Though working with people with learning difficulties has become an increasingly important speciality for the speech therapist, much of the rationale for this work has yet to be established. Practitioners are still evaluating their role in working with the learning disabled, and are trying to develop appropriate models of assessment and intervention. This book is intended to aid speech therapists in this task by providing ideas based on an ideology in keeping with the current trends in services to people with learning difficulties. After critically examining existing methods, the authors draw on their combined experience in linguistics and ethnography to provide a rationale and operational guidelines to deal with assessment, intervention, establishing criteria for entry to and exit from therapy, developing shared perspectives and manipulating the environment in order to facilitate communications in context. The concluding part of the book looks at service provision in health, education, social services and private establishments, suggesting ways in which speech therapists may best utilize their skills and time in these settings.