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Book Review: Dictionary of communication disorders

Reviewing a dictionary is not an easy task, but it is not as difficult as writing one and Morris is to be congratulated on undertaking this onerous but important task. One problem in producing a comprehensive dictionary is that terms, and professional jargon in particular, are in constant flux as new terms are coined and some old terms undergo attrition as a result of forces such as political correctness. This is the third edition of the dictionary to be produced over a nine-year period, which suggests that Morris is constantly updating the text. Deciding when a term should be eliminated or replaced is perhaps a more difficult issue. For example, ‘cretinism’ still has an entry, but the more neutral ‘hypothyroidism’ does not. Dictionary entries are there for the learner or the novice, and it is easy for the expert reader to quibble about their content. Generally, the content of the definitions is more than adequate. I could find instances of poor definitions, for example, the entry for Landau-Kleffner syndrome described the disorder as a ‘symptom’ of specific developmental language disorder, but failed to mention that it is a convulsive disorder which occurs against a backdrop of previously normal language acquisition. But the majority of entries are helpful in orienting the learner to key issues and most contain references so that the interested (or perhaps, puzzled) reader can further research the term. Dictionaries can also be evaluated on the degree of circularity of terminology: does the dictionary define entries in terms which are themselves technical but which remain unexplained. The dictionary scored well on this criterion and I could find only a few instances of terms used in definitions not being defined themselves (for example, ‘clang associations’, an opaque term in my view, is used within the entry for learning disability, but is not defined elsewhere in the dictionary). Despite the quibbles described here, I think this is a very useful book and an important volume to those who are learning the terminology of communication disorders and those who have to decode the jargon of professional reports. It is a valuable resource to speech and language therapy students and also to those who work alongside therapists.