Chapman's ability to understand children's language development in a broader context has enriched the work of many clinicians and researchers, and here she supplies papers with an interactionist perspective that are remarkable for their depth and scope. Other contributors offer papers on speech development in terms of its physical foundations, a model of a language spectrum to track when children begin to talk, clinical markers for specific language impairment in English-speaking children of the UK and US, gesture development, early disassociation in communication in autism spectrum disorders, language learning and social activities in autism and Fragile X Syndrome, the case for bilingualism in children with Down Syndrome, communication competence in vulnerable populations, the importance of verbs, a computerized language analysis system, narrative use in children with language impairments, the augmentative and alternative communication needs of children with severe disabilities, and discourse comprehension. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The last 25 years have witnessed an explosion of research at the intersection of typical language development and child language disorders. A pioneer in bringing these fields of study together is Robin S. Chapman, Emerita, University of Wisconsin. This contributed volume honors her with chapters written by former students and colleagues, who track in their own research the theme of psycholinguistic contributions to our understanding of the nature and remediation of child language disorders.
In this volume, such renowned researchers in child language development as Dorothy Bishop, Judith Johnston, Ray Kent, among others, discuss their research in certain populations in the context of the significance of, limits of, and alternatives to Robin Chapman’s developmental interactionist perspective. Studies of disordered language in Down’s Syndrome and Specific Language Impairment, in particular, attribute much progress in our understanding of the pragmatic and comprehension skills in these populations to the developmental perspective.
Language Disorders From a Developmental Perspective opens with a reprint of Robin Chapman’s seminal 2001 article from The Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology. It concludes with a new chapter from Dr. Chapman summarizing what we know and what we don’t know about language disorders within the developmental framework, and pointing to future areas of research and intervention.
Clinicians as well as scholars will benefit from this book, as will students in programs of developmental psycholinguistics, child language disorders, and learning disabilities.
