Critical Period of Language Acquisition for Children

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Recommended: The process of language acquisition in childhood

The idea of a critical period for language acquisition, first introduced by linguist Eric Lenneberg in 1967, is a popular debate amongst many people. In his initial discovery of the “critical period hypothesis,” Lenneberg stated: “there are maturational constraints on the time a first language can be acquired. First language acquisition relies on neuroplasticity. If language acquisition does not occur by puberty, some aspects of language can be learnt but full mastery cannot be achieved.” Lenneberg also stressed that in the case of bilingual individuals, the critical period is broken into phases. These individuals must learn their first language in Phase one which ends at age seven and their second language in Phase two which ends at the beginning of puberty. This hypothesis has never been proven accurate due to various conditions that both support and disprove its claim.

The critical period hypothesis is based on neuroplasticity, the idea that intact parts of the brain can take over the functions of a damaged part (Harley, 2010). This plasticity, however, is primarily abundant before lateralization, a period of time in which specialization of functions occur in both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex (Berk, 2012). While the brain is still developing, during early childhood, many areas of the cerebral cortex are not yet committed to one function. This allows these areas to be more receptive of creating different neural pathways and acquiring new skills. However, as a child gets older, his or her brain becomes lateralized and neural plasticity decreases, making skills such as communication harder to acquire.

Although language acquisition may become harder to acquire as a person gets older, it is not completely impossible. T...

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... adapt to the dialect of their new enviornment.

References

Tsai, L. (2003), Pervasive developmental disorders. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/wp- content/uploads/docs/fs20.pdf

Wolfram, W. (1979), Speech pathology and dialect differences. Issue 3 of Dialects and educational equity. Center of Applied Linguistics.

Matson, J., Wilkons, J., Smith, K., & Ancona, M. (2008). PDD-NOS symptoms in adults with intellectual disability: toward an empirically oriented diagnostic model. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database. (Accession No. 2009871850)

Mugno, D., Ruta, L., D'Arrigo, V. G., & Mazzone, L. (2007). Impairment of quality of life in parents of children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorder. Health & Quality of Life Outcomes, 5(p22-9). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-5-22

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