This book for speech and language therapists explains interventions for increasing the communication skills of adolescents and adults who have learning disabilities or mild mental retardation. The book provides a British perspective, noting how speech language therapy can contribute to educational requirements such as the British National Curriculum. Individual papers offer theory with literature reviews, guidelines for practice, and case studies illustrating clinical issues. Individual chapters are: (1) "Issues of Service Delivery and Auditing" (Janet Hickman); (2) Assessment and Appraisal of Communication Needs" (Samuel Abudarham); (3) "Management Models" (Della Money); (4) "Early Intervention" (Samuel Abudarham); (5) "Development of Pre-symbolic and Pre-linguistic Skills" (Angela Hurd); (6) "From First Words to Phrase and from Phrase to Sentence" (Nicola Grove); (7) "Augmentative and Alternative Communication" (Gill Williams); (8) "Working with Parents, Carers and Related Professions" (Sue Dobson and Angela Hurd); (9) "Management of Challenging Behaviour within a Communication Framework" (Jill Bradshaw); and (10) "Dual Diagnosis" (Sue Dobson). (Contains more than 600 references.) (DB)