感音性難聴児の言語発達について

THE SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN WITH PERCEPTIVE DEAFNESS

　正常児の個々の言語発達はさまざまでも，多数を観察すると一定の傾向が把握できるが，難聴児の言語発達も，難聴の程度，難聴の発現時期，その他，難聴児の身体的，精神的条件と難聴児の周囲の要因などによりさまざまな言語発達を示すことは容易に想像されるところである。先に教室の田中^1）が正常児について言語発達検査法を考案したが，われわれはこれを用いて難聴児の言語発達を検討していささかの知見を得たので，ここに報告する次第である。

　The speech development of 24 deaf children of the pre-school age, who were free from any mental defects such as retardation, psychosis or cerebral paralysis, are studied and the following conclusions arc drawn :

　1. The hearing defect that interferes with the speech development is found only in such a case as the loss is beyond that of a moderate loss.

　2. In moderate loss the vocabulary increase seem to progress in proportion to that of the age but the enunciation appear to be limited to a certain sound.

　3. In marked hearing loss the speech development is highly impeded and no progress is seen in vocabulary increase.

　4. There were a few cases in whom the hearing was affected with a marked loss yet the vocabulary progress was quite close to that of a normal child of similar age. But such a development was the result of painstaking effort on the part of the parents

　5. The speech training in general for the hard of hearing is directed towards those affected with a moderate loss. But, children with marked losses would, also, be highly benefitted if such a training be started early in the age of the individual.