When is the critical period for language?

[maurabwade]

My baby is almost 14 months old and I suspect he many have hearing loss. We are going to get him tested.

But I wanted to know, when is the critical period for language development? For example, if a child weren't exposed to language until they were, say, two years old, would they have deficits for the rest of their life?

 

[kristina1122]

You could actually find a child development book that could help shed some light here. I have a bachelors degree in Elementary Education remember a lot from my child development course. The closer to three is when I'd say there may be more of a concern if language doesn't start to develop. It is between 2 and 3 that all of the sudden kids just start spitting out all these words. Its like a language explosion. Does your child seem to understand the things you say to him? Like if you say his name, does he turn around? Children understand language long before they can speak it. If you say come here does he respond? Those are signs to look for in terms of your son's ability to understand language? If he doesn't respond hearing loss could be an issue, if he responds, but not entirely in a way that makes sense than it could be another issue not related to hearing. Hope some of this helps.

 

[deafdrummer]

Closer to three? I was seven and a half before my parents learned that I was profoundly deaf. BUT, language development was a complete explosion for me once I got hearing aids. I whizzed through Sunshine Cottage in San Antonio in about a year and a half. It was a BITCH catching up to my peers when I was mainstreamed in the second grade, though. I ended up oral deaf and graduating with my masters in voc rehab. Those were the days when I turned in take-home final exams that were 20-30 pages long apiece in most classes and took two weeks to complete, if that.

In my twenties, I was reading Scientific American and other science magazines for FUN. I read science fiction from high school on. I used the Encyclopedia as my reference and used it a lot from the time I was in the 4th grade. For about seven years, from 2004 to 2011, I was deeply involved with underground financial research, and I left it because I finally had enough with learning about what companies, the government, and people were doing in the financial market; this information had served its purpose of educating about how the world really works. Today, I read enough to keep me abreast of changes in the markets that might be critical to my personal financial decision-making.

I am classically trained as a percussionist and bass guitar player. Today, I play the drum set and am learning to play a new instrument.

I am surviving my ninth year working for a retail company as a sales person working the floor, dealing with customers who come from all over the world with all sorts of accents.

I don't what to make of the fact that I went so long without learning enough English to be able to speak like other children. I did learn to lip-read my parents, so I could follow simple directions. This is probably why I went so long undiagnosed. I don't mean to brag, but something has to explain why I turned out this way.

 

[deafdyke]

Maura, does he play " Now I hear you now I don't?" Does he appear to have some residual hearing? I'm not saying that early implantation/aiding isn't important, but there is a reason why a lot of HOH and even DEAF kids weren't identified until they were toddlers. It's a good idea to avoid spoken language delays, but even toddler identfied kids can catch up... you're doing the right thing by pursuing ASL, and speech.......with doing ASL, you'll avoid the hyperfocus on spoken language delays and diffiiculties......

 

[Kap]

I am 11 and trying to learn new languages and find it semi-easy if I am interested but if not it is very hard to remeber-I would say not after 3-4 years old

 

[lindtoholic]

It is around 3 years. Not every child will progress to the same standard, and language develops throughout the childhood in any case, but most people agree that 3 years is one of the most standardised 'critical periods' to have. Bear in mind though that children who progress well through this early stage may still have problems later on when dealing with more advanced language, but this will become apparent as it happens. If you really are concerned, I would seek out a professional's advice, as well as investing in books on the subject - some are mostly geared up for students studying the topic, but I wouldn't shy away from this. If anything it might give you a better idea of what's going on.

Culture and other factors do play a part, so this makes it a difficult thing to define, but I wouldn't really concern yourself too much with the fear of making the period work... if anything, pressure on the parent to help the child makes things worse.

To take my case as an example: I was born deaf, but wasn't diagnosed until the age of 4. This meant I lost out on some critical moments for my language development, and I was behind all of my peers at the early stages of schooling too. However, I was lucky and I was given a speech therapist who helped me with the key sounds of language: ah, ee, oo, ay and so on. Without this, yes, I probably would have had trouble, but I am now on the same level (if not higher) than my peers now as a result of the input I had from different people. My best advice for you to try and ensure that your child doesn't get left behind is to encourage reading - I read a lot as a child, particularly from the age 8 upwards, and I was beyond my peers again in reading skill. Reading is often easier for HOH students (or so I found) and it made things a lot easier for me. I had a better understanding of grammar, language and pretty much everything else. So all is not lost if you cannot get this resolved before the age of 3 years!

 

[drphil]

Isn't "language development/acquisition" one of the "rationale" for consideration of early implantation of a Cochlear Implant?

Thus waiting for the baby/child to decide on its own if one wants a Cochlear Implant does "appear" to have some effect re "language development".

This from multiple comments here in Alldeaf.com

 

[kristy2078]

Isn't "language development/acquisition" one of the "rationale" for consideration of early implantation of a Cochlear Implant?

Thus waiting for the baby/child to decide on its own if one wants a Cochlear Implant does "appear" to have some effect re "language development"

The problem with helpless parents and clueless doctors is that they are so focused on hearing and speaking as the only ways to learn a language. There are studies done on babies who learned signs before they learned to speak, and they had better language development than babies who didn't communicate any other way until they learned to speak.

And another problem with CI is that it is not an absolute guarantee the kid will do fine with language development. Language developement is very dependent on family support, accessible communication (you can't expect the kid to learn speech overnight after getting the CI turned on), using other means of learning (i.e. literature), etc. I have met children and adults with CIs and they didn't do well because they lacked these resources in the first place. Their parents went for the CIs and let the kids loose on their own without support or expected teachers to perform miracles with the kids.