Book Description

This innovative book covers the basic nature and description of children with specific language impairments. This text also provides information on the cognitive, motor, and communication problems in young children with language impairments. It also contains up-to-date information on a variety of disorders such as: AD/HD, Fragile X, TBI, Prenatal Substance Abuse, Landau-Kleffner syndrome, and HIV-infected children. ... Read more

Book Description

Packed with new, previously unpublished data, this comprehensive reference covers all aspects of cochlear implantation and related sciences for the many specialists working in the field. You will find an emphasis on the most recent developments in basic and clinical sciences, including: the effects of electrical stimulation; processing capabilities; preoperative criteria; medical, surgical and radiological issues; device programming; rehabilitation; and education. Plus, you will benefit from the experience of an outstanding team of interdisciplinary experts, who share insights on:

* The full continuum of care in cochlear implantation in adults and children -- combining basic principles and theory with practical clinical management

* Complete sections on hair cell regeneration, deprivation and effects of electrical stimulation

* Full section on cochlear implant imaging -- never available before

* New perspective on outcomes measurement

* Future directions in implant design and processing strategies

Complete with in-depth discussions of language development and speech production, COCHLEAR IMPLANTS is a highly useful professional tool for audiologists, otolaryngologists and speech-language pathologists who work with this challenging patient population. Its wide, balanced, and expert perspective on the issues affecting the field is unique in the literature. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Read it, but don't believe everything you read
As a Speech and Language Therapist working with preschool deaf and partially hearing children, I found this book fascinating reading. I ploughed through its jargon and statistics from cover to cover, wanting to demystify the contents for families. I found out two main things:

What the research shows: After any residual hearing in an ear is destroyed during cochlear implant surgery, that implanted ear provides speech understanding, on average, like an ear with a 100-110dB hearing loss (at best, an equivalent of about 77dB hearing loss, at worst no speech perception). Speech intelligibility is also on average like that of a person with a 100-110dB hearing loss. Cochlear implants are therefore, by my reckoning, worth considering for children with hearing losses greater than 110dB. Powerful hearing aids seem to offer about as much speech/language benefit as implants to other profoundly hearing-impaired children.

Complications occur in between 1% (according to the first author in Chapter 9, who appears be ignoring his own data) and 10% (according to Article 9D) of implant patients, depending on what you call a complication. Prior to March 1998, data provided by two manufacturers presented indicate a 10.36% complication rate in Clarion implants in children, and a 14.68% complication rate in Nucleus implants in both children and adults. Complications included healing problems, dizziness, pain, facial nerve stimulation, extrusion of the device, migration of the electrode array and electrode array damage. 3% of adults and 4.7% of children with Clarion implants required re-implantation (equivalent Nucleus figures are not quoted). Article 9A reports 'no mortality, meningitis or facial palsies were registered in our series' (p176).

The critical period for language-learning appears to be drawing to a close at around age 6. This, I would suggest, allows time for 2-year-old children to try out hearing aids for an extended period, and still get an implant well within the critical period, if hearing aids provide no language benefit.

This book is dismissive of sign language, and many authors seem to be trying unconvincingly to substantiate the use of 'oral' education methods. Only one author (in chapter 14) refers to another text which discusses the body of research indicating that natural sign language (e.g. Auslan here in Australia, ASL in the US) actually assists deaf children with their oral language and literacy skill development.

Article 12B discusses a 1996 parent survey in the US and Canada, which was sent to 2626 parents of children with cochlear implants, with 1008 replies. 49.3 of the children still using their implants (9 children were not) were enrolled full-time in mainstream classes; 25% were in special classes for hearing-impaired children. 75.3% were in the same class level as other children their own age. The other 24.7% of children had school delays from 1-6 years, averaging 1.5 years. 53.1% of children used auditory/spoken language as their primary means of communication.

