Semin Speech Lang 2012; 33(01): 01-02
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1301157
Introduction
Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Introduction

Audrey L. Holland Editor-in-Chief
1   Department of Speech, Hearing and Language Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 February 2012 (online)

This is an exciting issue of Seminars in Speech and Language. It has several intersecting purposes and goals. First, although we have recognized for a long time the importance of studying discourse in aphasia and traumatic brain injury, it is not nearly so well studied in other neurogenic communication disorders. This issue makes clear that discourse issues are pertinent for the entire spectrum, from neuromotor disorders to dementia. The also extends methods for studying discourse in adult language, not only by providing some fresh perspectives on the matter, but also by offering some clinically efficient tools for its study.

Beth Armstrong and I conceived the idea for this issue last year when I was a visiting scholar at the School of Psychology & Social Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia. So two countries were involved at its initiation. Now as the reader will see, it has become a multinational affair, with contributions from the United Kingdom, Italy, as well as Australia and the United States. Thus, even the participants in this process represent a sort of spectrum.

These disparate threads reflect the fact that the study of discourse is an integral part of the study of human communication disorders. That should make sense to clinicians whose goals are not simply to shape the tools of talking, but to shape the process by which those tools get put to use in humans communicating with each other.