Mother-child interactions of two 2 year-old deaf infants who both had not yet acquired expressive language were studied by means of behavioral category method and qualitative analysis of the protocols. The results of the study are as follows: One subject showed indirect behavior in the communication with his mother. As the induced-elicited behavior, the mother of this child was observed to have kept a well-balanced way of communication using both direct behavioral and indirect verbal means. On the other hand, the other subject whose mother was observed to have basically used direct behavioral means of communication with her child showed a bahavior which is often difficult to judge whether it is an anticipatory response or a direct behavior in his communication with the mother. In further investigation of the data, it is hypothesized that the pre-linguistic and conventional expressive means of communication such as pointing, vocalization, gesture, on the part of the deaf child, might increase before the acquisition of linguistic means. However these might be reduced to a certain degree with the acquisition of oral or sign languages, which are the linguistic means. It is hypothesized, also, that the vocalization might consist of two different stages of development. The one shows phonetically consistent form like the intonational contour, and the other is such that reflects the motivation aspect of pleasure-displeasure by the child. And the former will be reduced with the acquisition of the linguistic means.

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The purpose of this study is to construct the model that can evaluate the aspects of verbal communication at early infancy. Based on Austin's Speech Act Theory, we constructed the model of effective communication as in Fig. 1, and considered of its applicability in terms of language teaching. The model was composed of two main factors, context and situation. The contextual factor was evaluated by observing the relationship between prior events, utterances or behavior and utterances analyzed. The situational factor was evaluated either truth of constative utterances or felicity of performative utterances. Judging conformity between utterances and these two factors, we decided the levels of effectiveness on communication at each utterance. Three female infants (name: K, Y, and M) at the period of single-word utterances were observed during three or six months. Observation of infants was performed at playing room with their parent (mainly their mother), playing and communicating freely. Utterances and behavior at each session were recorded on videotape. According to the model, the corps of three infants were analyzed and classified in six types. Then the change of the ratio of six types to whole utterances with age and the characteristics of configulation within them were examined in each infant. And the conformity of non-verbal responses from directive utterances of parents were recorded and analyzed in the same manner. As a result, type I utterances which communicated the meaning with the best effectiveness were the highest ratio in three infants, and the configulation of ratio was considerably stable within age and infants. Moreover, configulation of Sub. K was gradually changed with age to the same pattern of Sub. Y and M. And K's nonverbal responses decreased with age in contrast to the increase of verbal one. This pointed out that the model could represent the transformation of response mode and quality from behavioral to verbal. Therefore, we considered that the configulation of ratio was a major index for evaluating the characteristics of verbal communication. And it was useful as a method to evaluate the performance of communication with language or mental retarded children at teaching session. This model would realize the Speech Act Theory by transforming to psychological model which could use for evaluating the communicative performance. But illocutionary and perlocutionary act of utterances were not analyzed in any detail at this model, and we suggested that further refinement of the model would be needed in terms of practical studies.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of two tensional level (High, Low) upon response-related potentials (RRPs) under the eye-closed mental calculative condition and to investigate RRPs of Mental Retardation. The subjects used in the experiment were 20 normal adults (5 males and 15 females) and 5 familial retarded children. Recordings were made from scalp electrodes to vertex (Cz in the 10-20 system) reffering to the linked ears. Control recording were obtained from sub-and supraorbital electrodes. Linked ear electrodes served as a reference throughout the experiment. The subject lay on a cot in a dark, sound-damped, and electrically shilded room. After 10 min. were allowed for stabilization of recording, the experimental sessions were administered. In the first session a standard BP paradigm was used, the subject was required to press the button with the right index finger. In the second sessions the subject was requested to press the button under the two mental calculative condition (additional task). The main results were as follows. (I) In proportion as cognitive function increases, duration of RRPs were significantly longer under regular task condition than simple BP paradigm. (II) Regarding the amplitude of RRPs, the records in the two cognitive task condition were significantly larger than BP condition. (III) Among mentally retarded subjects, a different type of RRPs appears, sometimes the slow-negative component was often flat phenomenon. Thus the results of this study suggest that tensional level variability is possibly a function of cortical excitability, using this slow component of the RRPs as a criterion. Furthermore, the task given the subject not only reflect changes in cortical excitability associated with the variability of tensional level but relates to higher cognitive function.

