Communication-Disorders Books

Contested Words, Contested Science presents useful, reasonable evidence of the validity of Facilitated Communication, which serves to highlight the absurdity of the arguments that claim there is no such evidence. The most definitive evidence may be the growing number of individuals who are demonstrating that through FC training they are eventually able to accomplish independent typing. Nonetheless, there are ways of looking at the method that show that those who continue to need support are able to express their own thoughts when facilitated properly.
This book is a must read for anyone who is willing to look carefully and thoughtfully at the possibilities that Facilitated Communication offers those individuals who do not speak or have very limited speech. While, to my knowledge, no one is claiming that FC is the answer for every such person, this book shows that FC can provide many with the ability to express themselves fully, opening up innumerable possibilities for a more satisfying life.

Since Douglas Biklen is one of the foremost and most vocal proponents of FC, and since none of the essays in the book are written by the many scientists, researchers, parents and people with autism who have criticised FC, I wonder whether this book is really the best place to start for anyone genuinely interested in "unravelling the facilitated communication controversy".

Biklen's compilation brings together a collection of double-blind experimental evidence on the reality of facilitated communication that can only be ignored by those people (mainly psychologists) who feel that any positive findings they find unwelcome are automatically suspect. useful for people who want to explore the possibility of taking a new view of the significance of communication handicap in intellectual disability and autism. (I've read the book, by the way: the last (anonymous) reviewer seems to have condemned it unread on the basis of its authorship on the give-a-dog-a-bad-name-and-hang him principle).

Really below the level I was looking for. I was looking for therapeutic activities and these are very general and introductory. Good intro level

This book is one of the main sources of ideas and techniques that I currently employ when working in a group scenario. The client base with which I work are mainly adults who are experiencing an acute psychiatric episode. It allows for a large variance in the abilities of clients and invites the practitioner to modify techniques and methods to best suit the group he/she is working with. Most of the activities described require a minimal amount of equipment and the instructions are clearly set out and easy to follow. My only critism is that perhaps it lacks detail in explaining the theory behind some of the more complex groups.

Overall, happy with the purchase. The book was a little more worn than I expected though.

I felt that this book was a really good introductory phonetics text book. I've used it as a good standard for phonetic transcription over the past few years as an SLP student. It's a great reference, although it is a little dry.

A blurb for this book says it's a "12-page self-help booklet that provides unconventional tools for self-improvement with stuttering". I can only commend the author and question any detractors on this matter. Just because a tool is unconventional doesn't mean it won't work. If a drill is too unconventional a tool for people to be using, they should feel free to use more conventional ones, like hammers or spanners or whatever. But I say why stop at the drill? Many stutterers may find relief in even more unconventional tools, like angle grinders or rotary hoes, and if so why shouldn't they use them? I give this book 5 stars for its fresh new perspective on the usefulness of household tools in the treatment of stuttering. Perhaps other disciplines should open themselves up to this new perspective; for example has anyone looked into the effectiveness of power-saws or rivet-guns in treating schizophrenia?

This book is a very practical and helpful guide to the basics of speech correction. A good beginners guide.

According to the author, stuttering is due to the fact that the people with stutter did not think first before speaking. If they think first about what they wanted to speak then they won't stutter. This is an out of date idea. The Stutter Control Drill ask us to see a letter/numeral, saying it in your mind, saying it aloud and typing it on a typewriter or computer keyboard is a ridiculous idea of mastering the elements of fluent speech. The author should back his claims or withdraw this booklet from the market. He is deceiving and misleading people with stutter for profit.

I found "Stutter Control Drill" very helpful. It is simple, straightforward and easy to follow. Being a voiceover artist, I cannot afford to stutter. I wanted clear instructions on how not to stutter and H. Richman's book did a good job in giving me information and understanding of why people stutter and how it is correctable. I didn't want to have to mill through a lot of long drawn out technical mumbo jumbo - I wanted the information clear and concise so that I could follow the instructions and stop stuttering - I got very good advice from this book.

I found the Stutter Control Drill by Howard Richman to be very helpful and positive. I had a mild stutter, which is now much improved. What I liked about it was that it recognised that stuttering CAN be overcome, and it provided a structured approach for doing this based on a theory of how the brain and your vocal chords work together. This theory was based what is now well established, that the sub-concious feeds on and reflects what the concious mind has received (e.g. the importance of positive self-talk). Because I already believed that you can programme your brain to think positively, transferring this principle to speech seemed obvious but I had not looked at in that light before, and it helped to break my irrational idea that I would never improve my speech.

As the teacher of a very difficult and often misunderstood student with Asperger Syndrome, I found the Comic Strip Conversations opened a door for my student and I to share our worlds. Our perspectives on situations were so different and caused SO much frustration; but we were able to "talk" about the discrepencies in our viewpoints in a very non-threatening way by utilizing the strategies in this book. It was just the beginning for us, but this book was a critical component to building a relationship with my student that has ultimately led to several extremely successful outcomes. THIS IS DEFINITELY AN AMAZING ADDITION TO ANY TEACHER'S LIBRARY!

