Language and Literacy Learning in Schools

Elaine R. Silliman, PhD, CCC-SLP, Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Cognitive and Neural Sciences at the University of South Florida, is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the International Academy for Research on Learning Disabilities, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Graduate Center of CUNY. A past Editor of the ASHA journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, she was elected to the first Specialty Board on Child Language. Her research and publications focus on language learning disabilities and the language basis of literacy in children struggling with reading, writing, and spelling, including bilingual children and those with social dialect variations. She is coauthor or coeditor of three previous books, including the Handbook of Language and Literacy.

Louise C. Wilkinson, EdD, is Distinguished Professor of Education, Psychology, and Communication Sciences in the School of Education at Syracuse University. She is best known for her extensive research on children's language and literacy learning, which has been published in more than 130 articles, chapters, and volumes. She has served on the boards of major research journals and of the National Reading Research Center, the National Association of Universities and Land-Grant Colleges' Commission for Human Resources and Social Change, and the U.S. Department of Education's Laboratory for Student Success. Dr. Wilkinson is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Association of Applied and Preventative Psychology. Among her many professional leadership activities nationally and internationally, Dr. Wilkinson has chaired national review panels for the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.