Abstract
The findings of studies of language development in normally developing children and in children who deviate from the norm in aspects of physiological and cognitive development are outlined and compared. The differences in language development under various conditions of deviancy are examined to explore what may be the bases for the language acquisition process. Comparisons show that damage to one peripheral mechanism or delay in cognitive development also delays language acquisition. In addition, the process may be altered since delay itself can lead to different storage of information. Central nervous system damage appears to alter the process in specific ways depending on the nature of the damage, and affects the ways in which both linguistic and nonlinguistic information is organized. Both explanations of behavior, and methods for remediation will become clearer as we study the behavior of these children over developmental periods with experimental techniques which go beyond the tests usually used to evaluate development.
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Published in the proceedings of the First International Kanner Colloquium, October 31–November 2, 1973, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., entitledChild development, deviations and treatment. Preprinted by permission.
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Menyuk, P. The bases of language acquisition: Some questions. J Autism Dev Disord 4, 325–345 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02105376
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02105376