Language and Literacy Disorders

Description

Designed for both undergraduate and graduate students, Childhood Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence allows readers to gain essential knowledge that can inform, and transform, their work with children who have special learning needs.

Featuring content and questions that encourage deeper thinking about the nature of disordered and normal development, this text makes assessment and intervention practices relevant to the contexts of home, classroom, and peer interactions. Readers will learn to draw on multiple sources of input to develop an assessment picture for a child at any age and stage of development, plan interventions that target developmentally appropriate outcomes in spoken and written language, and apply techniques that are informed by varied theoretical perspectives and a growing evidence base.

This text is organized into three sections that thoroughly cover basic concepts and policies, appropriate assessment and intervention procedures across developmental ages and stages, and common language and literacy disorders amongst children. Written primarily for students in speech-language pathology, this text applies to practitioners, special education teachers, and interdisciplinary instructors. Extended exercises and review materials ensure that students will be fully prepared to work with diverse groups of children in a variety of real-life settings.

Childhood Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence…

· Consistently presents the themes of evidence-based practice, analysis of theoretical perspectives and their biases, and an emphasis on learning about categories and classifications through a framework of multiple physiological systems.

· Concretely shows students how to pull information, practices, and disciplines together in addressing spoken and written language disorders across childhood.

· Uses review materials to encourage students to reach higher levels of thinking regarding difficult and controversial concepts, including the ability to appraise sources critically when conducting evidence-based practice reviews independently.

• Includes illustrated clinical examples of treatment of language and literacy disorders by professionals in multiple disciplines.
• Utilizes a developmental systems approach that addresses both IDEA and NCLB legislation by associating concrete assessment and intervention activities with specific goal areas and targets at each age and stage of development.
• Includes advance organizers, review and practice material, chapter summaries, and suggestions for extended learning opportunities in each chapter.

• Each chapter begins with advance organisers, incorporates case examples and other learning supports, concludes with a chapter summary, and includes suggestions for extended learning opportunities.  
• Combines concise presentation of content with the expectation that students can reach higher levels of thinking regarding difficult and controversial concepts, including the ability to recognise theoretical biases of researchers and to appraise sources critically when conducting evidence-based practice reviews on their own. 
• Procedures of evidence-based practice and asking good questions are introduced in Chapter 1 and emphasised throughout the text.
• Chapter 3 introduces theoretical perspectives with ties to assessing and planning treatment for addressing varied systems and functions.
• Emphasis on learning about categories and classifications through a framework of multiple systems (language levels and modalities, socio-emotional systems, and sensory-motor) is used across sections and chapters.
• A developmental systems approach that makes it possible to associate concrete assessment and intervention activities with specific goal areas and targets at each age and stage of development. Both IDEA’04 and NCLB legislation emphasise goals for keeping children active in their natural environments (infants and toddlers) and in the general education curriculum (school-age children). (Chapters 8-13)
• Information about specific disabilities and about cultural-linguistic diversity is presented both separately and integrated with information about developmental systems and targets. (Chapters 5-7, 14, and throughout the text)
• Reciprocal connections (and possible disconnections) across the language levels—sound, word, sentence, discourse—and across the modalities—listening, speaking, reading, writing—are described and illustrated with clinical examples that involve treatment by professionals in multiple disciplines.
• Concretely shows students how to pull information, practices, and disciplines together in addressing spoken and written language disorders across childhood.
• Reading and writing are presented as having foundations in spoken language development, but as having some unique features as well. Communication and sense-making are treated as high priorities and essential to the intervention process at all ages and stages.   

Organized with a clear framework and student-friendly learning supports, this textbook helps graduate and undergraduate students gain essential knowledge that can inform, and transform, their work with children who need special assistance to acquire language and literacy abilities to meet multiple communication and learning needs.

Featuring content and questions that encourage deeper thinking about the nature of disordered and normal development, this text makes assessment and intervention practices relevant to contexts of home, classroom, and peer interactions. In particular, readers will learn to draw on multiple sources of input to develop an assessment picture for a child at any age and stage of development as a person with unique strengths and needs, coming from a particular cultural-linguistic background, and with concerns that may be attributed to a particular known or unknown but suspected set of etiological factors. Additionally, readers will learn to plan interventions that target developmentally appropriate outcomes in spoken and written language and to apply techniques that are informed by varied theoretical perspectives and a growing evidence base.

This text is organized into three sections that are designed to promote understanding of: (1) basic concepts, taxonomies, policies, and procedures that can inform other decisions; (2) implications of common etiologies (e.g., primary language impairment/learning disability, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorders, mental retardation/cognitive impairment; acquired neurological impairment) for modifying assessment and intervention practices; and (3) appropriate assessment and intervention procedures across developmental language and literacy ages, stages, and targets. Instructors can guide students through the sections and chapters, review and practice material, and extended exercises, so students can gain confidence they will know what to do when facing diverse populations of real children in a variety of settings.

