Communication-Disorders Books

This book gave a nice across-the-board overview of communication disorders and methods of assesing disorders. I used it to help me write a paper and will probably use it again in my work as a speech path.

What I like best about this book is its clarity, accuracy, and excellent writing. The authors are well known in the field and they have won a major national award for their multicultural approach.

Highly respected, this book makes a major contribution to the field.

This program was developed for speech-language pathologists and/or elementary classroom teachers. It was field-tested and is currently being successfully used in many schools across the country. It is most useful for regular education students who are weak listeners, children with Attention Deficit Disorder, and children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). It contains targeted lessons and activities that are best integrated into speech-language therapy sessions, or a classroom environment. The activities are fun and motivating. Most importantly, it helps the child or class learn how to listen more effectively. There is a pre/post test that helps you decide which skills to work on and measure progress. It also contains information sheets that can be sent home to the parent to facilitate review and carryover of the skills learned.

The program is devided into ten chapters: 1. Theoretical Discussion and Basis for the Program 2. The Listening Process 3. Teaching Strategies to Help Problem Listeners in the Classroom 4. Preparing to Listen: Attending to the Teacher 5. Attending and Listening to Peers 6. Classroom Noise: Coping with Listening Obstacles 7. Strategies for Remembering Words and Directions 8. Developing Active Listeners 9. Staying on Topic During Discussions 10. Listening for "Wh" Questions

Many people outside mathematics know of Julia sets, Mandelbrot sets, attractors, chaos, and fractals. They might have encountered them in color renditions as moving pictures that serve as computer screen savers. The book is about the underlying mathematics.

The rational functions (i.e., quotients of polynomials) form a relatively simple class of functions of a single complex variable. One of the operations we do on functions f is substitution: Starting with a complex number z (i.e., a point in the plane), repeated application of f yields a sequence of complex numbers (points), z, f(z), f(f(z)), etc. The resulting sets have a surprisingly rich structure, and they serve as models for dynamics that arises in different subjects. They are the subject of this book. I will let the reader discover the precise definitions in the book: The sets are defined from some basic geometric and analytic properties of these sequences. The set of points z where the sequence has one of two exclusive analytic properties divides the plane into two parts, an `inside' and an `outside', if you like. Well, the mathematical definition is more complicated than that, but the idea is roughly as I said.

The French mathematician Gaston Julia (1893-1978) was the first to make precise the sets that we now know from a host of fun computer experiments. And it is interesting that Julia invented the sets in 1919 without the benefit of computer programs.

Indeed the subject stayed in the background in the mathematical fashions until it became possible to easily visualize the possibilities with simple computer experiments. As a result, the interest in Julia's work had a more renaissance, and its connections to exciting properties in non-linear dynamics turned into an exciting subject in pure and applied mathematics.

This beautifully written book is primarily about the mathematical side of the subject, but it is full of hands-on-examples that illustrate the theory, and that are easy to follow for students. The exercises are lovely, and make the book eminently attractive for the teaching of the subject to students who will need very little more in the way of background than a familiarity with the complex numbers.
Palle Jorgensen, October 2004.

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the science of child anguage and child langauge disorders.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing speech language pathologists when working with their clients is getting them to generalize the newly-learned language targets to novel contexts. After all, what good is speech-language therapy if the client does not use the skills outside of the therapy room?

Dr. Owens' book, Language Disorders: A Functional Approach to Assessment and Intervention, addresses this issue in great depth. The book shows how a conversationally-based, client-centered approach to assessment and intervention will greatly increase the likelihood of generalization. It also shows how the traditional approach of teaching language targets separately and out of context may not be the best method to achieve generalization. The book stresses, rather, to assess and train language where it will be used: in conversation. Owens also discusses at length the assessment and intervention of culturally and linguistically diverse children.

One major point made in the book early-on regarding intervention is the idea of making a plan for generalization when picking language targets, before therapy begins. So often SLPs make the mistake of addressing generalization toward the end of intervention, resulting in the SLP choosing inappropriate targets and/or the client showing a lack of carryover to novel contexts.

Owens also includes numerous guidelines and procedures that could be especially helpful for the school-based clinician. The appendices in the book are exceptional. Most impressive is Owens' extensive index of preschool literature, complete with suggested targets for remediation for each story. Also, a detailed table of language targets accompanied by functional activities for each is provided. This book is a valuable tool for anyone who works with individuals with language disorders or language differences.

Language in Motion presents a great overview of American Sign Language history, structure and its role as the mode of communication between deaf people. This book is easy to read and presents concepts clearly, in an orderly fashion. I recommend this book for those who need an introduction to the unique world of sign or those that need an concise guide to ASL and its culture. The authors also address the role of ASL in society today.

Great resource for the explaination of language learning disabled students and strategies for teaching them, plus! Building working relationships with your specialists, especially Speech & Language pathologists, in order to truly enhance learning & success for all in the classroom. Amust have, especially for teachers without any foundatioal knowledge of language disorders.

On the recommendation of a good friend, I read this book to bone up for my internship at the FCC. Peter Huber presents a good history of the FCC, and why it never should have existed. His thesis is simple and compelling: of all things, communications technology doesn't need top-down regulation, but rather the evolutionary flexibility of the common law.

He has a point. Look at the success of an open standard like Wi-Fi. Allow that slice of the spectrum to be free and the free-market will add value to it. But hey, the FCC ain't going nowhere any time soon. The best we can hope for is as much un- and deregulation as possible.

I recommend this very well researched and passionately written book!

This book was instrumental in helping my father care for my mother through a feeding tube experience. It helped him converse with the doctors and discuss adjusting the treatment prescribed to the individual patient involved. I t helped him know what was normal and what was unusual. It helped him notice problems early and to correct them simply before they got out of hand--as well as avoiding them in almost all cases.

You need to buy this book if you are in a feeding tube situation. (I have absolutely no affiliation with these authors--except as a person thankfully benefiting 1000 times over my paltry $50ish investment in the book.)