Robert Needlman
Speech and Language Impairments in Children: Causes, Characteristics, Intervention, and Outcome
Case Western Reserve University|Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
speech language impairments children causes characteristics intervention outcome edited dorothy v bishop laurence leonard philadelphia pa taylor francis inc 2000 305 pp 5995 hardcover 2995 softcover speech language difficulties widespread children important implications behavioral emotional health school functioning pediatrician impossible interested world speech language represents wide territory one likely feel somewhat foreign mapped psychologists psycholinguists speech language pathologists map also rapidly changing reasons edited volume consideration makes particularly interesting reading developmentalbehavioral pediatrician 16 chapters derived plenary presentations made third international symposium childrens speech language disorders hosted organization afasic charge 20 contributors present cuttingedge information disciplines terms educated parent educator pediatrician could understand also giving sufficient background material put newer findings context whole succeeded admirably within 16 chapters one finds information normative development variants causes consequences specific language delay smattering innovative treatments isnt comprehensive survey rather smorgasbord informed sometimes brilliant perspectives illuminating topic different angle looking comments scribbled across 290odd pages find adjectives clear fascinating compelling revolutionary also find associated chapters word difficult although chapters read well concepts many sufficiently complex new found needing reread felt real grasp content michael tomasello kicks volume impressive challenge chomskys theory language acquisition relies inherent instinctual grammatical processor rather tomasello argues children construct understanding grammar internalizing specific phrases creating parallel phrases analogy exposure language triggered latent grammatical rule would expect see grammatical complexity increase smoothly time instead progress piecemeal uneven given point young child produces sentences widely varying complexity including abstract rules apply one pleasing consequence argument allows one understand language development terms familiar cognitive processes ie imitation abstraction another consistent observation differences rate language acquisition relate differences amount richness childrens exposure language another gem collection chapter robert plomin philip dale genetics language language delay presenting data twins early development study teds large communitybased study language development twins authors take us methods used estimate hereditability normative language language delay latter turns even hereditable former give us glimpses brave new world multivariate genetic analysis method estimating extent two different traits share genes finally explain language may particularly good area look multiple genes together determine language many continuously distributed traits next chapter grover whitehurst janet fiscel report explorations relationships language development reading children growing poverty group extraordinarily high rate language delay reading impairment lay groundwork reviewing theory emergent literacy describe fascinating statistical approach detecting underlying subgroups within data appear normally distributed using approach estimate surprising 20 25 sample children poverty dyslexia refreshingly nontechnical description structural equation modeling use data large longitudinal sample lowincome children show language development directly linked letter phonics knowledge ages 4 5 years subsequently data support importance early emergent literacy experiences also later direct instruction phonics related skills chapter follows joy stackhouse adds complexity showing individual cases relationship early language delay later literacy deficits complex difficult predict paula tallal provides particularly clear description theoretical underpinnings fastforword computerized intervention specific language impairment uses acoustically modified speech sounds shown striking results chapters give similarly clear descriptions conventional therapeutic approaches chapters providing detailed discussions relationships language psychopathology range acquired epileptic aphasia aea landaukleffner syndrome directly relevant common pediatric dilemmas among difficult chapters ones addressing distinctions pragmatic language impairments autisticspectrum disorders patterns specific language impairments across different languages looking comprehensive review speech language development pathology likely disappointed glimpse several exciting aspects field presented clearly satisfying detail volume would hard top robert needlman md case western reserve college medicine rainbow babies childrens hospital cleveland ohio