The present study aimed to investigate the developmental changes in risk factors for kanji word-reading difficulty in second- to sixth-grade children (N=843). A multiple logistic analysis was conducted, and significant odds ratios were revealed for difficulty in reading kanji words with high imageability, which was accompanied by low performance on a kana word searching test in the second, third, and fourth grades. In addition, significant odds ratios were found for difficulty in reading kanji words with low imageability under combined occurrences of low performance on forward and backward digit recall tests in the fifth and sixth grades. It may be concluded, based on these results, that a lack of fluency in kana word reading could be mainly a risk factor in lower grades, while the malfunction of verbal working memory could be a risk factor in higher grades, indicating that risk factors might change with increases in grade.

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This study examined viewpoint-dependent and viewpoint-independent visual cognitive processes in children of normal intelligence (mean age=9.8 years) who have difficulty in Japanese Kanji writing. A mental rotation task in which the stimuli consisted of two ice-cream cones with three differently colored scoops of ice cream was used. Children were asked to judge whether the two stimuli, one upright and one rotated, were the same or different. Ice-cream cones were either identical, mirror images, or non-mirror images. We found that children with difficulty in Kanji writing showed no impairment for identical and non-mirror images and only exhibited lower accuracy scores when stimuli were mirror images. Since children could complete mental rotation in the identical condition and could find the unique features in the non-mirror images condition, their viewpoint-dependent and viewpoint-independent systems may be intact. However, they had deficits in mirror image perception. These may be one of the factors underlying reversal errors in these children.

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Two reading time components, reading latency (RL) and articulation time (AT), were explored in word and nonword reading in a boy (P1) exhibiting reading difficulty characterized by profound phonological deficits. In Experiment 1, the reading time components were longitudinally assessed from Grades 1 to 5. During the period from Grades 1 to 3, P1's persistent reading speed deficits had different causes: delayed RL in word reading and longer AT in nonword reading. When he was in Grade 5, however, the most significant deficit was found in RL for nonword reading. In Experiment 2, P1's reading strategies for word and nonword reading were examined, focusing on word-length effects on the reading time components. The results indicated that reading deficits were found only in his RL, regardless of word length or meaningfulness of stimuli, indicating that P1 had developed and applied his own reading strategy to compensate for his reading problem. On the basis of the results of the experiments, the applicability and usefulness of the reading time components were discussed.

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A person with selective mutism (SM) in adolescence sometimes reveals group adaptation difficulties such as school absenteeism, as well as other associated psychopathological symptoms such as depression; and thus their condition is typically highly complex. In this study, a high school student with SM, who experienced associated symptoms of school absenteeism, social anxiety, and depression besides suppression of speech and movement, was given feedback on voice volume after reading aloud and subjected to an in vivo exposure technique. In the voice volume feedback, as a result, the student's voice volume improved by 10 dB compared to the beginning of the study and became loud enough to be easily heard. In addition, anxiety scores on speech and activity decreased, and the number of responses to the counselors increased. However, the treatment cannot be considered adequate since the student spoke only in a low voice and less frequently even after the treatment. Nonetheless, recovery from SM in adolescence is deemed difficult; thus, the intervention introduced in this study may be inferred to have had measurably positive effects.

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