Prosodic features and pragmatic functions of the short vocalization at the transitional phase from babbling to meaningful utterrances were investigated. Subjects were five normal infants. Pitch pattern, pitch range, fundamental frequency (F₀) and duration were selected as prosodic features. The differentiation from the function which pertains most emotion to responding function which is fairly stable after first word period was observed. The relation between functions and pitch pattern were obtained as follows: (1) ‹refusal› showed a rising pattern, and ‹affirmation› and ‹response to calling› also showed falling and flattening respectively. (2) A complex pattern was seen in ‹request›. (3)In emotional function, a complex pattern was significant. Irrespective of the variation within and individual and among individuals in infant's vocalization, the results suggest that different parameters are used according to the commuicative intentions, and prosodic features corresponding to pragmatic functions. Moreover some of the parameters were used in the same manner as adults.

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The purpose of this study is to find how to aid aged, bedbound aphasics in having good communication with other patients and those around them-their family members, the helper and the staff. Since our hospital offers one room for two patients, the speech therapist put them in contact with each other, made them recognize each other and created a situation where the people around them shared communication, thus playing a part as a coodinator.
Subject 1, an 86-year-old aphasic, made increased eye movement after she recognized the other patient, and lots of intended behavior was observed in daily exchanges with those around her. Subject 2, a 69-year-old patient with Alzheimer's disease, became more emotional, although little response had been observed before. She became more interested in people than in things. For both patients, several kinds of communication behavior including non-verbal responses were preserved till the end of their lives. Positive effects were produced by making them participate together in the common context of their daily life and respond to every emotional situation with the help of the people around them.

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We investigated what kind and how much ability is required to master hiragana, by examining 15 severely, multiply handicapped patients' ability to read and express a 2-syllable hiragana word and to use hiragana.
The results were as follows: (1) To read and express a 2-syllable hiragana word, the ability to match a syllable to a hiragana letter and the ability to extract a syllable from a word are important. (2) In addition, these two abilities must be high. We also suggest that spoken language does not always promote the mastery of hiragana, and that the severely, multiply handicapped need a higher mental age than normal children to master hiragana.

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