Language Development Over the Lifespan is a reference resource for those conducting research on language development and the aging process, as well as a supplementary textbook for courses in applied linguistics/bilingualism programs that focus on language attrition/aging and adult literacy development in second languages. It offers an integrative approach to language development that examines changes in language over a lifetime, organized by different theoretical perspectives, which are presented by well-known international scholars.

Kees de Bot is Chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His research interests include foreign language attrition, language and dementia in multilingual settings, and more recently the application of Dynamic Systems Theory in SLA and multilingualism. He is coeditor of Second Language Acquisition: An Advanced Resource Book (2005) and has published widely in the field of Applied Linguistics.

Robert W. Schrauf is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. He conducts research in three main areas: bilingual autobiographical memory; language, culture, and cognitive aging; and applied linguistics and health sciences. He is president of the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology and associate editor of The Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology.

Introduction Kees de Bot & Robert Schrauf Section A: Theoretical Approaches to Language Development 1. First and Second Language Development from a UG Perspective Sharon Unsworth 2. First Language Development from an Emergentist Perspective Heike Behrens 3. First Language Development from a Dynamic Systems Perspective Paul van Geert Section B: Second Language Development 4. Second Language Development from a Socio-cultural Perspective Maria C. M. de Guerrero 5. Second Language Development from a Dynamic Systems Perspective Wander Lowie, Marjolijn Verspoor & Kees de Bot 6. Disorders in Bilingual Development Over the Lifespan Kathryn Kohnert 7. First Language Attrition Across the Lifespan Monika Schmid Section C: Non-verbal Aspects of Language Development 8. The Development of Gesture Marion Tellier 9. The Development of Sign Language Deborah Chen Pichler Section D: Methodological and Neuro-linguistic Aspects of Development 10. Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Designs in Studies of Multilingualism Over the Lifespan Robert Schrauf 11. The Role of Working Memory in Language Development Over the Lifespan Susan Kemper 12. The Development of Neural Substrates of Language Over the Lifespan. Arturo Hernandez, Merrill Hiscock, and Elizabeth A. Bates