Stephen D. Oller

With increasing emphasis placed on high stakes testing and evidenced based practice, it is more important than ever that speech language pathologists receive training that will prepare them to accurately assess, diagnose, and treat children with language disorders. More importantly, these clinicians need information that will allow them to make sense of the myriad disorders (or more appropriately, categories), such as specific language impairment, dyslexia, pervasive developmental disorders, and acquired injuries. Language Disorders in Children: Theory to Practice provides students with a comprehensive theory of language and disorders that will enable them to better differentiate levels of severity within and across disorders, as well as evaluate/develop effective treatment protocols for the various children they serve. This theoretical perspective has been developed in the research literature and is grounded in data from normal development as well as disordered development. The text demonstrates that a disorder at the lowest level can affect even the highest level of functioning, and vice versa. The text also allows us to look at language and, more importantly, language disorders, from three positions: that of the speaker, that of the listener, and that of the environment in which the interaction takes place. Using this scheme, the book makes it possible to view disorders and their treatments as not just a function of the individual with the disordered label, but as a multi-faceted phenomena. Additionally, through a theory of language grounded in language use, the text proposes solutions to problems facing clinicians in areas of both assessment and treatment with multicultural populations.

Milestones: Normal Speech and Language Development Across the Lifespan is a textbook for the introductory course in Language Development for students in Speech-Language Pathology, Communication Disorders, Special Education, Educational Psychology and Education. It adopts a coherent chronological approach, beginning with responsiveness to speech and language in the womb and working across the lifespan into maturity and beyond. By using a chronological organization, the text helps students relate the material to the whole person at each milestone. It takes a constructive approach, starting with the simplest theoretical apparatus of the youngest infant, gradually increasing in complexity and comprehensiveness one milestone at a time. The organizational background becomes a series of narratives of interesting cases, keeping the theory and structure of language development grounded in real stories. In the second edition, the authors have enhanced and updated the cutting-edge information on early language development, literacy acquisition, and some of the factors that can delay or even derail the normal progression.They have amplified innovations that students found useful in the first edition while updating the text with respect to current research and theory. The organization of the text has been streamlined, and some of the theory and research has been clarified and illustrated with additional or updated videographic illustrations.The digital resources on the second edition DVD-ROM include: A complete Digital Summary of the whole book together with hyperlinked media and Internet resources referred to in the book A well-illustrated PowerPoint summary of each chapter with one or more videographic clips for every class meeting A Study Guide of Multiple Choice Questions containing 1,000 items (400 more than in the prior edition) linked in sequence, page-by-page and chapter-by-chapter, to the subject matter in the text A series of 10 Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter A digitally searchable Glossary of Technical Terms also containing brief biographies of major theoreticians, researchers, and innovators A searchable list of all the published and Internet references in the book An extensive index The foundational chronology of basic milestones of development is essential information for speech-language pathologists and for educators working with preschoolers, as well as obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses, and professionals in the health sciences. The second edition of Milestones continues to lead the way in bringing this crucial information to successive new generations of students and future clinicians.