To report a 9-year-old girl with semantic-pragmatic language disorder.

Clinical manifestations and neuropsychological findings of the girl are presented.

The difficulties have occurred in communication. The difficulties have interfered with peer communication since she was a toddler. She cannot find appropriate words to explain what she would like to do or what she had done. She has made vocabulary errors. It is sometimes to say incorrect grammar. She has had difficulty understanding words. Tasks involving memory (e.g., memorizing writing Kanji or Kanji compounds) has been excellent for her. Japanese children are made to study a lot of kanji. Kanji has a complex shape. Though she can read and write Kanji, she cannot understand the words. Qualitative impairment in social interaction or restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior had not been found. She has also short attention span. She had been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder the Predominantly Inattentive Type when she was aged 5 years.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) was administered to her (FIQ = 103, VIQ = 97 and PIQ = 108). The scores on Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities Japanese-version were substantially below those obtained from standardized measures of nonverbal intellectual capacity. There was a discrepancy between the abilities of verbal and non-verbal semantic comprehension.

Atomoxetin has been administered to her. Her mother and her teachers understood her manifestations. Using pictures or other concrete examples, she has been educated. Gradually, she became to be interested in the meaning of words.