What the book says the research shows: A lot of the book's research into language outcomes of cochlear implants is poorly designed and controlled, uses questionable measures (e.g. speech perception tests done in an audiology suite, but no information about a child's actual communication skills at home or at preschool) and inflated 'improvement/growth/rate of learning' figures rather than children's actual test scores. These design flaws are generally glossed over or dismissed e.g. 'The usual confounding issues of device/strategy, age at implantation and length of deafness did exist' (p204). The large quantity of badly designed research proves very little, but there are a few delightful 'findings' such as 'children in both the early CI and late CI groups identified lexically easy words with significantly greater accuracy than lexically hard words (P<0.001) (p253) i.e. all the children found the easy words easier than the hard words; and 'Although children 2 to 5 years of age at the time of implantation showed the greatest improvements from pre- to post-implantation intervals, children 6 to 12 years of age generally had better spontaneous speech skills' (p296) i.e. preschool children learn language faster than school-aged children, but school-aged children are better at talking. Well, we certainly needed expensive scientific research to tell us that.

Regardless of their data, many authors make inflated claims for cochlear implants in their conclusions. For example, Article 14B is about expressive vocabulary development in children with cochlear implants. Children studied were aged 2-8 years. Before getting an implant, seven children used an average of 14 spoken words during videotaped play sessions. After their implants 6 months later, they used an average of 27.4 spoken words. This was not significantly different from the spoken words measured in a group of children without implants, and thus could have occurred because of normal development. Post-implant, children were still using signs with their speech attempts. From this, the authors come to the astonishing conclusion that 'cochlear implants accelerate vocabulary acquisition and its spontaneous expression in young deaf children' (p288). Articles of this type are the rule, rather than the exception, in the sections of this book discussing language research.

The book is also full of spelling, punctuation and grammar errors, and editing or proofreading mistakes, such as missing or wrongly labelled tables, and referencing errors. These made me wonder about the authors', editors' and publisher's general level of attention to detail and accuracy.

I would recommend this book to any family considering a cochlear implant for their young deaf child. They should take it to someone who knows about language research design and statistics, and ask that person to explain what the data actually mean. Then compare this with the claims many authors are making. They will find some very interesting contrasts. ... Read more

Book Description

The Stutter Control Drill is a 12-page self-help booklet that provides unconventional tools for self-improvement with stuttering by developing the neuro-speech connection. This effective approach creates the sensation of "stretching of time," which allows you to more easily determine the exact block in your unique speech pattern and to remove it. This book is clearly a unique alternative to traditional stutter remedies and speech therapy. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Use the drill!
A blurb for this book says it's a "12-page self-help booklet that provides unconventional tools for self-improvement with stuttering". I can only commend the author and question any detractors on this matter. Just because a tool is unconventional doesn't mean it won't work. If a drill is too unconventional a tool for people to be using, they should feel free to use more conventional ones, like hammers or spanners or whatever. But I say why stop at the drill? Many stutterers may find relief in even more unconventional tools, like angle grinders or rotary hoes, and if so why shouldn't they use them? I give this book 5 stars for its fresh new perspective on the usefulness of household tools in the treatment of stuttering. Perhaps other disciplines should open themselves up to this new perspective; for example has anyone looked into the effectiveness of power-saws or rivet-guns in treating schizophrenia?

I wouldn't recommend this. I hope my reasons are enough
I've been involved in this issue and I know what are the right ways and what are the old and out dated way (wrong ways). Thinking about a word before saying it is defenetly the worst thing that a person with stuttering problem can do. The person who has this problem should achieve confident that s/he will not stutter and should not think about atuttering at all. The reason I'm saying it is that this book completely denys this fact and makes the person to think about the issue s'he has during s/he is talking.
I would recommend "Stutter No More". I have read this book and it contains many great ways. Although, I kind on didn't like the beginning because it took like 3 chapters to show the reader what causes the problem. Nowadays, I suppose everybody who has this problem or is a therapist should know the cause (but if you don't know, this "Stutter no more" book the the right book for you).
If you're not a patient reader I would recommend you to go and buy a copy of "Stutter Cure". I would recommed this Audio Cassette to a person who has the stuttering problem, not a person who is trying to learn about the whole issue.
I hope I was helpful.
I wish you luck

Out of Date Ideas About Stuttering
According to the author, stuttering is due to the fact that the people with stutter did not think first before speaking. If they think first about what they wanted to speak then they won't stutter. This is an out of date idea. The Stutter Control Drill ask us to see a letter/numeral, saying it in your mind, saying it aloud and typing it on a typewriter or computer keyboard is a ridiculous idea of mastering the elements of fluent speech. The author should back his claims or withdraw this booklet from the market. He is deceiving and misleading people with stutter for profit.