Although the book is written primarily for students in speech-language pathology, it draws on the author’s experience working in schools and classrooms with general and special education teachers and other interdisciplinary team members and can be used with (or by) members of other disciplines and by practitioners as well as students. The ultimate beneficiaries of this book should be children and adolescents who grow up with improved abilities to communicate, read, write, listen, and speak because they received services from professionals who knew what they were doing and why.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Frontmatter Dedication page

Preface

Table of contents

PART I. FRAMEWORKS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE

Chapter 1. A Framework for Guiding Evidence Based Practice

Importance of asking good questions

Contextualized assessment and intervention

World Health Organization definitions

Chapter 2. Speech, Language/Literacy, and Communication

Speech, language (including literacy), and communication

Five language parameters

Content, form, and use

Language levels and modalities

Cultural-linguistic variation

Chapter 3. Language/Literacy and Related Systems

Theoretical accounts

System theory

Systems supporting language development

PART II. POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND POPULATIONS

Chapter 4. Policies and Practices

Policies

Clinical practices

Categorization, diagnosis, and causation

Testing and exclusionary factors in diagnosis

Prevalence, prevention, and prognosis

Chapter 5. Primary Disorders of Speech, Language, and Literacy

Speech-sound disorders

Language impairment

Learning disability

Spoken and written language associations and dissociations

Chapter 6. Special Populations with Motor and Sensory Disorders

Motor system impairment

Auditory system impairment

Visual system impairment

Other sensory problems

Chapter 7. Special Populations with Cognitive-Communicative Disorders

Developmental disability

Intellectual disability

Autism spectrum disorders

Acquired brain injury (including traumatic brain injury)

Child abuse and neglect

Interactive disorders of attention, emotion, and behavior

PART III. ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

Chapter 8. Infant/Toddler Policies and Practices

Policies and practices for infants and toddlers

Comprehensive assessment for infants and toddlers

Chapter 9. Infant/Toddler Intervention

Prelinguistic organization to intentional communication

Joint action routines and early play

First words to two-word utterances

Emergent narratives and literacy

Chapter 10. Preschool Policies and Practices

Policies and practices in the preschool years

Comprehensive assessment in the preschool years

Chapter 11. Preschool Intervention

Sounds, words, and vocabulary concepts

Sentence- and discourse level development

Social interaction and play

Emergent and early literacy

Chapter 12. School-age Policies and Practices

Policies and practices in the school-age years

Comprehensive assessment in the school-age years

Chapter 13. School-age Intervention

Intervention scaffolding in the school-age years

Discourse-level knowledge and skills

Sentence-level knowledge and skills

Word-level knowledge and skills

Chapter 14. Interventions for Special Populations

Comprehensive planning for comprehensive needs

Preverbal to intentional communication

Echolalia, challenging behaviors, and non-symbolic communication

Intervention for children and adolescents with severe speech-production disorders

AAC for children and adolescents with complex communication needs

Intervention for sensory loss and central processing disorders

Intervention for cognitive-communicative disorders

Intervention for autism spectrum disorders

Backmatter: Appendices for Part III.

References

Author Index (to be completed by Allyn & Bacon)

Subject Index (to be completed by Allyn & Bacon)

On line supports: Glossary

Review and practice questions and key

Observation tables

Organised with a clear framework and student-friendly learning supports, this textbook helps graduate and undergraduate students gain essential knowledge that can inform, and transform, their work with children who need special assistance to acquire language and literacy abilities to meet multiple communication and learning needs.

Featuring content and questions that encourage deeper thinking about the nature of disordered and normal development, this text makes assessment and intervention practices relevant to contexts of home, classroom, and peer interactions. In particular, readers will learn to draw on multiple sources of input to develop an assessment picture for a child at any age and stage of development as a person with unique strengths and needs, coming from a particular cultural-linguistic background, and with concerns that may be attributed to a particular known or unknown but suspected set of etiological factors. Additionally, readers will learn to plan interventions that target developmentally appropriate outcomes in spoken and written language and to apply techniques that are informed by varied theoretical perspectives and a growing evidence base.

This text is organised into three sections that are designed to promote understanding of: (1) basic concepts, taxonomies, policies, and procedures that can inform other decisions; (2) appropriate assessment and intervention procedures across developmental language and literacy ages, stages, and targets; and (3) implications of common etiologies (e.g., primary language impairment/learning disability, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorders, mental retardation/cognitive impairment; acquired neurological impairment) for modifying assessment and intervention practices. Instructors can guide students through the sections and chapters, review and practice material, and extended exercises, so students can gain confidence they will know what to do when facing diverse populations of real children in a variety of settings.

Although the book is written primarily for students in speech-language pathology, it draws on the author’s experience working in schools and classrooms with general and special education teachers and other interdisciplinary team members and can be used with (or by) members of other disciplines and by practitioners as well as students. The ultimate beneficiaries of this book should be children and adolescents who grow up with improved abilities to communicate, read, write, listen, and speak because they received services from professionals who knew what they were doing and why.

Nickola Wolf Nelson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP conducts research and has authored numerous research articles, books, and chapters on contextualized, interdisciplinary approaches to language and literacy assessment and intervention, including two prior editions of Childhood Language Disorders in Context: Infancy through Adolescence (Allyn & Bacon, 1994, 1998). Nelson is co-author of The Writing Lab Approach to Language Instruction and Intervention (Paul H. Brookes, 2004) and the forthcoming Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills.