Here is a comprehensive introduction to language disorders in children...one whose two-fold developmental/contextual perspective acknowledges that children's language learning systems include not only their skills, knowledge, and biological abilities...but also their language background, family settings, and the context in which they are attempting to learn language. The text's primary focus is on perspectives from normal development, and the bulk of the coverage is devoted to examination of expectations for early (infant through toddler), middle (preschool through early elementary), and later (middle elementary through adolescent) stages of learning language. These developmentally-geared divisions are then used to guide discussions of language assessment and intervention for children who are not learning language normally, yet who have characteristics in common with their peers who are.