Prominent researchers from the US, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Spain contribute experimental reports on language development of children who are acquiring Spanish. The chapters cover a wide range of dimensions in acquisition: comprehension and production; monolingualism and bilingualism; typical development, children who are at risk and children with language disorders, phonology, semantics, and morphosyntax. These studies will inform linguistic theory development in clinical linguistics as well as offer insights on how language works in relation to cognitive functions that are associated with when children understand or use language. The unique data from child language offer perspectives that cannot be drawn from adult language. The first part is dedicated to the acquisition of Spanish as a first or second language by typically-developing children, the second part offers studies on children who are at risk of language delays, and the third part focuses on children with specific language impairment, disorders and syndromes.

Both SLPs and researchers must understand speech and language developments in children - and SLPs also need reliable assessment and intervention approaches for serving bilingual children with language disorders. This comprehensive text is one of the few to offer readers in-depth theoretical and practical information on these timely topics. brings together more than a dozen top researchers to present developmental data, best assessment practices, and appropriate intervention approaches in the following areas: language processing skills; lexical development; morpho-syntactic development; first language loss; grammatical impairments; semantic development; phonological development and disorders; narrative development and disorders; fluency; language intervention for bilingual speakers. The chapter outlines the major purposes of intervention for bilingual children with speech and language disorders, explores the debate over which language SLPs should use with bilingual children, and examines ways to promote gains in both languages. With this research-based text, SLPs will understand the complexity of language development in bilingual children and learn appropriate assessment and intervention approaches.

This book contains 12 papers contributed by leading scholars in the field of language development, studying variants of the languages which originated on the Iberian peninsula. The contributors examine language development in both typically-developing and language-impaired populations who are learning language in diverse learning conditions, including language contact, as well as monolingual and bilingual Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Euskera. This expansion and diversification of the database for studying language development is important because it creates new opportunities for testing theoretical claims. Our contributors reconsider theoretical claims relating to the purported adult-like nature of young children’s grammars. While some conclude, for example, that children in Mexico possess very adult-like semantic-pragmatic competence in the domain of the pragmatic implicatures associated with existential quantifiers, others conclude that, in particular sociolinguistic registers of Chilean Spanish, children are late to develop adult-like competence in plural marking. Taken together, the contents of the volume illustrate how the linguistic diversity found in the distinct learning conditions in which language develops offers a wealth of opportunities to further our understanding of linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive development.

This book bridges the gap in the literature on Hispanic individuals for student clinicians and professionals in Speech-Language Pathology/Speech Therapy. It links empirical and theoretical bases to evidence-based practices for child and adult Spanish users. This volume provides both students and licensed professionals in speech-language pathology much-needed multidisciplinary bases to implement clinical services with Spanish speakers. Researchers and practitioners from Speech-Language Pathology, Neurolinguistics, Neuropsychology, Education, and Clinical Psychology provide theoretical and empirical grounds to develop evidence-based clinical procedures for monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-English children and adults with communication disorders.

"This fully revised, comprehensive graduate-level text and reference offers the most current information on language development and disorders of Spanish-English bilingual children"--

CONTENTSForeword by Orlando L. Taylor, Ph.D. The Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist. Speech and Language Development, Disorders, Assessment, and Intervention. Spanish Phonological Development. Spanish Morphological and Syntactic Development. "Early Intervention? Que Quiere Decir Eso?" What Does That Mean? Narrative Development and Disorders in Spanish-Speaking Children. Language and Assessment/Instructional Programming for Linguistically Different Learners. Considerations in the Assessment and Treatment of Neurogenic Communication Disorders in Bilingual Adults. Assessment Issues and Considerations. Bilingualism, Myths, and Language Impairments. Interpreters. Intelligence Testing of Hispanic Students. Assessment of Speech and Language Impairments in Bilingual Children. Language Samples. Conclusions. Research Needs and Conclusions.

Up-to-date and extensively researched, this powerful resource provides non-Spanish speaking clinicians with the methods and tools needed to successfully treat their patients whose first or dominant language is Spanish. Hispanic Children and Adults with Communication Disorders pulls together a body of knowledge not currently available in a single sourcea comprehensive resource offering practical assessment and intervention strategies that work.