Most individuals take for granted the concept of identity. In our personal lives, we can identify many roles, environments, and ways of being that collectively "define" who we are. We use terms such as self-concept, self-image, and relationships to characterize different aspects of our identity. In the discipline of communication sciences and disorders, for example, we may view ourselves as "being" practitioners, researchers, or students, while also "being" wife, mother, granddaughter, singer, gardener, board member, etc. As we go through the different stages in our lives, we may speak of experiencing an identity crisis, or may discuss the impact of role shift from student to employee to retiree.

Similarly, we acknowledge that each of our clients is unique in his or her identity. We discuss issues of client self-esteem, or acknowledge the social aspects of identity by engaging in communication role-play. We try to understand the ways in which clients need to use their communication skills in social settings with multiple partners. Yet despite all of this apparent attention to identity, we do not have a systematic way to view this concept within professional practice.

Clearly, identity is a complex and dynamic concept that is particularly relevant in our changing world, both professionally and personally. The term identity means many things to many people. It can be viewed from individualistic, social, and sociocultural perspectives. For example, from an individualistic perspective, identity is seen as a kind of innate attribute that can be objectively identified, decontextually measured, and interpreted according to tacit normative expectations. In this context, identity develops as the individual matures. In contrast, from a sociocultural perspective, identity might be defined as a representation of oneself that emerges from participation with multiple groups of social others, in relation to others, and across a variety of social contexts (Penuel & Wertsch, 1995; Sarbin, 2000; Wertsch, 2000). Within this perspective, social identity is constantly being constructed and reconstructed throughout our life span.

This social construction perspective on identity is not well articulated in communication sciences and disorders. Historically, identity was associated with personality and was included in discussions on stuttering (c.f., Sheehan, 1970; Van Riper, 1947, 1982). Self-concept has also received focus in our professional literature, and the idea of self-efficacy has emerged as central in the rehabilitation literature (Bandura, 1997). There has recently been a surge of interest in identity within the field. For example, Kovarsky and colleagues (Kovarsky, Duchan, Mastergeorge, & Nichols, 2003) have referred to the idea of identity construction in clinical discourse. Identity issues are not confined to our clients and their families. Duchan (2004) has recently used the history of the discipline to address changes in professional identity.

This issue of Topics in Language Disorders (TLD) focuses on the social construction of identity, raising the question of whether social identity is a construct that is applicable to research and clinical practice within speech-language pathology and if so, why it is applicable and how we can address the challenge of considering identity in our work. Articles within this issue seek to frame these questions and provide examples of ways to incorporate an understanding of social identity into assessment and intervention.

The article submissions for this issue reflect tremendous diversity with respect to definitions of and theoretical premises about identity, application of identity concepts to particular populations, and clinical challenges. We have intentionally avoided any attempt to reach consensus, instead using the issue to help frame professional understanding of the ways in which clinicians and researchers may better address the challenge of identity. We hope to stimulate reflection on the nature of identity and its clinical and research relevance.

The first article by Hagstrom and Wertsch is used to begin this issue to ground our understanding of social identity. Much of this understanding involves theoretical constructs and terms that are unfamiliar to the typical TLD reader. Thus, the authors provide a glossary of terms as an appendix. This article and the glossary are designed to frame the articles that follow. Hagstrom and Wertsch blend the work of Sarbin (2000) and Vygotsky (1978) to describe social identity as aspects of selfhood that result from actions taken during social interactions with others. They suggest that identity should receive particular focus, or analytic primacy, by clinicians seeking to address larger issues of individual functioning within the social context. The idea of identiting-active construction of identity-is described as a dynamic process that occurs across the life span. Hagstrom and Wertsch then explore the implications of constructs such as dialogicality and mediated action in clinical assessment and intervention.

In the second article, Shadden and Agan merge the familiar with the unfamiliar in their article on renegotiating identity. Using stroke support groups as their clinical material, they work to define and elaborate on how identity is changed by this acquired disorder. They introduce the concept of renegotiation and expand on this by examining the function of social engagement with others and in communicative settings as vital components to the renegotiating of identity for those who suffer from stroke and their families. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of social others in framing identity.

In the third article, Junefelt uses qualitative data from a case study of a child who is blind to discuss the development of identity in childhood. Building on the terminology introduced in the first article, she provides a language sample to demonstrate how a child uses words and actions to assign meaning to himself and others. Junefelt's work opens a fascinating new perspective on language production from within the world of the child. As the author pursues a sociocultural analysis of the child's language behavior, the reader is asked to become a kind of language detective, tracing the interactive threads of verbal and nonverbal communication as they present clues to the child's identity status.

In the fourth article, Daniels and Gabel highlight identity issues for persons who stutter. They begin with a historical review of constructs such as personality and self-concept as applied to stuttering, and reframe these in light of the social identity theory. Daniels and Gabel then discuss personal and social attributions about stuttering as barriers to positive identity construction, extending this with a review of recent qualitative studies that specifically addresses identity and stuttering. A case study is presented to illustrate how stuttering affects social identity and how clinicians can make a difference. In particular, the case study highlights the importance of framing our understanding of "who" the client is in social identity terms, rather than diagnostic labels. Clinicians are provided with recommendations for interventions that are sensitive to identity issues. For clinical management of stuttering, it is suggested that current practices need only be extended slightly to embrace the challenge of meeting identity needs.

For a fifth perspective, Cheng brings her extensive background in linguistic differences and cultural variations to the topic of hyphenated identity. Hyphenated identity is a term that references the multiple socially bound features that individuals use to think about themselves. Cheng uses a unique blend of research, literature, and storytelling data to graphically demonstrate the many facets of social identity that create linguistic and cultural mosaics for multilingual clients. Her article points out that the familiar, and seemingly straightforward, concepts of first versus second language, race, and ethnicity may not be sufficient to frame an understanding of clients with multiple cultural and linguistic identities or to support shared understandings between clinicians and clients.

In the final article in this issue, Hagstrom presents a procedure that clinicians can use to include identity in their practices. While the example used is of an adult with cognitive-linguistic challenges, the procedures are applicable to all clinical populations. Hagstrom first outlines the manner in which current SLP practices would address the information gained from a client interview. She highlights the way in which current practices focus more on the diagnostic label or disorder or both than on the larger questions of client and significant other identity. Hagstrom then contrasts this information with the Functional Individual Systems framework (Hagstrom, 2000; Hagstrom & Daniels, in press), which considers three interactive systems-physical, cultural, and social-as they contribute to our understanding of individual functioning. She applies social identity questions (Sarbin & Scheibe, 1983) to this Functional Individual Systems framework, illustrating in a step-by-step fashion how the combined Functional Individual Systems and social identity questions approaches clarify our understanding of the identiting process for our clients.

Welcome, reader, to this special issue of TLD on The Social Construction of Identity: The Clinical Challenge. We hope you will find the topics stimulating and the clinical challenges of working with social identity worthwhile.

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