This book links theoretical approaches of logopedics to clinical practices of speech and language therapy in Finland and in the Finnish language. It provides readers with interesting examples of and insights into the communication challenges in a language that differ substantially from those used in the majority of published reports in the field of language and communication disorders. With a short introduction to the Finnish language, and to the assessments methods used by Finnish speech and language therapists, the topics of the book cover themes such as speech and language development and its disorders, augmentative and alternative communication, acquired neurological communication disorders, hearing disorders and voice screening. Most of the authors of the 13 chapters are speech and language therapists by their basic education, and currently doing research in the field of logopedics in Finland.

Anu Klippi, Ph.D., is a speech and language therapist and a professor of logopedics and head of the Department of Speech Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She is the author of Conversation as an Achievement in Aphasics (1996). She has published a number of scholarly articles on the different fields of logopedics, on the methodological questions of the research of logopedics, and on the training of speech and language therapists. Her principal interests are communication and interaction with people with communication disorders, and especially with people with aphasia and dementia. In particular, the question concerning the relationship between verbal and nonverbal behaviour, as well as the question of the capacity of nonverbal behaviour to convey meanings in conversation, has been elucidated in her study.

Kaisa Launonen, Ph.D., is a speech and language therapist, and a professor of logopedics in the Department of Speech Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral thesis (1998, in Finnish) dealt with development, application and long-term effects of an Early Signing Programme in the early intervention of children with Down’s syndrome. She is the leading researcher in Finland in the field of augmentative and alternative communication where her principal interests are in developmental issues and in people with the most severe communication challenges. She has also done research in the international field of AAC where she has contributed to several edited publications. Her other interests are early interaction and communication development, as well as ethical issues in communication intervention, professional ethics of speech and language therapists, and research ethics.