広汎性発達障害への理解促進の試み―「自閉症に関する質問」を用いて

Attempt to promote understanding of pervasive developmental disorder(PDD) using "Questions about autism"

　広汎性発達障害(pervasive developmental disorders：PDD)児の支援を考えるうえで，保護者をはじめとする周囲の人間が，PDDの特性や適切な対応について理解することが非常に重要である．筆者はPDDに関する質問および解説を作成し，言語聴覚士(ST)養成校の学生に実施した．その結果，PDDに対する誤解として，①話をするときは必ずアイコンタクトを取らせることが重要，②引きこもりになりやすい，③パニックになると暴力など問題行動を起こすことが多い，といった点が挙げられた．本質問を実施することは，これらの誤解を解消し，周囲の理解を促進する一助となると考えられた．

　When considering how to support children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), it is important that families and people around the children understand their characteristics and how to provide them with appropriate support. The author put together questions and commentary about PDD, and had SLHT students answer the questions. It was found that there frequent misunderstandings concerning children with PDD. These included:(i) when talking with children with PDD, it is imperative to make them establish eye contact;(ii) it is easy for children with PDD to become withdrawn;(iii) when panicked, children with PDD often show problem behaviors such as violence. Use of these questions and commentary is expected to help resolve these misconceptions and to promote understanding among those around children with PDD.