"Organization of the website

"The website is divided into six historical periods:

• History of the ancients: 3000 BC to 500 AD
• Middle ages: 400 to 1500 AD
• Early modern period: 1500 to 1700 AD
• Enlightenment: 1700 to 1800 AD
• 19th century 1800 to 1900 AD
• 20th century 1900 to 2000 AD

"Each of these historical periods, in turn, has its own integral structure. Some are based on geography, some are based on chronology. There are four subdivisions that offer structure to the first four time periods, ancient times through the enlightenment. These divisions relate to how our predecessors:

1. rendered various medical conditions that are associated with communication;
2. portrayed communication, its functions and breakdowns;
3. regarded and treated people with disability (including communication disability); and
4. educated and rehabilitated those with communication disorders.

"These four subsections are used as a way of framing what was going on during the periods ranging from 3000 BC to 1800 AD that had a bearing on later speech-language pathology practices. These four domains (medicine, rhetoric, disability, and education/rehabilitation) offer us a ways to draw parallels across time using the distinctions available during these older periods. Each of these four domains are examined in its own right as well as for ideas that bear on what today would be considered to be within the scope of theory and practice in speech-language pathology.

"The history covered in these early time periods spans different areas of the world. For example, the ancient period is divided into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Each of these regions of the world is examined for what was going on in the fields of medicine, rhetoric, disability, and education. The regions covered in medieval period were the Byzantine Empire and Europe. The early modern period and the enlightenment focus primarily on European history.

"The last two time periods (19th and 20th centuries) target American history. The focus in these centuries are various threads or historical roots that had the greatest influence on the evolution of speech pathology. For the 19th century, the section is structured chronologically beginning with a discussion of the Elocutionists, then the Scientists, and then to the rise of Professionalism.

"The 20th century section is again subdivided chronologically and has to do with American history. This period is divided into four historical subsections (1) Our Formative Years beginning just before 1900, when the first books and articles on communication disorders were published in the United States to the end of World War II in 1945, (2) The Processing Period from 1945 to 1965, during which time many therapy approaches were developed to improve internal psychological processing, (3) The Linguistic Era from 1965 to 1975 during which time we came to treat language disorders as separable from speech disorders and as being linguistic in nature, to (4) The Pragmatics Revolution from 1975 to 2000, when we reconsidered and reframed language in light of its communicative, linguistic, cultural, and everyday-life contexts.

"Yet another section of the website has information about other aspects of speech pathology history. It includes information about our Foremothers—women who have contributed to but are not always credited with founding the profession. It also includes material on John Thelwall, a British elocutionist who practiced in the early 19th century, and biographies and pictures of individuals who have contributed to speech pathology history. Other related sections include a Canadian history by Virginia Martin and therapy stories, including Margaret Hussey's story of her experiences following the stroke and aphasia of her husband Michael Hussey.

"Hyperlinks throughout the web pages tie to definitions of technical terms, biographical details of some of our intellectual forbearers, tables of contents and descriptions of cited books, and detailed information about particular clinical interventions."