Very Helpful Info
This book is a very practical and helpful guide to the basics of speech correction. A good beginners guide.

Neuro-linguistic Programming
I found the Stutter Control Drill by Howard Richman to be very helpful and positive. I had a mild stutter, which is now much improved. What I liked about it was that it recognised that stuttering CAN be overcome, and it provided a structured approach for doing this based on a theory of how the brain and your vocal chords work together. This theory was based what is now well established, that the sub-concious feeds on and reflects what the concious mind has received (e.g. the importance of positive self-talk). Because I already believed that you can programme your brain to think positively, transferring this principle to speech seemed obvious but I had not looked at in that light before, and it helped to break my irrational idea that I would never improve my speech. ... Read more

Book Description

Ideal for speech-language pathologists at all levels, this useful reference presents all the facts needed to work effectively in everyday practice. The book includes more than 250 frequently used graphs, tables, and drawings, and is the only work to bring together all of speech-language pathology, from basic anatomy and physiology to professional requirements, in one compact sourcebook. ... Read more

Book Description

This major text focuses on the decision-making process in the assessment and management of children with speech and language problems. Individual chapters written by experts in their field illustrate how the decisions may vary within different work settings and how they may need to be adapted when working with specific client groups. The book also provides an overview of the skills required by the developing professional and the ways in which speech and language therapists may work with others.

The book will be relevant to speech and language therapy students and potential students, specialist teachers in training, newly qualified therapists, therapists returning to the profession specialist teachers and Special Educational Needs Coordinators. ... Read more

Book Description

For clinical researchers in audiology and otolaryngology, this fifth book in the Kresge- Mirmelstein Award series features the proceedings of the 1998 symposium.The book includes contributions from leading researchers on genetic causes of hearing loss and includes a CD-ROM containing audio and video footage from a Balinese village with a large genetically deaf population that have adopted a sign language indigenous to their culture.The CD-ROM also features samples of American Sign Language and Cued Speech.In the tradition of Berlin's previous work this book presents stunning new and evocative information for both researchers and clinicians. ... Read more

Book Description

Distinguished contributors at the frontiers of tinnitus research report on their work in this timely volume. Although tinnitus is a serious problem for the eight to ten million people in the U.S. who are affected by it, treatment options are limited because its cause is not well understood. This is the first book to bring together the latest findings in the search for a mechanism or mechanisms underlying tinnitus.Topics covered include neural activity, tinnitus in hearing-impaired children, tinnitus as a phantom perception, spectral analysis of brain activity, and recently proposed models of tinnitus.Audiologists and Other Hearing Professionals. A Longwood Professional Book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

excellent book
Greetings from Turkey. I am an ENT specialist working at a university hospital. I bought this book a few months ago and I read it more or less completely. I think it's very usefull book for professionals who want to study tinnitus . It has very detailed information about mechanisms of tinnitus . I intensively suggest everybody who interests tinnitus. ... Read more

Book Description

Smooth Talking Therapy Stuttering Program is a comprehensive curriculum for clinicians to implement with school-aged children who stutter.The program is attractive, with eye-catching illustrations that were field-tested with children, and support materials for clinicians to easily learn and implement the program.Based on mediated learning, Smooth Talking Therapy Stuttering Program promotes generalization or transfer to fluency to other situations.Complete support materials include a clinician's manual, client workbook, videotape, and audio CD-ROM and allows for independent learning and ease of program implementation.In addition this package contains a variety of materials, handouts, and game boards that can be readily implemented in therapy.Program Includes:Client Workbook (8 1/2 x 11, softcover, 4 color cover, 1 color text, 4 color insert), Clinicians Manual w/ Audio CD-ROM (8 1/2 x 11, softcover, 4 color cover, 1 color text), Video, Client Workbook Reorder Packs available. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

best refence I've seen
I have most of the audiology reference books available. This one is by far my favorite. It's the the most concise, yet complete reference I've seen. It is the first one I check when I need information. The diagrams, table, and lists are clear, yet packed with valuable information. It's definitely the most "bang" for your buck in terms of audiology desk reference books. ... Read more