Background: The field of communication sciences and disorders has only become formalized into an independent scientific and clinical discipline since the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) was founded by Emil Froeschels in 1924.
Purpose: We summarize the key developments in the field of speech-language pathology (SLP) in Bulgaria and Japan over time, emphasizing the influence of the IALP on the development of logopedics* in these countries.
Method: A historical approach is used, including biographical, ethnographic, and iconographic archive analyses and the analysis of special literature sources. The different stages of the development of SLP in Bulgaria and Japan are outlined.
Results: In both Bulgaria and Japan, the development of SLP started at the beginning of the 19th century with special education for deaf people. The study of SLP in both countries started with a focus on stuttering and related fluency disorders. Bulgarian logopedics has a strong European influence, as represented by the schools in Vienna, Berlin, Praha, and Moscow. In Japan, SLP has been influenced not only by European schools of thought, but also by U.S. perspectives. In the mid-20th century, the influence of otorhinolaryngology and phoniatrics strengthened in both countries.
Conclusion: The foundation of SLP in Bulgaria and Japan was influenced by the European tradition and its development accelerated following World War II. Over recent decades, the dissemination of scientific concepts and increase in professionalism have extended to both countries following their educational, economic, cultural, and historical traditions.

It has been suggested that self-acceptance in people who stutter can enhance their quality of life (QOL). There is no quantitatively measurable scale that deals with QOL as a single concept; instead, studies have been conducted by modifying existing measures and employing analogous concepts. Here, we aimed to develop a metric to assess self-acceptance in people who stutter and to examine the metric's reliability and validity. We proposed a set of scale items capable of comprehensively measuring the relevant characteristics, including the psychological and social aspects of stuttering, and we tested them in stutterers. Analysis of the responses of 100 subjects enabled us to create a complete scale with a 16-item three-factor structure. The scale had high reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability) and validity (content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity). Notably, variations in mean scores were seen according to the subjective severity of stuttering symptoms and past support or intervention experiences. We should therefore be careful in interpreting the results by taking the attributes of individual subjects into consideration. We consider that the scale will be more effective when utilized as a longitudinal evaluation index rather than for isolated use.

We investigated the effectiveness of online-based group voice therapy in healthy individuals by using the short version of Vocal Function Exercise (VFE) and the Water Resistance (WR) method. Forty healthy adults (20 males and 20 females) ranging in age from 19 to 22 years (mean age: 20.9) were included in this study. Participants were allocated to four groups on the basis of the number of online training sessions they would receive, namely an VFE one-session group; a VFE two-sessions group; a WR one-session group; and a WR two-sessions group. Each session of vocal training lasted 20 min, during which voice therapy was provided online to groups of five participants. The self-training period was set at 15 days. The clinical endpoints were MPT, physiological voice range, acoustic parameters (APQ, PPQ, and HNR), and subjectively evaluated parameters (VHI and V-RQOL), each of which was measured before and after the training and then compared. The results showed that both the short version of VFE and the WR method helped to improve vocal function. We consider that online voice therapy might be effective as a substitute for face-to-face training. Notably, the VFE two-session group had greater improvements in MPT, APQ, HNR, and VHI than the other groups. We also consider that, in online voice therapy, VFE may need regular interventions but the WR method can achieve therapeutic effects in the initial training session alone. In the future, we would like to study voice disorder cases and online voice therapy by using techniques other than VFE and WR.

To enhance the level of certainty in clinical trials for stuttering, we examined the descriptions of implementation quality in clinical trials conducted in Japan. We searched for articles published from 1980 to 2022, written in Japanese, and reporting clinical trials conducted with school-aged children who stutter. We utilized the CiNii and Japan Medical Abstract Society databases for our search. A total of 43 articles met the eligibility criteria. To assess implementation quality, we employed a 40-item scale based on previous studies in the field of stuttering. Our analysis revealed that the articles reviewed provided limited descriptions of implementation quality. The most frequently reported aspects were "primary outcome" (81%), "protocol" (63%), "intervention dosage" (i.e., number of clinical visits) (60%), "person(s) responsible for delivering the intervention in clinic visits" (53%), and "setting and location where clinic visits are conducted" (35%). It is crucial to provide appropriate descriptions of implementation quality to enhance the certainty of evidence-based effect estimates.

We successfully used water resistance therapy (WRT), a voice therapy widely used in patients with intact larynxes, to treat two laryngectomized patients for hyperfunctional voice disorder in tracheoesophageal (TE) shunt speech. In patient 1, who had undergone laryngectomy, maximum phonation time (MPT) increased from 0 to 10 s. Time required to read aloud a task was 4.1 s three months after WRT. In patient 2, who had undergone pharyngolaryngectomy with free jejunum reconstruction, MPT increased from 5 to 15 s. Time required to read aloud a task decreased from 9.2 to 4.3 s two months after WRT. These findings suggest that WRT provided adequate tension and expiratory flow in the neoglottis and upper neoglottis in both cases, as per the original purpose of this treatment. As vibration of the neoglottis in TE shunt speech is similar to normal vibration of the vocal cords, voice therapy techniques for patients with larynxes might be useful for hyperfunctional voice disorder in TE shunt speech.

A case of acquired auditory agnosia in a child who developed bilateral temporal lobe and auditory cortex lesions due to cerebral hemorrhaging caused by herpes simplex encephalitis at age 1 year and 3 months was observed for 37 years. After onset, the patient was completely unable to comprehend or express spoken language and, because this state of severe auditory agnosia persisted, he received education in visual-based communication, such as cued speech, fingerspelling, sign language, and written language at a school for the deaf from kindergarten through to high school. This paper examines the characteristics and medical, educational, and rehabilitative assistance needs of acquired auditory agnosia in childhood, with a focus on the symptoms of auditory agnosia in this case, and with comparison to other, similar, cases in Japan.