I am extremely pleased to offer this issue guest edited by my talented and energetic
colleague Laura Justice. One of the most critical issues facing children with communicative
delays or disorders is how such disability affects literacy development and skills.
No other aspect of academic achievement has as much impact on all areas of the curriculum
and eventual vocational success.
This issue examines current research and practice considerations for optimizing the
emergent and early literacy achievements of children comprised in “high-risk” groups
in literacy development. To this end, eight different teams of experts provide a summary
of current research on the development of literacy skills (Justice, Sofka, and McGinty),
how they are best assessed (Hall, Culatta, and Black), and how they are best cultivated
in typically developing children as well as in seven special populations. These particularly
challenging subgroups of children include children acquiring English as a second language
(Restrepo and Gray), children with specific language impairment (Schuele, Spencer,
Barako, and Guillot), children with developmental apraxia of speech (Gillon and Moriarty),
visually impaired children (Erickson and Hatten), hearing impaired children (Kaderavek
and Pakulski), and children with multiple concurrent disabling conditions (Koppenhaver,
Hendrix and Williams). Each article provides a summary of the extant literature concerning
what is known about literacy development among these populations of children and summarizes
the current evidence suggesting how literacy achievements for these children may be
optimized.
It is noteworthy that this issue contains discussion of populations for which clinicians
typically have little literature to guide them in remediation of oral and written
language deficits, such as developmental apraxia, visual impairment, and multiple
disabilities. Each article in this issue is crafted to provide a concise summary of
most typical concerns, and the research literature to date that supports specific
methods to address them. I believe that you will agree with me that it will be an
invaluable clinical guide.
In asking our readers to suggest future topics for Seminars issues, we have long received feedback suggesting that working with emergent literacy
for children on our caseloads is an ever growing concern. I firmly believe that the
articles in this volume will greatly assist in addressing this important area of practice.
As always, I look forward to your feedback and suggestions for future issues that
you would like Seminars to address, whether it be a topic we have not yet addressed or one that you would
like to see updated with current best practice suggestions. You can make these suggestions
on the self-assessment forms in the back of this issue or email me at nratner@hesp.umd.edu.
