Recent research has acknowledged the importance of morphological awareness, beyond phonological awareness, to literacy achievement in both reading and writing for children, adolescents, and adults. Morphological awareness is the ability to recognize, reflect on, and manipulate the sublexical structure of words--the roots, prefixes, and suffixes.…

This article highlights the clinical application of morphological awareness intervention to facilitate phonological, vocabulary, reading, and spelling success in children with language and literacy deficits. First, the research-based benefits of morphological awareness instruction are reviewed and current theoretical and research-based…

Children with language impairment (LI) show an overall immaturity in grammatical structure. This includes difficulties with basic sentence constituents, pronouns, verb form elaboration, negative and interrogative sentences, noun phrase elaboration, and complex sentences. This article describes explicit instruction and scaffolding strategies, based…

Disciplinary literacy is an increasingly popular focal area in adolescent literacy. In disciplinary literacy, the discourse features of specific knowledge domains (e.g., literature, history, science, and math) assume major importance in understanding and constructing meaning in each discipline. Because language plays a significant role in…

Clinical speech-language pathologists (SLPs) may receive referrals to consult with teams serving patients who have a severe and/or terminal disease. Palliative care focuses on the prevention or relief of suffering to maximize quality of life for these patients and their families. This article describes how the role of the SLP in palliative care…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that results in loss of most motor functions by the time of death. Most persons with ALS experience a dysarthria that eventually renders oral/vocal communication unintelligible. This article reviews the communication needs of persons with ALS and the range of communication…

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide services to patients confronting the end of life (EOL) in a variety of settings. Instead of targeting improvement of health or sustaining life, EOL services focus primarily on quality of life. Although SLPs may not consider themselves core members of the health care team providing EOL services, the…

Language impairment (LI) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are 2 relatively common developmental disorders that have been shown to have high rates of co-occurrence in a number of studies, and this phenomenon is also commonplace in the experience of many clinicians. Understanding this comorbidity, therefore, is central to building…

Although emotions are often seen as key to maintaining rapport between speech-language pathologists and their clients, they are often neglected in the research and clinical literature. This neglect, it is argued here, comes in part from the inadequacies of prevailing conceptual frameworks used to govern practices. I aim to show how six such…

Although some studies have explored the adult therapeutic relationship in speech-language pathology, few, if any, have examined it with regard to children. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic relationship in pediatric speech and language therapy, focusing on the child's experience. Accordingly, the study was qualitative and involved the…

We examined uncomfortable moments that damaged rapport during group interactions between college students in training to become speech-language pathologists and adults with traumatic brain injury. The students worked as staff in a community-based program affiliated with a university training program that functioned as a recreational gathering…

During clinical interactions between speech-language pathologists and adults with aphasia, a variety of emotional issues arise. The literature suggests that while counseling is within the scope of practice, SLPs tend to avoid emotional issues in therapy (A. Holland, 2007a). The precise mechanisms employed for circumventing emotional issues in…

This article focuses on why and how speech-language pathologists and other professionals can encourage the involvement of parents in teaching social communication skills to their young children. Four main topics are explored: (1) the evidence that many of the children with special needs served by speech-language pathologists and other…

The focus of this article is on the transactional relationship of research and practice for speech-language pathologists serving infants and toddlers with and at risk for autism spectrum disorder in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act supported early intervention. Specifically, information is provided on (a) the relationship between…

This article uses a question-and-answer format to respond to questions about working with children who speak African American English (AAE) in clinical and educational contexts. The respondents urge speech-language pathologists to appreciate AAE as students' first language, to view all language for its communicative potential, and to remain aware…