a given modality (disconnection of the sensory association cortices and semantic memories), modality-specific aphasia (disconnection of the recognition system and the speech area), semantic amnesia (disruption of the semantic memory), and aphasia (disturbance of the lexical or phonemic system) seemed to occur. These symptoms can be complicated according to the extension of the lesion.

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Usually clinical evaluations for the problems of patients with language disturbances due to brain damage are based on observations from linguistic and neuropsychological points of view. However, this is not sufficient grounds for understanding the language pathology of patients and managing them clinically. It is nacessary to shift or change the therapists' paradigm in order to appreciate the pathology and the mental state of the patients who have difficulties with communication.
This paper discusses that (1) this issue from the viewpoint of semiology, recognizing that “differentiation” in the language activity of human beings is useful when therapists try to understand the patients, and (2) how the relation and structure of therapy influence the rehabilitation process directly, therefore how the “roles” which therapists take on come to be important.

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There is a large body of literature on thought disorders among the various symptoms of schizophrenia, however, there have been few reports on language disturbances. A review of the literature shows that four major methods were employed to study the language disturbances of schizophrenia: 1) studies which aimed to clarify thought disorders through an examination of language (Maher, Andreasen, Hoffman), 2) studies of the disorder of communication by speech (Cohen, Kantorowitz, Rochester), 3) detailed analysis of the discourse of schizophrenic patients which was performed by linguists (Chaika, Morice), and 4) a method which intended to compare the language of schizophrenia with that of aphasia (Gerson, Kamiyama, Ohira). Hopefully further studies in this field will illuminate cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia.

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