Friday, June 27, 2008

My Japanese accent

I study English every day. But learning English is not easy.

One learning method is "shadowing." While I hear someone speaking English (for example, from radio, CD, etc.), I repeat the same sentences I heard. One merit of shadowing is correcting my pronunciation.

I can't pronounce English correctly. I pronounce English with a strong Japanese accent.

But that means I had Japanese accent, although I didn't speak Japanese very much because of selective mutism.

My selective mutism disappeared later. I overcome selective mutism when I was around 20 years old. So, I didn't speak Japanese at school for a long time. But I also got selective mutism later. I spoke normally in kindergarten and school until I was 9 years old. Maybe I grew up with Japanese accent at that time.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Four girl students

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Chapter 5 Selective mutism and my high school years

Four girl students

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After the first homeroom, four female students came to me and said, "Tomishige is kawaii! (cute!)"

During the homeroom period, I introduced myself. Although I had selective mutism, I managed to do so. Maybe they thought I was cute at that time. Or maybe they found me cute before homeroom.

They were the most active girls in the class. They usually said "Tomishige is kawaii!" and tried to make friends with me. They seemed to find me interesting.

I went through the same thing when I was the eighth grade. As an adolescent boy, I was happy at the time. But this time I felt unpleasant. I thought it was rude to say kawaii to a 15 years old boy even if they did so without malice. So, I sometimes gave them the cold shoulder. They sometimes got angry with me. But generally we were on good terms.

I didn't understand why girl students thought I was cute. When I wrote about that on my Japanese weblog The Selective Mutism Journal, a few readers of my blog said to me I looked cute, so they called me cute. But I guess the girls called me cute because they thought my behavior (such as my mute behavior, nodding and shaking my head, etc.) was cute.

(To be continued)

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Lack of conversation and brain development

A growing number of 20- and 30-somethings suffer from juvenile amnesia in Japan. According to the Japanese media, lack of conversation is a risk factor for amnesia. Does lack of conversation affect development of brain?

Children with selective mutism don't talk while they are in school or kindergarten. They spend a lot of time there. As their mutism was prolonged, they advance to more upper grades, and they spend more time in school. For example, if they are in the fifth-sixth grade, they go to school around 8:00 and return home around 15:00 (in Japan's case). So, they spend around 7 hours in school. That's nearly a half of their waking hours.

Of course, most children don't talk at school all the time. They are not allowed to chat in class. But on the whole selectively mute children talk much less frequently than usual ones.

If growing selectively mute children's symptoms are prolonged and they continue to be mute at school for a long time, what effect does that have on their brain development? If negative effects are observed, early intervention is important.

I have an interest in it but I've not found the literature that discusses selective mutism and brain development. Doesn't it matter?

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Counseling organization on selective mutism (Japan)

These Japanese institutions provide support for children with selective mutism.

[Education Center]

Education Center is under city, prefectural or university management. EC offers several services. For instance, teacher training, research on education, educational counseling, etc.

Parents and children with selective mutism can receive counseling and psychotherapy at EC. EC sometimes publishes researches on selective mutism.

[Child Consultation Center]

Child Consultation Center is mostly under prefectural management, and partly under city management. CCC provides consultation services for guardians who have children with various problems, including selective mutism. In recent years an increasing number of Japanese people have consulted CCC about child abuse. Children with selective mutism can receive counseling and psychotherapy at CCC.

[Special Speech Class]

SSC is established for children with speech impediment, emotional disturbance, amblyopia, hearing impairment, etc. Children with selective mutism can also enroll in SSC (See Emotional disturbance).

As far as I heard, there's a lot of competition for enrollment in SSC. In addition, not all parents know SSC. So, I guess only small number of children with selective mutism enroll in SSC.

[Residential Treatment Center for Emotionally Disturbed Children]

RTCEDC is an institution that aims to treat mildly emotionally disturbed children, including selectively mute children. Sometimes they live in the center to treat disturbance. RTCEDC is under public or private management. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there are 31 RTCEDC in Japan, and 1,131 children lived or went there as of October 1, 2006.

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