The present study was a two-year longitudinal exploratory investigation of factors relating to the self-esteem of school-age children who stutter. Third- and fourth-grade children who stutter (CWS; N=6) and who were enrolled in special speech classes in public elementary schools participated in the investigation. Three times during the approximately two-year period of the study, the children completed a self-esteem scale consisting of the following 4 factors: confidence, motivation, self-acceptance, and acceptance by their family. In addition, the children's parents and their teachers in the special speech classes were also asked about the participants' experiences, their competences, the severity of their stuttering, and their peer relations. The main results were as follows: (1) Increases in the scores on the confidence factor were related to experiences in which the children were acknowledged for their competences and their special experiences; these led to increased self-esteem. (2) Changes in scores on the self-acceptance factor related to the children's relations with others in their homeroom and at home.

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The present study reports 2 experiments in which the development of phonological awareness in 38 deaf children with cochlear implants (12 preschoolers 5-6 years old; 14 first graders; 12 second graders) was examined. The first experiment examined the development of syllabic segmentation of words. In the analysis of Japanese fundamental syllables, most of the children were able to segment words into syllables almost perfectly. In the analysis of Japanese special syllables, the children first divided the words into syllables as units of articulation, and then into morae as units of rhythm. The second experiment examined the development of the abstraction of the syllabic component of words. The main results were that the deaf children with cochlear implants were more accurate when segmenting words into syllables than when abstracting syllabic components.

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The objective of the present study was to investigate the relation between mothers' recognition of how much their husbands participated in raising their children with developmental disabilities, and the mothers' feelings about childrearing. Mothers (N = 98) of elementary and junior high school children with developmental disabilities completed a questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis provided 3 factors in the husbands' involvement in childrearing: mental involvement in childrearing, activities at home, and activities outside the home, and 4 factors in the mothers' feelings about childrearing: anxiety and burden, positive and future-oriented ways of thinking, loneliness, and self-evaluation as a mother. The mothers' feelings of positive and future-oriented ways of thinking correlated with their husbands' mental involvement in childrearing, activities at home. This implies that the mothers' positive feelings about childrearing were related to whether their husbands communicated frequently with them and understood their children's characteristics and behavioral patterns. This latter is considered to be especially characteristics of mothers of children with disabilities. The questionnaire also revealed that the mothers expected their husbands to provide considerable assistance with childrearing.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the leisure activities of children and youth who are deafblind. Questionnaires were sent to 45 parents of children and youth (aged 1-18) who are deafblind; 30 useable questionnaires were returned. In the present article, the data are reported from the questionnaires returned by the parents of 22 children and youth (aged 7-18) who are deafblind. The results were as follows: (a) The leisure activities of the children and youth who are deafblind differed depending on the children and youth's communication mode and the presence or absence of additional motor disabilities. (b) Those who spent leisure time with the children and youth were mainly their family members and volunteers. (c) Volunteers supported opportunities for the children and youth to go out from their home. (d) The needs of the parents could be divided into 6 categories. Most of the needs reported were in relation to persons who supported their sons' and daughters' leisure activities, such as volunteers. (e) Parents hoped that volunteers would have knowledge of dual sensory disabilities and the skills of practical assistants.

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[in Japanese]

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