The purpose of this report was to examine the within-group differences in assertiveness of stutterers. At the beginning, a 36 item assertiveness scale was administered to a sample of 201 adult stutterers. A high assertive group (N=48) and a low assertive group (N=50), were extracted from the total number of subjects according to their assertiveness score and were compared with regard to their assertiveness. Several items on how stutterers grasp their own stuttering were added to the 36 assertiveness items. Thus the ways in which the two groups grasp their respective stuttering were also compared. The results were as follows: 1) The two groups differed statistically in 35 out of 36 assertiveness items. The high assertive group was more assertive than the low assertive group on all items. 2) Five factors were extracted respectively from both groups in a factor analysis. The factor structure of the low assertive group was more characteristic than the other. The reason for this seems to be that the opposite factors, such as "assertion of one's rightfulness" (Factor 1) and "tendency to conceal one's opinion" (Factor 3) were extracted from the low assertive group. From this, it was inferred that they were in a state of ambivalence. 3) The low assertive group regarded their stuttering symptoms as more severe and were more distressed about their own stuttering problems than the high assertive group. These results reveal that there is an organic relationship between assertiveness and the ways in which stutterers grasp their stuttering. This also supports the author's position that stuttering problems can be resolved by having stutterers attain a more assertive way of life.

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There has been a lot of research on autistic children, but the cause and the nature of autism are still not known. Thus, it is still not certain what the most effective teaching methods are for them. We found clues to the relationship between the development of cognitive ability and the maturation of sensory functions and to the synergistic effect of motor skills of autistic children from our experience with the use of total body movement to increase cognitive ability. In general, the behavior of autistic children is characterized by lack of self-control, lack of interest in or concentration on activities and an inability to solve problems. The authors thus decided to investigate the influence of sensory-motor exercises on the daily life of autistic children with regard to the above-mentioned traits. The subjects were 12 boys, aged 8 to 14, who had been diagnosed as autistic by a public medical clinic and attended the exercise classes of a certain place once a week. The items measured were (a) body height and weight, as a physical control, (b) beam cross jump, side step test, jump step test, jum-pover and crawl under, single-leg beam balance and body-supporting by arms for the evaluation of motor abilities and (c) tonic labyrinthine reflex and asymmetrical tonic neck reflex for the evaluation of the maturation of postural reflexes. Tests were done monthly - from May to November, 1982 except August. The following elements could be detected: 1) The autistic children's motor abilities showed improvement. The performance of body-supporting by arms, jump-over and crawl under, jump step test and single-leg beam balance were especially increased by the sensory-motor exercises. 2) It seems that there is a profound relationship between the acquisition of basic motor skills such as bilateral, uni-lateral and alternating movements and integrated and non-integrated postural reflexes which are influenced by basic postures acquired during development. 3) It is necessary to consider the great influence of environmental and psychological factors on the development of movement in children when establishing a physical education program. In addition to solve one of the problems of autistic children, it is also necessary to offer an educational environment which is psychologically free of anxiety for their total physical growth.

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The acquisition and retention of reading and the transfer of matching-to-sample performance in eight mentally retarded children was compared under Vp(picture)-Vw(printed word) matching and A (dictated word)-Vw matching training conditions. Three subjects were trained to read Hiragana (a Japanese syllabary alphabet), and five were trained to read Chinese characters. Stimuli 1-5 used Vp-Vw matching training, and stimuli 6-10 used A-Vw matching training. Correct responses were reinforced by a chime followed by a green ○ signal. Incorrect responses were punished by buzzing followed by a red ×signal. A follow-up study was conducted for 2-10 weeks after the training ended. During Baseline 1, all the subjects displayed poor reading ability and could hardly read the characters. At Baseline 2 which came after Vp-Vw matching training ended and at Baseline 3 which came after A-Vw matching training ended, they demonstrated a significant increase in percent correct responses during oral reading. The increased percentage was maintained throughout the follow-up period. Transfer from trained matching performance to untrained matching performance occurred in both Vp-Vw and A-Vw matching training. The data showed that: 1) there were no obvious differences between acquisition and retention of oral reading and transfer of matching-to-sample performance between the two matching procedures; and 2) there were improvement trends in the acquisition of oral reading behavior with one matching procedure in which matching-to-sample performance was on a high level as compared with the other procedure in the first half of the first session.

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This study was undertaken to investigate response modes to photic stimuli in normal and mental retarded children with plethysmographic amplitude as an index. There were 15 subjects in the normal group (Mean CA, 15 years 6 months) and 15 in the mental retarded group (15 yrs. 10 mos.). The cause of mental retardation was unknown. Both groups were divided into three subgroups (N=5); the strong stimulus group (stimulus intensity of 600 lux), the moderate stimulus group (100 lux) and the weak stimulus group (2 lux). Each group received photic stimuli of 5 second duration, 45 second ISI for 20 trials. The amplitude of the plethysmograph recording was measured by hand. Response magnitude and number were calculated by comparing the amplitude 10 beats before the stimulus with the minimum amplitude during the poststimulus time (3-7 second). Response magnitude was calculated using the logarithmic conversion of the vasoconstriction ratio. Response number measured the total number of vasoconstrictions. The results were as follows: 1. Response number Response number decreased in order of moderate, weak and strong intensity in the normal group but decreased in order of strong, moderate to weak in the retarded group. An analysis of variance showed no significant difference between groups or stimulus intensity (Fig. 1). 2. Response magnitude Response magnitude decreased in order of moderate, strong and weak intensity in the normal group but in the retarded group there was no difference according to intensity. Analysis of variance showed no significant difference between groups or stimulus intensity (Fig. 2). 3. Response progress Response progress was calculated by pooling the results of every 4 trials in a block. Both groups showed a decrease in response number during the initial block (1-3). There was a significant difference between blocks in the retardate group (Fig. 3). The normal group showed a significant difference between stimulus intensity and response magnitude (Fig. 4). There were no differences in the latter blocks. Responsiveness of the plethysmograph in mental retardation and normal children is discussed from the results described above and it was suggested that mental retardates showed unsteady response modes.

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There are two reasons to take up EEG studies of sleep in mentally retarded children (MR). One is that sleep EEGs seem to be indispensable for the clinical solution of sleep disturbances in MR. The other is that the vast findings of sleep EEG studies seem to show that sleep EEGs are one of the most effective measures to examine disorders or peculiarities of brain function in MR. In this paper, we will mainly review the sleep EEGs of MR from the point of view of sleep stages, because; 1) sleep stages are fundamental to the study of sleep EEGs, 2) sleep stages which cannot be classified according to the adult classification can be found in MR. A decrease in TST, %SR, %S4 and an increase in %SW and %S1 with age is seen in MR as in normal children. But in contrast to normal children, there is a trend for decreased TST and increased %SW and %S1, for a remarkable decreased %SR and SR latency, and for a small decreased %S4, especially in 0-10 year old MR. Indetermined Sleep (IS) is found rarely in adult sleep yet, constitutes a peculiar sleep stage in MR (Petre-Quadens, 1972 et al.). IS decreases with age. Similar tendencies were seen in the Down syndrome group and the Endocrine group except for SR latency, but the PKU group showed a remarkable increase of %SW and %S1 and a decrease of %SR and %S4. It is concluded that the quality of sleep in MR is generally bad (especially in the PKU group), and that sleep in MR changes with age as in normal children.

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