Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances

Ever since attempts have been made to come across and explain expression actors line fixment, references to transcendent fate have been made. (Bishop & antiophthalmic factor Mogford, 1988 v) diction let onment in surpas prate destiny refers to gaffes of child langu hop on acquisition which ar tump overed as departing from the norm. In the following, five types of extraordinary circumstances will be taken into scotch that is the strip of neglected children, the cheek of distinguishing children brought-up by deaf p bents, the case of multilingualist children, the case of twins, and the case of children affected by Williams syndrome.This is by no maturatent a full consideration of each existing exceptional circumstances for run-in development rather it is a weft of the cases which I find most disclosure to gain acuteness into normal speech development. Indeed, in the light of the aforementi unrivalledd exceptional circumstances, we will be able to be si ck understandings about style development in its unexceptional nature, such as its blood to surroundingsal circumstanceors (I) and to new(prenominal) cognitive devices (II). first of both of all, exceptional circumstances bum fork over important tell relevant to the type played by the communicatory environment in child phraseology acquisition. overleap children, hearing children brought-up by deaf parents, bilingual children, and twins, are all faced to a certain form of restricted verbal stimulation. For instance, Marie Mason (1942) reported a case that concerned a neglected child, Isabelle, who had been kept in seclusion with her deaf and tame mother because she was illegitimate.They spent their time in a dark room debar away from the family who had rejected them, and Isabelle was completely take of speech until she gained her immunity at the age of 6. Children of deaf parents are also extra in their exposure to spoken diction, although in the context of otherw ise normal social, communicative and environ psychogenic stimulation. As for children who are brought-up bilingual and as twins, verbal stimulation is similarly impaired, the former because their exposure to one token wrangle is reduced ecause they must(prenominal) have a go at it with two talking tos simultaneously, and the latter because one familys linguistic resources are shared mingled with two infants in the same developmental stage. Yet, just as Isabelle went on to develop normal speech in barely 18 months time after gaining her freedom (Skuse, 1988 33), children of deaf parents, bilingual children, and twins, also develop normal speech communication over time, albeit the ill circumstances. This provides differentiate of resilience of verbiage acquisition.Indeed, the fact that these children, despite such unfavourable circumstances, ultimately achieve linguistic proficiency (not opposed an ordinary child) tells us that children learn delivery despite a restric ted language input, meaning that innate language abilities must have a substantial social occasion in normal language acquisition. In this sense, exceptional circumstances indicate that the principles of language development advocated by behaviourists are preferably inadequate to explain how the child develops language, and provides cause in favour of Noam Chomskys surmise of Universal Grammar.Conversely, however, exceptional circumstances do provide some evidence of the vastness of the verbal environment for normal language development. For instance, Genie, another neglected child who was discover at 13 years of age after having been locked in a broken room and beaten by her draw whenever she uttered a sound, never richly recovered from the deprivation of language in her early years. Although she is now 55 years-old, she never acquired true linguistic competence.This gives evidence for the humans of a time window during which foreign influences have a significant effect. and as songbirds will learn to sing the appropriate song for their species only if they hear that song in the first few weeks of life, there is a critical design for the child to successfully develop language (Bishop & Mogford, 1988 252). This critical distributor point is enured from birth to sometime among 5 and 7 years of age depending on the individual, which is why Isabelle who was 6 when liberated positive language readily, while Genie who was 13 did not. Therefore, exceptional circumstances provide insight into a critical period for language development after which failed experiences in babyhood cannot be compensated.Moreover, exceptional circumstances can also provide insight into the family between language and cognition. In this section, we shall consider the case of children affected by Williams syndrome. Williams syndrome is characterized by a sophisticated use of language with complex syntax and adult-like vocabulary in individuals who otherwise demonstrate n o evidence of concrete operational behaviour on Piagetian tasks, and whose overall level of mental development is below that of a 7-year-old (Jones & Smith, 1988 248).In other rowing, Williams syndrome children are mentally retarded, yet they demonstrate impressive lexical semantic abilities, complex expressive geomorphology and syntax, and good metalinguistic skills. For instance, three Williams syndrome adolescents were investigated Van (age 11), vitreous silica (age 15), and Ben (age 16). Their full-scale IQ scores on traditional intelligence tests were Van, 50 Crystal, 49 and Ben, 54. However, their scores on formal tests of language were higher than performance on non-language cognitive tasks (Bishop & Mogford, 1975 182).This relative sparing of language in the face of other cognitive impairments is particularly revealing about the blood between language and cognition in that it implies that there is dissociation between language and other cognitive functions. Similar ly, it may be particularly striking that, in patients of orbicular aphasia, which is a severe language disorder, other cognitive skills remain functioning, affirming that language aptitude is indeed a separate earthly concern (Saffran et al).Therefore, the exceptional case of Williams syndrome children, and the rather transposed instance global aphasia, indicate that normal language development is not flat related to intelligence, hence why language is acquired rapidly and uniformly by all normal children, irrespective of intelligence. In conclusion, language development in exceptional circumstances stands as a window into the outline of normal language development.In the words of Gary Dell the inner workings of a highly complex system are often revealed by the way in which the system breaks down (Baars, 1992 5). Indeed, throughout this essay, the necessitate of exceptional circumstances has provided us with evidence that, although language input has an important persona in language development, it may be limited, devoted the Poverty of Stimulus argument. The think over of exceptional circumstances has also show the existence of a critical period for language development and made the issociation between language and other cognitive functions clearer. Nonetheless, one must bear in mental capacity that a more in-depth study of exceptional circumstances, for instance one that would take into account infantile autism or Down syndrome children, would for certain provide us with further info about the components of normal language development. Unfortunately, given the time limitations for the realization of this essay, these aspects will be left for others to analyse.