Traumatic Brain Injury: Associated Speech, Language, and Swallowing Disorders

This comprehensive new book provides coverage of the motor speech, language, and swallowing disorders associated with traumatic brain injury. It also addresses recent research findings on the cognitive/linguistic deficits associated with traumatic brain injury and newly introduced physiological approaches to assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders. Assessment and treatment of communicative and swallowing disorders are illustrated by case studies.

Professor Bruce Murdoch is currently the Head of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland. He is an internationally recognized authority on acquired speech and language disorders of neurological origin. He has published eight books and in excess of 170 articles in refereed international journals in the area of motor speech and language disorders associated with a variety of neurological conditions including traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accidents, Parkinson�s disease, brain tumors and mutliple sclerosis. The Motor Speech Research Unit, at the University of Queensland, was established by Professor Murdoch in the early 1990�s and since that time, under his direction, it has become internationally recognized as one of the most productive and influential research centres of its type world-wide. The research unit attracts numerous international visitors each year and has been influential in establishing the importance of physiologically based techniques in the assessment and treatment of neurologically based communication deficits. Professor Murdoch is in high demand as a guest speaker at international conferences, having in the past three years presented invited keynote addresses at international conferences in North America, Scandinavia, South Africa, The Netherlands, Greece, the United Kingdon, and South-East Asia.

Dr. Theodoros is a Senior Lecturer in Speech Pathology in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She is a founding member of the Motor Speech Research Unit (MSRU) in this deparment. Dr. Theodoros�s major research interests include the physiological assessment and treatment of motor speech disorders in neurologically impaired adults and children with a variety of conditions including traumatic brain injury, Parkinson�s Disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and muscular dystrophy. Her research has also involved the investigation of the effects of neurosurgical management of Parkinson�s Disease on motor speech and language functions. Dr. Theodoros has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters in the area of motor speech disorders and has recently co-edited a book on Speech and Language Disorders in Multiple Sclerosis.