Abstract

Spanish speakers, whether in monolingual or bilingual situations, or in majority or minority contexts, represent a considerable population worldwide. Spanish speakers in the U.S. constitute an illustrative context of the challenges faced by speech-language practitioners to provide realistic services to an increasing and diverse Spanish-speaking caseload. There is still considerable paucity in the amount of literature on Hispanic individuals with clinical relevance in speech-language pathology. Particularly lacking are works that link both empirical and theoretical bases to evidence-based procedures for child and adult Spanish users with communication disorders. Further, because communication skills depend on multiple phenomena beyond strictly linguistic factors, speech-language students and practitioners require multidisciplinary bases to realistically understand Spanish clients’ communication performance. This volume attempts to address those gaps. This publication takes a multidisciplinary approach that integrates both theoretical and empirical grounds from Speech-Language Pathology, Neurolinguistics, Neuropsychology, Education, and Clinical Psychology to develop evidence-based clinical procedures for monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish-English children and adults with communication disorders.

José G. Centeno, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Program at St. John’s University, New York City. He has worked extensively as a bilingual speech-language pathologist and published on bilingualism issues in Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. and on stroke-related language impairments in monolingual Spanish speakers. His current research and professional interests focus on stroke-related impairments and aspects of service delivery in monolingual Spanish/bilingual Spanish-English adults.

Raquel T. Anderson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. She has worked with both monolingual Spanish and bilingual English-Spanish preschool and early elementary school children with language learning disorders. She has published in the areas of language impairment in Spanish-speaking children, with a special focus on children with specific language impairment (SLI). Her current research is in first language loss and grammatical skill in bilingual Spanish-English speaking children with SLI.

Loraine K. Obler, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor in the Programs in Speech and Hearing Sciences and Linguistics at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She began publishing on bilingualism and the brain in 1977. Her books include The Bilingual Brain: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism (with Martin Albert), Language and the Brain (with Kris Gjerlow), Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Acquisition, Maturity and Loss (with Kenneth Hyltenstam), and Agrammatic Aphasia: A Cross-language Narrative Sourcebook (with Lise Menn). Her current research interests include L2 performance under stress, L2 acquisition by talented/limited language learners, and aphasia therapy for bilinguals.

This landmark volume celebrates the major achievements in research on communication disorders in Spanish speakers. The evidence-based approach to theoretical and clinical question will appeal to speech-language pathologists, cognitive neuropsychologists, applied linguists, educational psychologists and many others. It also sets the standard for future cross-disciplinary and cross-linguistic studies of communication disorders.

Timely and important are apt descriptors for Studying Communication Disorder in Spanish Speakers: Theoretical, Research, and Clinical Aspects. The global presence of Spanish speakers, as well as their significant representation in the U.S. population, heralds the need for such an in depth treatment of these topics. With clear focus on clinical interventions for Spanish-speakers with communicative disorders, this volume broadens the dialogue to include life-span cognitive-linguistic and psychosocial perspectives. Readers from multiple disciplines, backgrounds, and interests have reason to look forward to this volume as an often-referred-to and highly valued resource.

To say that this book is welcomed is without a doubt an understatement. Apparently, from the book’s earliest beginnings, Drs. Centeno, Anderson and Obler chose to focus on the big picture, selecting their contributors to include impressive sampling of the best researchers and thinkers in the field. They have been successful in producing a true Sourcebook, which deserves the attention of anyone who is serious about understanding the special strengths and problems facing language and speech disordered Spanish speakers. This is monumental and desperately needed achievement.