Language Disorders

Language Disorders From Infancy Through Adolescence, 2eprovides students with the information needed to properly assess childhood language disorders and provide appropriate treatments. Using a developmental approach, the text covers language development from birth to adolescence. The book is divided into three sections: the first deals with issues in language development, which are common to all developmental stages, such as how disorders are defined and organized. The second addresses language development from birth to the end of preschool (until age 5). The third handles language development from age five through adolescence. The developmental organization of the book is uniqueand has scored high ratings with faculty. The very engaging writing style, first person, has made this book very popular with students at the graduate level. Due to its readability, undergraduate students find the subject matter easy to comprehend. Theoretical and clinical content are effectively balanced, making the product not only a good text but an excellent clinical reference as well.

This book constitutes a clear, comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to the basic principles of psychological and educational assessment that underlie effective clinical decisions about childhood language disorders. Rebecca McCauley describes specific commonly used tools, as well as general approaches ranging from traditional standardized norm-referenced testing to more recent ones, such as dynamic and qualitative assessment. Highlighting special considerations in testing and expected patterns of performance, she reviews the challenges presented by children with a variety of problems--specific language impairment, hearing loss, mental retardation, and autism spectrum disorders. Three extended case examples illustrate her discussion of each of these target groups. Her overarching theme is the crucial role of well-formed questions as fundamental guides to decision making, independent of approach. Each chapter features lists of key concepts and terms, study questions, and recommended readings. Tables throughout offer succinct summaries and aids to memory. Students, their instructors, and speech-language pathologists continuing their professional education will all welcome this invaluable new resource. Distinctive features include: * a comprehensive consideration of both psychometric and descriptive approaches to the characterization of children's language; * a detailed discussion of background issues important in the language assessment of the major groups of children with language impairment; * timely information on assessment of change--a topic frequently not covered in other texts; * extensive guidance on how to evaluate individual norm-referenced measures for adoption; * an extensive appendix listing about 50 measures used to assess language in children; and * a test review guide that can be reproduced for use by readers.

This volume, the sixth in the Vancouver series based on an annual conference at Simon Fraser University, collects papers that discuss the evidence and arguments regarding the inheritability and innateness of grammars. The evidence - which ranges from babies who are just beginning to learn the properties of their native language, to language-impaired adults who will never learn it - converges to show that whole precursors of language exist in other creatures, the abilities necessary for constructing fully fledged grammars are part of the biological endowment of human beings.

A growing body of literature is suggesting that many children with language disorders and delays--even those with so-called specific language impairment--have difficulties in other domains as well. In this pathbreaking book, the authors draw on more than 40 years of research and clinical observations of populations ranging from various groups of children to adults with brain damage to construct a comprehensive model for the development of the interrelated skills involved in language performance, and trace the crucial implications of this model for intervention. Early tactual feedback, they argue, is more critical for the perceptual/cognitive organization of experiences that constitutes a foundation for language development than either visual or auditory input, and the importance of tactually-anchored nonverbal interaction cannot be ignored if efforts at treatment are to be successful. All those professionally involved in work with children and adults with language problems will find the authors' model provocative and useful.