Gm. Grimshaw et al., FIRST-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN ADOLESCENCE - EVIDENCE FOR A CRITICAL PERIOD FOR VERBAL LANGUAGE-DEVELOPMENT, Brain and language (Print), 63(2), 1998, pp. 237-255
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Language & Linguistics","Psychology, Experimental",Neurosciences
It has been hypothesized that there is a critical period for first-lan
guage acquisition that extends into late childhood and possibly until
puberty. The hypothesis is difficult to test directly because cases of
linguistic deprivation during childhood are fortunately rare. We pres
ent here the case of E.M., a young man who has been profoundly deaf si
nce birth and grew up in a rural area where he received no formal educ
ation and had no contact with the deaf community. At the age of 15, E.
M. was fitted with hearing aids that corrected his hearing loss to 35
dB, and he began to learn verbal Spanish. We describe his language dev
elopment over the 4-year period since his acquisition of hearing aids
and conclude that he demonstrates severe deficits in verbal comprehens
ion and production that support the critical period hypothesis. (C) 19
98 Academic Press.