Motor Speech Disorders

This book investigates cross-language aspects of motor speech disorders, including their assessment and treatment as well as the underlying neurophysiological and neuropsychological disruptions that bring about disorders of speech motor control.

Nick Miller is Professor of Motor Speech Disorders at Newcastle University, UK. His main research interests include apraxia, dysarthria and dysphagia and the psychosocial impact of neurogenic communication disorders.

Anja Lowit is Reader in Speech and Language Therapy at Strathclyde University, UK. Her research interests include dysarthria, prosodic disorders, acoustic analysis of disordered speech, treatment effectiveness and the development of outcome measures.

Nick Miller is Professor of Motor Speech Disorders at Newcastle University, UK. His main research interests include apraxia, dysarthria and dysphagia and the psychosocial impact of neurogenic communication disorders.

Anja Lowit is Reader in Speech and Language Therapy at Strathclyde University, UK. Her research interests include dysarthria, prosodic disorders, acoustic analysis of disordered speech, treatment effectiveness and the development of outcome measures.

The real goal of speech motor control is communication, so to understand motor speech disorders we have to study them in context – in the full diversity of human languages in which they arise. This ground-breaking, engaging book will foster identification of universal and language-specific symptoms of motor speech disorders, and stimulate research on their assessment and treatment.

This is a ground-breaking seminal work which assesses the state of knowledge in a wide variety of languages, lays the theoretical foundations for future research and is a much-needed complement to research in aphasia. It greatly enriches our understanding of the representation and organization of speech and language in the human brain.

Sandra Polding, SLT, National Child Psychiatry In-Patient Unit for Scotland:

This is a fascinating, well-written and informative book...Reading this has left me energised, enthusiastic and excited about the potential in this area. The authors highlight that further research is essential across many languages. This will be exciting and innovative, so watch this space.

Christopher Plant, Griffith University, Australia:

This text will surely become regarded as a seminal text in the area of Motor Speech Disorders (MSDs). Despite the clear emphasis on providing cross-language insights, the researcher or clinician whose work is very much grounded in English-speakers would stand to benefit hugely from reviewing the opening chapters to gain new insight and direction into linguistic approaches to the description, diagnosis and treatment of MSDs.