The purpose of this study was to develop data useful in counselling mothers of mentally retarded children. Anxiety levels of 78 mothers of mentally retarded children attending special schools in Tokyo and 78 in Seoul were measured, using the Cattell Anxiety Scale, the Parent-Child Relation Test, and questionnaires on psychological pressures experienced by the mothers. Data were analyzed using Hayashi's Quantification Theory Family 1 and multiple regression analysis, in order to determine the factors affecting the mothers' anxiety. Factors that might result in different psychological pressures on mothers in the two cities were studied, as well as factors common to the two environments and those factors characteristic of each of them. The results showed that mothers in Tokyo reported less anxiety for their mentally retarded children than did mothers in Seoul. No significant difference was found between the two cities on demographic characteristics such as the age of the mentally retarded children in the families studied, but significant differences were found in the social conditions of the mentally retarded children, such as the number of agencies their mothers consulted with, and in the mothers' attitudes toward their retarded children. However, in both cities, the mothers' attitudes toward their children were rejecting and overprotective; this is typical of mothers of mentally retarded children. Results from the measures of the mothers' complaints and of psychological pressures on the mothers about the situation of their mentally retarded children, and results from the measures of the circumstances of the mother, the family, and the community, also showed that, in both cities, the mothers report feeling more psychological pressure about "how to bring up their children" and "how to deal with the community circumstances", but less pressure from "family circumstances". Hayashi's Quantification Thery Family 1 and the multiple regression analysis revealed that the items reported in both cities as being perceived to produce anxiety were "health of the mother", "the number of agencies consulted", and "anxiety about possible problems of the mentally retarded child's siblings". However, Tokyo mothers reported more than Seoul mothers did that they worry about educational institutions, while Seoul mothers reported more than Tokyo mothers did that they worry about having to admit that their child is mentally retarded.

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Speech samples from 40 hearing impaired children who ranged in age from 6 to 11 were recorded, using sentence intonation and word accent as test materials. The average hearing levels of the subjects ranged from 50 to 130dB. Changes in the fundamental frequency of the speech samples were observed acoustically, and differences in tone changes between declarative and interrogative sentences, and those between different positions of the accent kernel of words, were analyzed. At the same time, the quality of the utterances was judged perceptually, and they were classified into three categories; correct, wrong, and in-between. It was found that the results of the perceptual classification could be explained from the results of the acoustical analysis, if the region of correct utterances was set according to the characteristics of standard utterances spoken by normal subjects. This implies that the qualities of intonation and accent can be evaluated objectively by acoustical analysis. The relationship between the results obtained from these methods of evaluation and the characteristics of hearing loss were examined. It was suggested that control of voice pitch in the utterance is closely related to hearing level in the low frequency range, and that ability to control voice pitch can be predicted by from the hearing levels at 250 Hz and 500 Hz.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the transfer effects of cue verbalization on the extinction and relearning phases of reversal learning in moderately retarded children. The two subject groups were composed of 40 normal children (mean MA 5 years 5 months, mean IQ 105.7) and 40 moderately retarded ones (mean MA 5 years 5 months, mean IQ 42.5) of the same mental age. Each subject group was assigned to two conditions of cue verbalization and no-cue verbalization of comparable mental age (20 children in each condition). A discrimination reversal shift problem which consisted of two dimensions (size, brightness) and two stimulus values (large, small; black, gray) was utilized. Size was a relevant dimension and brightness was irrelevant. The positive cue was a large square and the negative cue a small square in half of the subjects in each condition, and the positive-negative cue was reversed in the others. The subjects in the cue verbalization condition were instructed to verbalize a positive cue within the relevant dimension each time they made a correct response during the initial discrimination trials, while the subjects in the no-cue verbalization one were not so instructed. After the criterion was attained in the initial discrimination, the reversal shift discrimination trials were begun without any further instruction or ostensible break in procedure, but the positive-negative cue was reversed within the relevant dimension. The learning criterion on the initial and reversal shift discriminations was 10 successive correct responses to a maximum of 50 trials, excepting error trials prior to the first correct response in the shift discrimination. The main results were as follows; (1) In the normal group, the difference between the cue verbalization and no-cue verbalization conditions was not significant in the extinction phase, namely the number of error trials prior to the first correct response in the shift discrimination. In the moderately retarded group, a significant difference between the two conditions was found (F(1,76)=11.06, P<.01); those in the cue verbalization condition committed more errors than in the no-cue verbalization condition. (2) In both the normal and the moderately retarded groups, the relearning phase, namely the number of trials from the first correct response of the shift discrimination to the learning criterion, did not differ significantly between the two conditions. From the results mentioned above, it was suggested that the training of cue verbalization in initial discrimination trials for moderately retarded children had an interfering effect on the extinction phase during the shift discrimination process, whereas training for normal children of the same mental age had no such effect.

