Comprehension is the ultimate aim of reading and listening. How do children develop the ability to comprehend written and spoken language, and what can be done to help those who are having difficulties? This book presents cutting-edge research on comprehension problems experienced by children without any formal diagnosis as well as those with specific language impairment, autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, hearing impairment, head injuries, and spina bifida.

This text contains a series of studies of phonological acquisition and development of children in specific contexts: linguistic context - Putonghua or Modern Standard Chinese; and developmental contexts - normally developing children, children with speech disorders, children with hearing impairment, and twins. This is a study of phonological development and impairment in Chinese-speaking children. It provides the normative data on this population, which should be of value to speech and language therapists and other professionals. It also advances the notion of "phonological saliency" which explains the cross-linguistic similarities and differences in children's phonological development.