| Research Abstract |
Two studies were carried out, one on the early signs of autistic disorders, and the other an acoustic analysis of their characteristic speech patterns.
Study 1 : The early signs of autistic disorders. Subjects : Comparative analysis was carried out on an autistic disorder group (13 cases), normal control group (8 cases), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder group (4 cases), expressive developmental speech disorder group (4 cases), and 1 case of auditory deficiency. Method : Home video records taken between age 0〜2 were analyzed in terms of : (1) social interaction, (2) affect, (3) perception, (4) motor/muscle tonus, and (5) behavior. Results : Hypersensitive perceptive behavior to light and small moving objects noted from before 6 months of age were regarded as the early signs. The probability of disorders in social interaction and affect being early signs are high, but could not be confirmed in this study. Disabilities in coordinated movement, and motor/muscle tonus disorders requi
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re further evaluation in association with functional disorders of the CNS Behavior pertaining to social interaction and perception were most frequent before 12 months, which were believed to be integrated into persistent behavior after 13 months of age.
Study 2 : Acoustic study on speech Subjects and Method : 1) The speech of 24 healthy 2〜6 year-olds were analyzed by a speech analyzer for transition in f1 and f2 of the 5 vowels. 2) Speech recordings collected from 116 healthy 2〜6 year-olds were analyzed by age regarding development of the 5 vowels through construction of f1/f2 diagrams. 3) 20 cases of Asperger disorder were tested for their ability to identify and imitate a changing sequence of synthesized speech "saita-taita-aita". Results : 1) The 5 vowels were found to be undifferentiated between age 2〜4, becoming integrated at age 5. 2) Analysis of 33 healthy children indicated that in infancy, the emergent stage of articulation, f2 acquisition precedes the gradual differentiation of f1 into the respective vowels. 3)Asperger disorder was classifiable into 3 categories by rate of sound identification.
Summary : Characteristic perceptive behavior was extracted as the early signs of autistic disorder. Acoustic analysis of speech peculiar to autistic children point to the possibility of insufficient inhibitory action from the supplementary motor and elevated activation of the auditory association area during the stage of speech acquisition. Continuation of basic studies is necessary for contributing to the treatment and guidance of children with autistic disorders. Less
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