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The aim of the present investigation was to demonstrate the relaton between the development of hand preference and langage development. The subjects were 50 severely retarded children with MAs of 3 or below. CAs ranged from 7 to 17. A hand preference test and a language development test for infants were given individually. The hand preference test consisted of seven tasks (handing over a block, switching something on, pointing, drawing a circle, beating a drum, throwing a ball, eating a chocolate). On each task experimental objects were presented on the right, middle, and left side in front of subjects. All seven tasks were scored for the hand used. This scoring reflects the extent of laterality (the frequency of right-handed responses) and handedness (dextrality, sinistrality, mixed, and indistinguishable type). Dextral handers were those consistent in using the right hand for any or all tasks, sinistral handers were those consistent in using the left hand for any or all tasks, mixed handers were those who showed any combination of preference, and indistinguishable handers were those who did not show any preference for all tasks. A language development test for infants was given out to the parents (or teachers) and requested to be handed in one week later. This test allowed for evaluation of language development on two measures (receptive and expressive scores). The results obtained were as follows: 1. The incidence of ambidexters (mixed plus indistinguishable type) did not show any change with MA or language measures. 2. There were no differences between dextral handers and non-dextral handers in the language measures. 3. A significant relation between the extent of laterality and language measures was demonstrated for dextral handers with an MA of 3, but not for dextral handers with an MA below 3. The implications of the results were discussed in terms of the ontogenesis of hemispheric specialization for language. The results did not corroborate the traditional hypothesis of progressive language lateralization.

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Severely and profoundly mentally retarded persons(SMRs) show a weak responsiveness to environmental stimuli in living situations and they seem to find difficulty in communicating with other people by speech. In some previous reports which used questionnaires to study communication, it was pointed out that some SMRs had interactions with their teachers. But these studies did not consider situations in which the interactions occured or the directions of communications. This study was thus undertaken to clarify the sorts of behaviors by which SMRs transmit their needs. Questionnaires were used and the properties of these behaviors in relation to developmental age as measured by a developmental test was discussed. Subjects were 79 SMRs(C.A. 2:04-35:08, D.A. 0.01-2:10) and teachers who gave them daily care. D.A. was measured by the Enjyoji-developmental test. The questionnare was made up of about 6 kinds of needs; namely the need for having food, drinking water, going to the toilet, sleeping, showing feelings of hot or cold and playing. Teachers were asked to answer what kinds of behaviors were used as means for understanding SMRs' needs. The results were as follows: 1. The needs of 61 out of 79 SMRs were understood by terchers in one or more care-giving situations. The needs for having food and playing were relatively easily understood compared to that for showing feelings of hot or cold. 2. SMRs were classified into 5 groups(1-5), according to the sorts of behaviors that teachers used as means for understanding their needs. The following behaviors were observed; transmitting needs by speech (1st group), single-word utterance or pointing behavior(2nd), behaviors directed to teachers(3rd), behaviors directed to needed objects(4th), and emotional behaviors (5th). 3. In the 1st and 2nd groups, D.A.s of hand-movements and speech were higher than that of locomotion. This fact was not observed in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th groups. From these results, it may be pointed out that teathers understand many of SMRs' needs by detecting their various behaviors and using information about their situations. Most of these behaviors are considered to be similar to pre-linguistic communicative behaviors. If SMRs do not show obvious communicative behavior such as speech or pointing, teachers interpret their emotional behaviors as needs. But behaviors directed to needed objects(4th group) are characteristic ones which are not pre-linguistic. These behaviors may depend on the degree of motor function.

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Takinogawa Gakuen, the first institution for mentally retarded children in Japan, was founded as an orphanage by Ryoichi Ishii in Tokyo in 1891. Finding an "idiotic" child among the orphans, Ishii tried to teach her, and went to the United States in 1896 and 1899, to study the theory and practice of education for mentally retarded children. After a few years of preparation, he transformed the orphanage into an institution for mentally retarded children during the period 1902 to 1905. The early objective of the institution, according to its regulations, was not custodial care, but rather education and treatment of mentally retarded children of school age who were not accepted by regular schools. The enrollment increased from 15, in 1902, to over 50, around 1910 (fixed capacity 60). Most pupils were diagnosed as having mental retardation of the so-called pathological type. Medical care was amply provided by doctors of psychiatry. Much impressed with Seguin's writings, Ishii introduced the method of sensory education of mentally retarded children, following Seguin's theory and method. Teachers were recruited from the orphan girls who had been sustained and trained by Ishii as special teachers of mentally retarded children in the institution. Ishii ran the institution in its early stages without any public assistance, using funds provided by donations, mainly from foreign residents in Japan and from the United States. However, in order to achieve financial independence, he gradually shifted the finances from donations to tuition fees. In 1911, 97.5% of the running expenses were covered by fees. Because of the high tuition fees, most of the pupils came from wealthy families capable of paying such fees; the number of poor and needy pupils exempted from the fees was limited to less than 20% of the total enrollment. With fairly stable finances and a sufficient staff of teachers, Takinogawa Gakuen played a leading role as an educational and research institution, establishing education for mentally retarded children in prewar Japan.

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