This book may be good for some, however it is misleading in the description. I was led to beleive that this book was in fact comic book coversations to help explain simple situations to my child with Autism. Instead, you have to write your own comic strips to do the explaining. Not worth the book in my opinion if it is still up to me to do all the work, I already do that without this book.

In my opinion, this is probably most suited for the most severe cases, but the book is short and cheap.

This is a wonderful book that clearly explains what comic strip conversations are, how to write them, and why they are useful. Although the book is short, the concepts held within are a treasure for helping children learn social communication skills in a fun and non-aversive format. I have used this book to teach parents, aides, and 1:1's how to communicate desired behavior and to help the children express important ideas and needs.The writing and pictures are clear and concise. The use of these picture stories can sometimes help us understand what the child is trying to tell us through behaviors/actions that are hard to interpret.

I expected this book to be more educational and informative. It really just gives you a couple templates and not that many ideas, you do the work on your own. You do not need this book to create your own comic strip.

This book may be heavy for those that are not familiar with the Lahey paradigm. As I have had Dr. Moses for 4 different classes, and the main paradigm for language acquisition at LIU is the Lahey paradigm, this book brought everything he lectures on together for me. Some important aspects of intervention that this book describes include (a) how to collaborate with other professionals (b) how to take into account all aspects of a child (i.e. sensorimotor) and most importantly(c)down how to develop and write goals. This is going to be my bible.

This book breaks up each theory and explains it to you directly. It doesn't throw you off with tangents, like some other textbooks do. Moses & Klein try to take into consideration where the student is coming from, i.e. how much you already know and how much you need to know.

I used this book as a student because my teacher required it but the whole class had trouble deciphering what was said in the core of this book. As a result the grades for the class was lowered substantially. This book was written for undergraduate students before they start clinic but the terms found in this book are really what only a graduate post-graduate would understand. If you are looking for a book that will help in clarifying goal steps and procedures I admantly do not recommend this one, it will only confuse you more just like it did the rest of my peers.

Good information is included in this book but it is no walk in the park to glean the knowledge from it. There are better books in print that do the same thing with a lot less confusion on the part of the reader.

While autism is realitively new, if one has a solid foundation about autism, this book really doesn't have much solid meat. It is a book of condensed articles.

This book is a great resource book. However, the material and the content is soooooo densed which makes comprehension of the material difficult at times.

This book is an excellent book for those speech therapists who haven't worked much with the trach/vent population and would like to learn more. It's perfect for learning the basics.

This book is appropriate for students, not practitioners. Content is very basic.

I was happy to receive my purchase but was more than a little disappointed when the book advertised as "New" was in fair condition at best. The price was cut in half when I brought this to the seller's attention, but I could have done without the hassle. I cannot help but feel that the seller was dishonest.

The book is a collection of research study essays that survey cultural aspects of communication disorders. These essays cover cultural diversity issues, communication disorders and their development, and clinical issues. I feel that the book has good content, but lacks sufficient research on older people and leaves many questions for the reader or reviewer.
The book contains good information about culture and communication disorders. The book discusses five ethnic groups and the background of each. I think that this information is helpful to Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists to know and consider. In addition, the book contained well-written essays about how communication disorders develop in different cultures. I feel that the information in the last chapters is very useful to the therapist.
On the contrary, I think this book is lacking in some areas such as it focuses on children, while more sufficient research on older people needs to be prepared. This research is needed so that Speech Pathologists and Audiologists can treat adults more appropriately. Overall, the book leaves the reader with good information but at the same time longing for ample attention on adults and wondering about how the different cultures react to certain aspects of communication and treatment.

Twatchman's book has various errors of fact that could have been checked, but its serious flaws are more basic. Her viewpoint comes out most clearly in the section where she points out that people using facilitated communication often produce output inconsistent with their previous assessments. How do FCT people account for that? she asks, and seems to think she has made a point. The answer is, of course, that assessments made without being able to communicate with a person would be expected to differ from assessments made with a person who could communicate, and the fact that she cannot see this elementary point points to her basic mind-set. She believes that psychological assessments are infallible, however they are done. She believes that what has been done in the past is infallible, that we already know all we need about (say) autism, and that no new concepts are conceivable or permissible. Writing from this standpoint it is hardly surprising that she misinterprets almost everything about the cases she purports to record. The book is illogical, biased, and an example of 'scientism' rather than scientific thinking. Anybody who can't pick ten internal contradictions in the first chapter has no business calling themselves a sceptic.

Twachtman-Cullen's meticulously researched and impeccably objective case studies of "facilitated communication" go beyond demonstrating the messages produced to be the handiwork of the "facilitators" themselves. With great sensitivity and respect for the people with autism involved - indeed, greater sensitivity and respect than is shown by the "facilitators", despite their rhetoric about trust - she documents the way in which the methods and practices of the "facilitators", such as ignoring clear verbal and non-verbal signals which might conflict with the facilitated "messages", in fact frustrate and abuse their clients, producing aggression, anxiety, attempts to escape, and even self-injurious behaviour.

This book should be read and heeded by everyone connected with the autism field, not only for its dazzling expose of FC, but also for its insight into the way in which a fanatically-defended ideology can end up riding rough-shod over the basic human rights of the people it purports to be helping. People with autism deserve better than being used as human Ouija boards.