The disorder of language development in children with autism is thought to be especially serious in their semantic and pragmatic abilities. Recently, the framework of speech act theory has come to be used for the analysis of pragmatic communicative functions in autistic children, and for the examination of their development. In Experiment 1, an autistic child in the one- to two-word utterance stage (chronological age, from 6 years 2 months to 7 years 4 months) and a normal infant (chronological age, from 6 months to 1 year 5 months) were compared in terms of the developmental change in their profile of communicative functions. The results were as follows: In the normal infant, environmental interactive communicative functions for the fulfillment of physical needs were frequently expressed from the beginning of her development. Social interactive communicative functions, being based on the acknowledgment of the other which had been expressed from the beginning, giving, asking for social routines, asking for information, and commenting (interactive labelling) developed hierarchically, in that order. In the autistic child, environmental interactive communicative functions were frequently expressed. Very few social interactive communicative functions, however, were expressed at the beginning of the experiment. In Experiment 2, the autistic child was taught turn-taking behavior, using a rubber ball, and the effect of the acquisition of that behavior on communicative functions was examined. As turn-taking behavior was shaped and came to be maintained by the trainer's smiling and verbal praise, social interactive communicative functions (such as comments, acknowledgment of the other, and giving) increased. These results were discussed from the point of view of cognitive psychology and also of behavior analysis.

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Smooth pursuit eye movements were binocularly recorded with DC-electrooculography (EOG) in 6 subjects with sight and 11 subjects with partial sight. The pursuit target was a lightemitting diode (LED), located either 0.5m. or 1.0m. from the subject. The target moved sinusoidally in the horizontal plane at frequencies of 0.2, 0.36, 0.78, 1.2, and 1.45Hz. The peak amplitude of the stimulus was maintained at 10° (20° peak-to-peak). A headrest and dental bite board prevented subjects from making any head movements. Subjects were asked to track the movement of the stimulus as accurately as possible. With a computer, quantitative measures of gain, phase, and time lag were obtained by cross-power spectrum analysis of the stimulus input and eye-movement output. Data from subjects with sight showed gains close to 1.0 and phase shifts around 0° at 0.2Hz., 0.36Hz., and 0.78Hz. With increasing stimulus frequency, a gradual and slight decrease in gain and phase appeared in subjects with sight. It was found that subjects with partial sight could track a target moving at relatively slow stimulus frequencies; 0.2Hz. and 0.36Hz. They showed rapid decrements in gain, phase, and time lag at 0.78Hz. A one-way ANOVA showed no main effect of stimulus frequency in time lag for subjects with sight. In addition, there was greater variability in gain, phase, and time lag for persons with partial sight. It was concluded that the subjects with partial sight could track a moving object only poorly. However, the tracking performance of some of them was similar to that of persons with sight. Thus, given a well-designed perceptual and motor program, the oculomotor skills of persons with partial sight could be developed.

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Since 1969, many preschool children with disabilities have been mainstreamed in the K kindergarten, where they were treated by the methods of applied behavior analysis. In the K kindergarten, the system for and attitude toward mainstreaming were estabilished through conference meetings and lectures on the appilication of the techniques of behavior modification in a group setting. The purposes of this study were to discuss the results of practicing of mainstreaming in the K kindergarten, and to obtain suggestions for new directions of mainstreaming preschool children with autism, from the viewpoint of applied behavior analysis. The following results and suggestions were obtained: 1. Simply placing preschool children with and without disabilities together in the same environment usually does not accomplish all the goals of mainstreaming; special teaching procedures are required to facilitate those goals. 2. The teacher plays an important role in increasing the social interaction between children with and without disabilities. 3. Incidental teaching based on applied behavior analysis appears to be a promising new method for mainstreaming in the kindergarten. 4. Mainstreaming is regarded as a social basis to enable persons with and without disabilities to live together in the society. Therefore, further efforts should be made to establish a more effective culture in kindergarten, as a social environment.

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In 1986, a mail survey to all of the residential and day-care facilities (a total of 108 facilities) for persons with mental retardation throughout Aichi prefecture (total population, about 6.5 million) was conducted to obtain information on the population and the state of communication of deaf adults with mental retardation. This survey of 83 participating facilities produced information on 37 deaf or partially hearing persons. Of those, the 23 persons who were institutionalized became the subject of a more detailed interview study of their skills in communication and their treatment. The results were as follows: 1. The ratio of persons with hearing impairment compared to the entire population of persons with mental retardation was about 1.1% in day-care facilities and 2.1% in residential facilities. 2. With a few exceptions, residents had some way to communicate with others. Although most of these methods of expression were primitive, they could probably be extended to a more refined form of communication (e. g., manual signing) if some systematic teaching were conducted both for the deaf adults and for the other residents and staff with hearing. 3. The case workers in the institutions considered most of the deaf residents to be "good residents" who were quiet and seemed to require no special help or care in everyday life. At the same time, the deaf residents were apt to be ignored except for those occasions when they showed unexpected panic reactions. This care pattern might suppress the development of communication behavior in deaf persons with mental retardation, even if some teaching program were conducted.

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This case study examined the effect of Motor Action Training on a boy with Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome who showed self-mutilative behavior. The training, Arm-left-control, which started when the boy was 9 years 6 months old, has continued for over 1 year 11 months. The results were as follows: During training, biting his own knees and fingers decreased considerably, and the frequency of these behaviors also decreased in his home. Motor Action Training, which is a method developed for children with cerebral palsy, could be applied to other children with problem behavior and may be effective to modify their behavior.

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