This book draws on the recent remarkable advances in speech and language processing: advances that have moved speech technology beyond basic applications such as medical dictation and telephone self-service to increasingly sophisticated and clinically significant applications aimed at complex speech and language disorders. The book provides an introduction to the basic elements of speech and natural language processing technology, and illustrates their clinical potential by reviewing speech technology software currently in use for disorders such as autism and aphasia. The discussion is informed by the authors' own experiences in developing and investigating speech technology applications for these populations. Topics include detailed examples of speech and language technologies in both remediative and assistive applications, overviews of a number of current applications, and a checklist of criteria for selecting the most appropriate applications for particular user needs. This book will be of benefit to four audiences: application developers who are looking to apply these technologies; clinicians who are looking for software that may be of value to their clients; students of speech-language pathology and application development; and finally, people with speech and language disorders and their friends and family members.

Beals describes the root causes of the language and learning challenges in autism, their various academic consequences, and a variety of tools and strategies for addressing them. Drawing on what the most current evidence shows about the nature of autism and which therapies are most successful, the book discusses the implications for autism-friendly instruction in academic subjects, noting the ways in which today's classrooms come up short, and suggesting various adjustments that teachers can make. Instead of focusing on social and behavioral issues, general accommodations, and general ways to address learning difficulties, Beals zeros in on academics, on accommodations within specific academic subjects, and on techniques that target autism-specific deficits, situating the issue of educational access within the broader context of disability rights, neurodiversity, and debates about what disability rights and neurodiversity should encompass. Complete acceptance of individuals on the autism spectrum must include complete educational access. This means rethinking assumptions about autistic students, about how we teach expressive language, about how we teach reading comprehension, and about what and how we teach in the many K-12 classrooms attended by autistic students.

Does your child: Have impressive intellectual abilities but seem puzzled by ordinary interactions with other children? Prefer to spend time with adults or alone rather than with other kids? Have deep, all-absorbing interests or seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of certain subjects; Seem uncomfortable with unstructured play or social engagements? If you answered 'yes' to some or all of these questions, you may be raising a left-brain child. Bright, eccentric, and socially awkward, these are children whose talents and inclinations lean heavily toward the logical, linear, analytical, and introverted side of the human psyche - what is commonly referred to as 'the left brain' - as opposed to the 'right brain' which is our emotional, holistic, intuitive, and extroverted side. Leftbrain kids are often found on the margins of the classroom and the playground, the ones who tend not to fit in with their peers but have rich interior and intellectual lives. According to Beals, left-brain children are increasingly misunderstood and undervalued, particularly at school. In today's classrooms, assignments tend to favour children who are collaborative, artistically creative, and comfortable speaking in front of groups. Left-brain children tend to be highly intelligent but shy, and unsuited to group activities, and they are often downgraded for social aloofness and emotional immaturity.