Review

"This book is a gem. While recognizing the important role neurobiology plays in learning, the editors and contributors provide strong arguments against reductionism. Two perspectives are central to the book: development and individual difference. Chapters use them in varying degrees to show how varied outcomes depend on the interplay of biology and experience throughout development. The book promotes optimism about education by offering specific thoughts on how recent advances in knowledge can lead to more thorough assessment and better intervention and instruction for children with language and reading disorders."--Marilyn Shatz, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan

"This book was a treat to browse, and I don’t think it will spend much time tucked away on a shelf. What a useful and important resource! In many ways, the volume brings the study of language and reading disorders back to its roots, but this time with evidence to show how learning is manifested in the brain. The book is indeed timely in drawing together the relevant findings from the burgeoning research on genetics, neuroimaging, learning, and learning disability. The authors are the right source for each topic, and the educational and practical implications that round out the chapters greatly enrich their value. I could imagine using this book as the focus text for a doctoral seminar on learning disabilities."--Rollanda E. O’Connor, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside

"I have always enjoyed the challenges of 'piecing the puzzle together' when evaluating children with language and literacy differences and disorders. Mody and Silliman have gathered together an impressive array of highly regarded researchers from diverse disciplines to provide new, needed pieces of the puzzle. In this fascinating volume, the contributors coherently explain the most current theories on language and literacy development and disorders and present research evidence across domains to support the theories. Using this information, readers can think in novel ways about planning interventions. This is a 'must-read,' cutting-edge book for advanced graduate students and professionals."--Carol E. Westby, PhD, Visiting Professor, College of Education, Brigham Young University

"You won't find reductionist models of disabilities here! This book builds the surge toward deeper, richer analyses of language and reading disabilities, providing frameworks for understanding the dynamics of developmental differences. It showcases groundbreaking research leading toward a new level of sophistication in analyzing the development of disabilities and connecting research and practice for children with learning problems. With its combination of frameworks and specific research, this text provides a great resource for helping students to frame learning problems in ways that capture the complexity of human beings."--Kurt W. Fischer, PhD, Charles Warland Bigelow Professor and Director, Master's Program in Mind, Brain, and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Has the potential to become a groundbreaking book in the area of reading and language disorders. For too long now brain research in reading has been predominantly focused on localized areas of the brain, although it has always been understood that there are many interactive components in relation to the neurological and cognitive processes in language and reading development. This book however does more than acknowledge this, it actively seeks to present clear and justifiable multidimensional perspectives, allowing the key concept of individual differences to be explored within a scientific framework....The book contains cutting-edge chapters from well-known and highly regarded researchers and authors....This book has a consistent theme, is well edited, and the contributors and choice of chapters carefully selected. It will prove to be an excellent reference source for researchers and for those professionals seeking to develop their understanding of the neurological, biological, and the cognitive processes involved in reading in order to justify and re-evaluate their practice."--Educational Review

(Educational Review )

"This book provides reviews of current thinking regarding reading and language disabilities, their development, phenotype, and ultimately their remediation....A thoughtful presentation of the multitude of issues on which we, as practicing neuropsychologists, must focus....Mody and Silliman''s book is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf."--Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

(Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology )

About the Author

Maria Mody, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, specializing in developmental disorders of reading and language. She is a member of the faculty in the Health Sciences and Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also teaches in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson College. Dr. Mody uses a variety of neuroimaging methods to examine the relationship between spoken language and reading in normal and atypical development. Her work is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a past Associate Editor of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research and has published in a variety of journals.

Elaine R. Silliman, PhD, is Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Cognitive and Neural Sciences at the University of South Florida. She is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the International Academy for Research on Learning Disabilities. She also holds the Honors of the New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Silliman is a past Editor of the ASHA journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.. Her research has appeared in a wide variety of journals, and she is the author or coauthor of 18 chapters and coeditor of five books. Dr. Silliman’s current research interests include the development of academic language proficiency in children struggling with reading, writing, and spelling.