Language in Mental Retardation

This book is intended both as a comprehensive review and discussion of the major studies of language development and functioning in mentally retarded (MR) persons over the last fifty years, and as an exploration of a number of important issues in this field. *The use of the term 'mental retardation' is in line with the recommendations of the American Association on Mental Retardation and other relevant organisations.

Outline and Rationale. Historical Sketch. Early Speech Studies. Early language Studies. More Theoretically Oriented Studies. Lenneberg's Studies. Psycholinguistically Oriented Work. Intervention Studies. IQ. Sex Social Class. Syndrome Considerations, and The Specificity Question. Iq, Levels of Mental retardation, and Language. Sex Differences. Social Class Differences. Syndrome considerations. The Specificity Question. Exceptionality and Language modularity. Exceptional Language Development in Mental Retardation. Dissociative Tendencies in Typical Mentally Retarded Subjects. The delay-difference Question. The Cognition-language Question. Language modularity. Language Development and Functioning. The Critical Period Question. Prelinguistic Development. Speech. Lexical Development. Thematic Semantics and morphosyntactic Regulations. Adult-child Interaction and The Development of language in The Mentally Retarded. Language in Mentally Retarded Adults. Ageing and Language in Mental Retardation. Language Remediation. Dimensions and contents. The Efficiency Issue. Alternative and Augmentative Systems of communication. Literary Training. Memory and Language. Computer-enhanced language Intervention. Perspectives.