The Research Center for Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences was established in 1996 as part of the Institute to help those with a speech impediment. The Center is involved in various activities, such as supporting clinical and research practices for the graduate students majoring in Communication Disorders, conducting basic and clinical studies on communication disorders, and holding lectures and symposiums for researchers and for the public. The Center publishes the Annual Report to release our research activities to the public.
The Center provides various types of support to the graduate students majoring in communication disorders. Speech therapists involved in the training courses are all professionals holding a national qualification. Students receive guidance on how to support adults and children with speech impediments such as aphasia and disabilities in pronunciation due to brain damage, retardation in speech, learning disability, and stuttering. Currently over 20 graduate students are involved in training patients with speech retardation and aphasia under the guidance of Professor Hiroyo Yoshihata and other supervisors.
The Center is currently involved in research studies, ranging from “Preliminary study on how to differentiate difficulties in reading and related disorders”, “Research on childhood aphasia: development of evaluation method and intervention program”, “Development of cognitive neuropsychological evaluation on aphasia” with the support of funds from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the British Council. This is a joint project with the Newcastle University in the UK, renowned in the field of laliatry. The characteristics of this method of assessment lies in that it incorporates a cognitive-neuropsychological method and focuses not only on the descriptions of the speech symptoms but also on the linguistic processing. The findings were published in “SALA (Sophia Analysis of Language in Aphasia) Aphasic Testing” in May 2004.
