Yoshinori Mitsuhashi

Spatial Short-Term Memory in Children With Nonverbal Learning Disabilities: Impairment in Encoding Spatial Configuration

ABSTRACT The authors investigated whether impaired spatial short-term memory exhibited by children with nonverbal learning disabilities is due to a problem in the encoding process. Children with or without nonverbal learning disabilities performed a simple spatial test that required them to remember 3, 5, or 7 spatial items presented simultaneously in random positions (i.e., spatial configuration) and to decide if a target item was changed or all items including the target were in the same position. The results showed that, even when the spatial positions in the encoding and probe phases were similar, the mean proportion correct of children with nonverbal learning disabilities was 0.58 while that of children without nonverbal learning disabilities was 0.84. The authors argue with the results that children with nonverbal learning disabilities have difficulty encoding relational information between spatial items, and that this difficulty is responsible for their impaired spatial short-term memory.

Training System for the Expiration Training

For a speech therapist, the breathing method is one of the important techniques to train a person who has difficulty in speaking. Insufficient number of therapists makes it difficult to apply these breath training methods widely. Therefore, development of a new breath training method will be mandatory. With this reason, a new training system is developed and described in this paper. In this new method, expiration pattern of a speech therapist analyzing through an air flow sensor is constructed into visual graphic image in order to recognize expiration pattern easily. With experimental use of this system to without handicapped trainees, they could successfully imitate trainers pronunciation easily. A person who has difficulty in speaking will be able to learn easily how to do expiration for speaking through visual pattern.