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The effects of labeling and retention materials on a 7-position serial recall task of mentally retarded individuals was examined. The Ss were 40 retardates with a mean MA of 5 years and 5 months and 40 normals with a mean CA of 5 years and 9 months. Retention materials were lists of digits (1 to 7, I series) or familiar objects (II series). Subjects of labeling group were required to say the names of the digits or the familiar objects to be remembered. The results were as follows. (1) No significant total recall differences between the retarded and the normal were apparent for no-labeling group. (2) In the normal, primacy effect and recency effect were recognized in both series. In the retardates, however, while recency effect was recognized in both series, primacy effect was recognized in the familiar objects, but not in the digits. (3) Moreover, the effects of retention materials was recognized only in primacy position. (4) Labeling did not influence the recall performance.

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Holroyd reported the questionaire, named QRS, which assessed psychic stress of parents with handicapped children. The scales of QRS were (1) Poor Health Mood (11 items), (2) Excess Time Demands (14 items), (3) Negative Attitude toward Index Case (23 items), (4) Overprotection/Dependency (13 items), (5) Lack of Social Support (10 items), (6) Overcommitment/Martyrdom (7 items), (7) Pessimism (13 items), (8) Lack of Family Integration (23 items), (9) Limits on Family Opportunity (9 items), (10) Financial Problems (17 items), (11) Physical Incapacitation (14 items), (12) Lack of Activities for Index Case (6 items), (13) Occupational Limitations for Index Case (7 items), (14) Social Obtrusiveness (7 items), (15) Difficult Personality Characteristics (32 items). Such 15 scales were thought to fall into three clusters: Parent Problems (Scales 1-7), Family Problems (Scales 8-10), and Child Problems (Scales 11-15). QRSs were sent to the principals of several primary schools with special classes, a special school for the mentally retarded, a special school for the crippled, and a special school for the blind. We asked them to pass QRSs to the parents. Three hundreds and two QRSs were returned to us through the principals. We analysed, here, one hundred and ten QRSs which were answered completely by mothers. Characteristics of samples were found in Table 1. Handicapped children were divided into 4 groups: autism (N=21), mental retardation(N= 31), cripple (N= 40), blind (N=18). They were 59 boys and 51 girls. Ages of children of 4:6 - 12:11 were 61, and 13:0 - 19:10 were 49. After school, 58 of them went to the institution, and 52 of them were returned home. Ages of mothers of 24:0 - 39:11 were 56, and 40:0 - 53:0 were 54. 53 of them graduated from a primary school, and 57 of them, a high school or college. The results were the followings. (1) Table 2 showed the means, standard deviations and significance tests of the differences for 4 handicapped children. 8 scales showed the statistically significant differences. As to 6 scales, the mothers with autistic children showed the highest scores: Scale 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 15. As to 2 scales, the mothers with the crippled showed Scale 10 and 11, the highest scores. Cummings showed us that the mothers of mental retardation appeared to experience greater stress than the mothers of chronically ill and neurotic children. And, Holroyd concluded that the mothers of autism reported more problems than the mother of Down's syndrome and outpatient clinic children. This investigation showed that the mothers of autism reported greater interference with personal and child's functionings than any other group, and that the mothers of mental retardation did not experience statistically significant greater stress more than any other group. (2) As to QRS scales of each 4 groups, we examined the differences by sex (boy/girl), age (under/over 13 year), life style (home/institution) of children, and age (under/over 40 year), educational period (under/over 9 year) of mothers. Table 3a - 3d showed the statistically significant differences of QRS scales of the mothers with autistic, mentally retarded, crippled, and blind children. (3) Finally, we transculturally examined the attitudes of the mothers of autistic children and mentally retarded children (Table 4). As to autism, our mothers showed less anxiety about the support of their families and communities than Holroyd's mothers. And, as to mental retardation, our mothers were more worried that their children had not enough things to keep them entertained, and less anxious about the difficult characteristics of their children than Holroyd's mothers. But, generally speaking, it was impressive for us that even though the families were in the different cultures, the psychological stress of rearing a handicapped child was very similar for any mother in both countries.

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