This unprecedented book combines the best features of a textbook, resource manual, and guidebook, providing clinicians with evidence-based treatment protocols and detailed plans for teaching language skills and treating language disorders. The uniqueness of this collection lies in the author's approach, as each protocol gives the clinician a plan of action in the form of scripted scenarios. Unlike step-by-step directions, which can leave room for ambiguity, these scripts specify the anticipated verbal and nonverbal actions the clinician and child are expected to exhibit. Dr. Hegde, who has authored several well-received textbooks and practical clinical titles for speech-language pathologists, distills his unparalleled knowledge of clinical practice in this book, the first of Plural's Protocols. Dr. Hegde's careful review of treatment research evidence and his decision to offer only procedures that are evidence-based result in a collection of procedures that have been proven effective in clinical and experimental studies, eliminating the need for clinicians to research teaching exemplars. Designed for ease of use, Dr. Hegde's book facilitates treatment planning and implementation by greatly reducing preparation time. Protocols for all major functional language targets are included, each containing a specific plan of action with twenty examples of target behavior for each language skill. Each procedure is designed as a self-sufficient, separate entity, so that clinicians need not refer back and forth to teach a particular skill. The accompanying CD is an invaluable resource, containing printable forms that can be customized to assist clinicians in organizing clinical sessions, tracking client progress, and reporting results. The protocols are also ideal for student practicum sessions and courses in child language disorders.

Contains protocols for basic language skills most children with language disorder need to be taught in the initial stages of treatment. The protocols give scripted scenarios for teaching most of the bound morphemes of English that children with language disorder typically lack. These include: basic words; regular and irregular plurals; possessive; present progressive; prepositions; pronouns; auxiliaries and copula; regular and irregular past tense; articles; conjunctions; adverbs; regular third person singular. For each target skill, 20 exemplars are available for the clinician to baserate, treat, and probe for generalized production. Most children can be advanced to relatively complex social communication skill level training only when they have mastered the basic morphologic features.

Speech and language are central to the human experience; they are the vital means by which people convey and receive knowledge, thoughts, feelings, and other internal experiences. Acquisition of communication skills begins early in childhood and is foundational to the ability to gain access to culturally transmitted knowledge, organize and share thoughts and feelings, and participate in social interactions and relationships. Thus, speech disorders and language disorders-disruptions in communication development-can have wide-ranging and adverse impacts on the ability to communicate and also to acquire new knowledge and fully participate in society. Severe disruptions in speech or language acquisition have both direct and indirect consequences for child and adolescent development, not only in communication, but also in associated abilities such as reading and academic achievement that depend on speech and language skills. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for children provides financial assistance to children from low-income, resource-limited families who are determined to have conditions that meet the disability standard required under law. Between 2000 and 2010, there was an unprecedented rise in the number of applications and the number of children found to meet the disability criteria. The factors that contribute to these changes are a primary focus of this report. Speech and Language Disorders in Children provides an overview of the current status of the diagnosis and treatment of speech and language disorders and levels of impairment in the U.S. population under age 18. This study identifies past and current trends in the prevalence and persistence of speech disorders and language disorders for the general U.S. population under age 18 and compares those trends to trends in the SSI childhood disability population.

The accompanying DVD contains a videotaped segment for most of the interventions discussed in Treatment of language disorders in children.