James Law studied linguistics, practising as a speech and language therapist in the UK for ten years, and is currently Professor of Speech and Language Science, Newcastle University, UK. Having received over £5 million in research grant funding, his main focus has been on children's language development over time and the science underpinning interventions to ameliorate developmental language disorders.

Cristina McKean is a speech and language therapist and senior lecturer in speech pathology at Newcastle University, UK. She is honorary fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and adjunct fellow at the Menzies Institute, Griffith University, Australia, and editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Her research aims to understand individual differences in child language development, the drivers and processes of developmental change and the effects of interventions and service delivery models on children's trajectories.

Carol-Anne Murphy lectures in speech and language therapy at the University of Limerick (UL), Ireland. She leads the child speech, language and communication needs research group at UL, whose work includes the development of school-based speech and language therapy services. Carol-Anne has a particular interest in understanding mechanisms of intervention, effective approaches to assessment, and intervention implementation in developmental communication difficulties, particularly developmental language disorder.

Elin Thordardottir, a certified speech-language pathologist and audiologist, conducts research and teaches in Canada as a professor at McGill University, and in Iceland, at the Academy of Reykjavik and the University of Iceland. This allows her to study typical language development and impairment in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual children in distinct linguistic environments and with a strong cross-linguistic focus. She has authored a number of clinical language measures in Icelandic and French.

Preface

Maria Vlassopoulos & Baiba Trinite

Part I Developmental language disorder in context

Introduction

James Law

Chapter 1

Evidence-based practice and its application to developmental language disorders

James Law

Chapter 2

The development of the practitioner survey

James Law, Josie Tulip & Elisabeth Beckermann

Chapter 3

Theory and intervention in developmental language disorder: The view of the European practitioner

David Saldana and Carol-Anne Murphy

Chapter 4

Servoce delivery for children with language disorders across Europe and beyond

Cristina McKean, Ellen Gerrits, Josie Tulip and Anna-Kasia Tolonen

Chapter 5

The social and cultural context of intervention for children with developmental language disorder

Elin Thordardottir & Seyhun Topbä

Part II National vignettes

Introduction

James Law

Austria

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Latvia

Lebanon

Lithuania

Macedonia

Malta

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

The Russian Federation

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

The United Kingdom

Index