Language/speech disorders refer to the difficulties in production and comprehension at various linguistic levels. About 5% of the population suffer from language/speech disorders, which lead to subsequent social problems and mental pain if untreated. Recent years have witnessed an increasing amount of multidisciplinary research on language/speech disorders. The research, however, is scattered across a variety of journal categories, ranging from medicine, linguistics, psychology, social science, etc. The Handbook of Language and Speech Disorders presents a timely and comprehensive review of the latest linguistic, neurological, psychological, and social findings in language/speech disorders. It talks about the language/speech disorders in relation to cognitive, psychological, and physiological diseases. Moreover, it mentions theoretical linguistic and psychological models that influence assessment and treatment. The second edition of this volume, compared to the first one (Buckingham and Benson, 2011; Damico et al., 2010; Gunhan et al., 2011; Hartman, 2011), reflects the recent developments by updating materials and switching focus to topics that are receiving increasing attention in recent years (e.g., hearing impairment, literacy, and genetic syndrome).
The volume consists of four parts. Part I discusses the fundamental issues for labeling, assessing, and treating disorders in general. Parts II and III focus on language and speech disorders, respectively. Part IV talks about the problems of language use caused by cognitive and intellectual deficits.
Part I ranges from Chaps. 1 to 8. The first chapter, by Damico, Müller, and Ball, discusses the influence of sociocultural factors on the diagnosis of language disorders and the impact of the diagnosis on treatment and society. In the second chapter, Babatsouli brings up the diversity considerations in clinical practices. Chapter 3, by Morris and Velde, reviews hearing loss and the benefits and problems with the use of cochlear implants. Chapter 4, by Hustad and Borrie, focuses on intelligibility impairment concerning the measurement of intelligibility and the identification of individuals with disorders. Stojanovik in Chap. 5 discusses how the study of genetic syndromes sheds light on the association of language skills and other general cognitive and communicative skills. Brinton, Fujiki, and Fujiki in Chap. 6 provide constructive principles that speech pathologists and therapists ought to follow in clinical practice.
Part II, from Chaps. 7 to 14, discusses eight types of language disorders concerning the latest progress and challenges. In Chap. 7, Prelock reviews Autism Spectrum Disorders. In Chap. 8 about language delay, Fletcher shows that the huge individual differences in the development of vocabulary and grammar pose challenges to identify a language delay. In Chap. 9, Gillam, Holbrook, and Kamhi discuss developmental language disorders (DLD), mainly focusing on the diagnosis, classification, causes, and intervention. Chapter 10, by Cummings, talks about how the theory of mind sheds light on the assessment of pragmatic impairment. Brennan in Chap. 11 discusses learning disabilities manifested in language, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and non-verbal learning disabilities. Chapter 12, by Damico, Damico, and Nelson, focuses on literacy and literacy impairment, concerning how the conceptualization influences research and service delivery. Snow, Leitão, and Kippin in Chap. 13 explain how early-life psychosocial adversity hinders the development of language abilities. Code in Chap. 14 introduces aphasia, its features, and treatment.
Part III, from Chaps. 15 to 22 centers on the assessment and treatment of disorders with speech sounds. Chapter 15 by Rvachew talks about speech disorders in children. The topic of Chap. 16 is dysarthria reviewed by Hertrich, Ackermann, and Ziegler. Jacks and Haley in Chap. 17 review apraxia of speech. Drager, Finke, and Serpentine in Chap. 18 introduces augmentative and alternative communication as an aid for people with communicative challenges. Chapter 19, by Tetnowski, Scott, and Rutland, focuses on stuttering. Chapter 20 by Morris and Harmon talks about voice disorders. Chapter 21, by Sell, Pereira, Wren, and Russell, centers on patients who have innate cleft-related problems but receive timely surgical treatment. Chapter 22, by Bressmann, centers on the speech-production problems caused by head and neck cancer.
Part IV, with the four remaining chapters, talks about the cognitive and intellectual disorders that could incur language problems. Westby and Watson in Chap. 23 discuss language impairment associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Chapter 24, by Blake, centers on the communication disorders associated with right hemisphere brain damage. Lê and Mozeiko in Chap. 25 review traumatic brain injury and the subsequent cognitive and communicative disorders. Chapter 26, by Müller and Mok, focuses on dementia.
This book provides a comprehensive account of language/speech disorders with the latest findings in multiple disciplines, such as speech-language pathology, experimental psychology, linguistics, neuropsychologists, and neurology. In addition, the second volume keeps the audience updated with the latest progress and future research directions [e.g., Lee and Sim (2020) and Borrie et al. (2020)]. For example, this book repeatedly mentions the revisions made in the manuals of clinical practice, the implications of the latest research findings, and the future research in urgent need to support assessment and treatment.
This book, however, is not without limitations. First, most of the research mentioned in this volume were conducted in Western languages, though diversity was emphasized in Chap. 2. The possible reason is that the research in other language families is scarce (Lin et al., 2018). Future research in different languages will reveal important differences or universal patterns across cultures and ethnic groups. In addition, the language problems caused by other psychological problems, such as bipolar disorder and depression, are not documented in this book. In fact, there have been studies suggesting that patients with these psychological problems also struggle with language use (Lin et al., 2018).
Despite the limitations, this book provides comprehensive information for researchers and clinical practitioners in the field of language/speech disorders and thus is recommended to readers of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
HUI ZHANGSpeech-Language-Hearing Center, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China
YUANYUAN ZHANGSchool of Foreign Languages, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China
HAO ZHANGSchool of Foreign Languages, Shan Dong University, 5 Hongjialou Road, Jinan, Shandong 250100, China