Principles of Clinical Phonology: Theoretical Approaches (Language and Speech Disorders) - Softcover

'Principles of Clinical Phonology is impressive, comprehensive, and nothing like other books on speech sound disorders. What is most compelling about it is that it considers the application of phonological/phonetic analysis to a variety of populations: child, adult, acquired, and developmental. Typically books on disorders consider only one population and, in that manner, miss the big picture.' –Marie Klopfenstein, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA

'Martin J. Ball draws on his vast knowledge of theoretical and clinical phonetics, phonology, and linguistics to unravel international and interdisciplinary nuances of terminology, knowledge, and practices in order to generate a new approach to clinical phonology.' –Sharynne McLeod, Ph.D., Professor Charles Sturt University, Australia

'This excellent book provides full coverage of linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models while connecting the content to clinical cases throughout. The final chapters that synthesize approaches with explicit discussion of applications to clinical practice will be of particular interest to students planning a career in speech-language pathology.' –Susan Rvachew, Ph.D., S-LP(C), Professor, McGill University, Canada

Those working on the description of disordered speech are bound to be also involved with clinical phonology to some extent. This is because interpreting the speech signal is only the first step to an analysis. Describing the organization and function of a speech system is the next step. However, it is here that phonologists differ in their descriptions, as there are many current approaches in modern linguistics to undertaking phonological analyses of both normal and disordered speech.

Much of the work in theoretical phonology of the last fifty years or so is of little use in either describing disordered speech or explaining it. This is because the dominant theoretical approach in linguists as a whole attempts elegant descriptions of linguistic data, not a psycholinguistic model of what speakers do when they speak. The latter is what is needed in clinical phonology. In this text, Martin J. Ball addresses these issues in an investigation of what principles should underlie a clinical phonology. This is not, however, simply another manual on how to do phonological analyses of disordered speech data, though examples of the application of various models of phonology to such data are provided. Nor is this a guide on how to do therapy, though a chapter on applications is included. Rather, this is an exploration of what theoretical underpinnings are best suited to describing, classifying, and treating the wide range of developmental and acquired speech disorders encountered in the speech-language pathology clinic.