Book review: Marlene Brill’s “Speech and Language Challenges: The Ultimate Teen Guide”
by Beth
I am pleased to introduce Speech-Language Pathologist Marsha Boyer as a guest blogger today. Marsha has 21 years experience working with children of all ages and is the founder and owner of Speech Connections, Inc. in Greenwood, Indiana.
Ambitious and impressive
by Marsha Boyer, M.A., CCC-SLP
People can have such a wide variety of communication difficulties — I had at least a dozen required text books to read and know while studying for a degree in Speech-Language Pathology, so I was curious about how Marlene Brill could possibly address the wide variety of communication difficulties a teen may have in a way that could keep a young adult interested.
She definitely hit the sweet spot with her young adult non-fiction book Speech and Language Challenges: The Ultimate Teen Guide. The book provides the academic definition of each area while keeping the topic concise enough to maintain the attention of a teen. Brill’s book also offers additional resources (support groups, other books and websites), that expand the topic or offer a place to go for help.
Personal accounts from teens assure the young readers they are not alone. Additionally, stories relating the personal struggles of well-known young adults encourage readers to continue to think positively while experiencing the same struggle.
The steady increase in the number of bilingual speakers in the schools makes the chapter that talks about bilingual speakers especially important. Ms. Brill not only explains the difficulties that bilingual speakers experience, but, more importantly, she provides suggestions to help teens better connect with their bilingual peers.
It’s pretty ambitious for an author to try to tackle all of this in one book, and Marlene Brill did an impressive job.
January 1st, 2015 at 1:12 pm
I had a stroke June of 2011, INeed therapy walking and to have distinctive speech. I live in the Washington D. C.
area. I would be willingto contribute.