Acknowledgments

Let me take a few paragraphs to thank all the people who contributed to the writing of this book. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the editors Lydia White and Roumyana Slabakova for their patience, their fruitful comments on the previous versions of this book and for believing that this work was worth publishing. A big thanks goes also to Kees Vaes of the John Benjamins editorial staff. I would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and feedback.

This work would not have been possible without my Ph.D. supervisors: Laurie Tuller and Philippe Prévost. Thank you for your continuous support, motivation, and for sharing your knowledge. During my Ph.D., I had the opportunity to learn from you all I know about this subject. This book would not have been possible without your help and your teachings. But most of all, thank you for sharing your deep love for this field of research. This was the biggest gift of all.

I would like to thank all the people at the linguistic department in Tours – Christophe Dos Santos, Sandrine Ferré and Racha Zebib – and at the Équipe “Psychiatrie Neuro-Fonctionnelle” at the CHU Hospital of Tours – Pr. Bonnet-Brilhault and all the neuropsychiatrists, speech-language therapists, psychologists, nurses, and researchers of the team. Thank you for your precious advices, for always being willing to help and lend kind words throughout my whole Ph.D. journey.

Thank you to all my colleagues at the Psychology Department of University of Milano-Bicocca and at the I3lab (Innovative, Interactive Interfaces Laboratory) of Politecnico of Milano, especially Maria Teresa Guasti, Fabrizio Arosio, Beatrice Giustolisi, Francesca Panzeri, Micol Spitale and Franca Garzotto. Thanks to Chiara Dal Farra for her patience and for motivating me during this last year.

I owe a big thank you to all the researchers I had the lucky to encounter in this journey and who were kind enough to share with me some of their knowledge, especially to the people in the LACA project, who has inspired numerous reflections on the subject.

Thanks to all the children and the families who agreed to participate in the study.

A special thanks goes to all my friends: those who have been here since the beginning and those who have joined during this journey. You all made a big difference.

To my family, mum, dad and grandma and my in laws. Thank you for your help, your kindness, and your support during all these years.

To my husband, Pietro. Thank you because none of this would have been possible without you.