M. N. Hegde, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of Communicative Disorders at California State University, Fresno. A highly regarded and proficient author in speech-language pathology, his books include leading texts for academic courses and valuable resources for practicing clinicians. Dr. Hegde enjoys world renown as a researcher, presenter, contributor of original articles to leading national and international journals, and is also the critically acclaimed author of more than two dozen highly regarded books in speech-language pathology. He has edited more than 25 books for different publishers and is on the editorial board of several scientific journals and has been a guest editor of international journals. He also has served on the editorial boards of scientific and professional journals and continues to serve as an editorial consultant to the Journal of Fluency Disorders and the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.