Comprehensive perspectives on speech sound development and disorders: Pathways from linguistic theory to clinical practice

This innovative textbook offers comprehensive perspectives on speech sound development and disorders provided by leading experts in the field. It is primarily intended for individuals in training for a career in clinical linguistics, an audience comprised of undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing to become speech-language pathologists. We also hope that this text will serve practicing speech-language pathologists as a useful tool to bring their practice up to date with regards to the cutting-edge advances in the management of speech sound disorders. Researchers interested in various aspects of speech production will find this book a valuable resource as well. The assumed level of expertise includes basic familiarity with phonetics, phonology, and introductory linguistics. The authors take their readers on a journey from the first studies of child speech development using paper and pencil, to contemporary clinical and research methodology such as acoustic analyses and videofluoroscopy, to an outlook on the future with promises of creating a catalog of genetic disorder etiologies. They describe speech sound acquisition from typically developing children in English and other languages to the perplexing variety of disordered speech and its impact on a child's life. They provide the theoretical and hands-on foundations for the clinical management of children with speech sound disorders. Several special features make this book unique. First, it covers a wide range of clinical topics such as idiopathic articulation and phonological disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, dysarthria, cleft palate, hearing impairment, developmental disorders, and links between speech sound disorders and dyslexia. Second, it comes with a rich set of sound files and video files illustrating a wide range of populations and aspects of clinical practice with examples of various types of typical and disordered speech, speech assessments, and treatment activities. Third, it provides a number of pedagogical tools including review questions at the end of each chapter to help readers self-assess their understanding, activities to enhance the mastery of the materials and guide readers to interact with more complex or advanced facets of the chapter's topic, and a full suite of adaptable lecture slides. Supplemental information on clinical applications of the International Phonetic Alphabet, phonological processes, and statistical properties of standardized tests is contained in the three appendices. With its comprehensive perspectives on child speech development and disorders, the pathways between linguistic theory and clinical practice, and the pedagogical focus, this textbook is a unique contribution to the tools available for training future speech-language pathologists and for independent learning among practicing clinicians and researchers. Together, these features equip readers with a thorough understanding of typical and disordered speech development and with clinical tools to diagnose and treat disordered speech effectively.