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発吃1年未満の音韻障害を併せ持つ吃音幼児 (音+吃児) の, 発話および認知, 言語, 運動等の発達の特徴を検討するために, 音+吃児, 音韻障害を持たない吃音幼児 (吃児) , 吃音を持たない音韻障害幼児 (音児) に対して (a) 発話分析 (非流暢性発話, 音韻過程) , (b) 発達スクリーニング検査 (JMAP, NECMND) を実施した.その結果, (1) 発吃1年未満の本研究の対象児においては, 音+吃児と吃児間の非流暢性発話の差は必ずしも認められなかった, (b) 音+吃児, 吃児が示した音韻過程の総数および種別には, 対象児間でかなりのばらつきが認められた, (3) 発達スクリーニング検査の結果, 音+吃, 音児は吃児に比べてわずかに低得点を示す傾向にあった.これらの結果から, 今後, 音+吃児の特徴を検討する際に必要になると思われる視点について考察を行った.

A longitudinal study was made of ten subjects to investigate the relations between echoic utterances and the acquisition of vocabulary and sentential forms in free speech. It was found that echoic utterances developed along with vocabulary up to 2 yr or 2 yr and 6 mo of age and then gradually dropped out, while vocabulary continued increasing. Sentences appeared in free speech and in echoic utterances nearly at the same time or a little behind in the latter. It was concluded that both echoic utterances and free verbal expression represented the maturation of the same linguistic motor system, and that the decline of echoic utterances marked a stage of speech and language development.

As there had been no standardized vocabulary tests in Japan, the authors felt a strong need for devising one in order to assess speech comprehension levels of preschool language delayed children.It was intended to assess recognition vocabulary of daily use. For that purpose, the test words were drawn from the “List of Parents' Vocabulary in Speech Addressed to their Children between the Ages of Z and 4 Years”. It was also intended to make the test not to cover a wide range of ages but to cover the minimum, the very basic levels for earring out daily conversation, for which it was presupposed that the level of 6 year-olds might be enough as the first target level of attainment for the language delayed children and that our test should be able to assess the development up to the age level of 6 as fully as possible.After several preliminary tests, a final 50-word test was comprised and standardized for children between the ages of 4 and 6. The test with its full standardization data was presented in this paper.

As a part of the study of perceptive deafness the experiment is being made with the simulation of the inner ear deafness. The simulation consists of an electronic equipment with a distortion circuit and a normal hearing person as a detector. The conditions for the simulation of the inner ear deafness in this experiment are: 1. the rise of the threshold of hearing, 2. the low articulation score, 3. the presence of recruitment, and 4. the hearing difficulty under noisy circumstances.The experiment was carried out concerning the recruitment phenomenon, and the following comments were made:1. The non-lineality of the input-output intensity as such does not bave much influence upon the articulation score. When the wave form is distorted, the articulation score lowers.2. The recruitment phenomenon is clearly observed when the maximum loudness level is close to that of the normal ear.3. It is suspected that the inner ear impairment is not severe when the recruitment appears at the small loudness level.