The domain of Communication Disorders has grown exponentially in the last two decades and has
come to encompass much more than audiology speech impediments and early language impairment.
The realization that most developmental and learning disorders are language-based or
language-related has brought insights from theoretical and empirical linguistics and its
clinical applications to the forefront of Communication Disorders science. The current handbook
takes an integrated psycholinguistic neurolinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective on
Communication Disorders by targeting the interface between language and cognition as the
context for understanding disrupted abilities and behaviors and providing solutions for
treatment and therapy. Researchers and practitioners will be able to find in this handbook
state-of-the-art information on typical and atypical development of language and communication
(dis)abilities across the human lifespan from infancy to the aging brain covering all major
clinical disorders and conditions in various social and communicative contexts such as spoken
and written language and discourse literacy issues bilingualism and socio-economic status.
