Childhood Language Disorders in Context: Infancy Through Adolescence, Second Edition helps students look at childhood language disorders from multiple theoretical, etiological, and developmental perspectives. The text provides information, instructional goals, and strategies within a systems framework to guide treatment of language disorders from infancy through adolescence in the contexts of culture, family, home, school, and work. The book is divided into two parts:

In Part I, Chapter 1 presents the organizing framework. Chapter 2 differentiates speech, language, and communication and outlines language and related subsystems. It also introduces issues of cultural diversity, which are considered throughout the book. Chapter 3 describes six theoretical perspectives — biologic maturational, linguistic, behavioral, information processing, cognitive, and social interactional. Chapter 4 offers an etiological look at causes, categories and characteristics of language disorders and related conditions. Chapter 5 reviews public policy and service delivery concerns. Chapter 6 presents general strategies for relating assessments to intervention planning and progress monitoring.

In Part II, separate assessment and intervention chapters address the three developmental levels — early, middle, and late. The early stage chapters (7 and 8) cover the birth to three range. The middle stage chapters (9 and 10) cover the preschool and early elementary years. The later stage chapters (11 and 12) cover elementary years through adolescence and young adulthood. Chapter 13 addresses the communicative and language development needs of individuals with severe communicative impairments that cross the chronological age range from infancy through adolescence.