This consultation description reports parent and teacher problem solving for a preschool child with no typical speech directed to teachers or peers, and, by parent report, normal speech at home. This child's initial pattern of speech was similar to selective mutism, a low-incidence disorder often first detected during the preschool years, but…

Conversational repair often occurs in conversations when people attempt to address communicative breakdowns or inaccuracy by way of repeating what have been said or putting them in another way. The review of literature on conversational repair revealed that as an important concept in pragmatic aspect of language, it is an effective strategy to…

Chinese characters are used in both Chinese and Japanese writing systems. When literate speakers of either language experience problems in finding or understanding words, they often resort to using Chinese characters or "kanji" (i.e., Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) in their talk, a practice known as "brush talk" ("bitan" in Chinese,…

Explores the nature and functions of conflict, its role in fundamental individual and social life processes, and its theoretical relationship to communication from a system-theoretic perspective. Indicates a distinction between conflict and para-conflict, and suggests that the latter is characteristically the object of study in speech and…

Defines the term "shyness" and provides data regarding its prevalence. Discusses the relationship of shyness to other psychological problems and describes attempts to treat it in brief psychotherapy. The general goal of treatment is to provide patients with a problem-solving approach to interpersonal difficulties. (JMF)

Recent controversy in the treatment of communication apprehension and avoidance has centered around whether an individual's communicative difficulties are caused by communicative (skills) deficiency or psychological problems (anxiety). Such debates are not new; arguments about whether to treat communicative difficulties from a communicative or…