The development of language in genie: a case of language acquisition beyond the “critical period”

Fromkin, Victoria A.; Krashen, Stephen; Curtiss, Susan; Rigler, David; Rigler, Marilyn

doi:10.1016/0093-934x(74)90027-3

Cited by 234 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A restriction of experience-dependent modification to temporal redistribution of a basic set of motor commands may be a general mechanism of vocal motor learning and may therefore reflect aspects of speech development in human infants as well. If these specific modifications to the motor program for birdsong are paralleled by how the motor program for human speech changes with acoustic and social experience (Goldstein et al 2003), the notion of an experience-independent basic speech program is strongly supported (Chomsky 1975). The effects of skill learning on motor control in other systems are consistent with this interpretation.…”

Section: Implications For How Experience Shapes Vocal Motor Programssupporting

confidence: 71%

“…Deaf children are unable to perceive the acoustic models during the sensory phase but are also not able to hear their own vocalizations during the sensorimotor practice phase, likely resulting in much greater speech deficits. Although a few historic "Kaspar Hauser" cases (children deprived of social contact and therefore potentially of acoustic models for speech) have been reported, it is unclear to what degree they have been exposed to speech at an early age (Fromkin 1974;Lane 1976). In songbirds, it is possible to test the influence of an acquired acoustic model on the motor instructions for learned vocal behavior by rearing birds in isolation, preventing exposure to song early in development, and comparing song motor patterns between group-reared and isolate-reared birds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Acquisition of an Acoustic Template Leads to Refinement of Song Motor Gestures

Méndez

Dall'Asén

Cooper

et al. 2010

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Méndez JM, Dall'Asén AG, Cooper BG, Goller F. Acquisition of an acoustic template leads to refinement of song motor gestures. J Neurophysiol 104: 984 -993, 2010. First published June 16, 2010 doi:10.1152/jn.01031.2009. Vocal learning, a key behavior in human speech development, occurs only in a small number of animal taxa. Ontogeny of vocal behavior in humans and songbirds involves acquisition of an acoustic model, which guides the development of selfgenerated vocalizations (sensorimotor period). How vocal development proceeds in the absence of an acoustic model is largely unknown and cannot be studied directly in humans. Here we explored the effects of an acoustic model on song motor control by comparing peripheral motor gestures (respiration and syringeal muscles) of tutored birds with those of birds raised in acoustic isolation. Although the overall use of syringeal muscles during song was similar in both groups, tutored birds displayed enhanced temporal patterns of activation in respiratory and syringeal motor gestures. Muscle activation was more uniformly distributed throughout the song of tutored birds than that of untutored birds. Similarly, the respiratory effort was similar for both groups, but the expiratory pulses of song contained more modulations and temporal complexity in tutored birds. These results indicate that the acquisition of an acoustic template guides a refinement of experience-independent motor gestures by increasing temporal fine structure, but there is no difference in bilateral activation patterns for a given sound between the two groups. Nevertheless, these subtle temporal changes in muscle activation give rise to pronounced acoustic differences between the songs of the tutored and untutored birds. Experience with song during ontogeny therefore guides a more refined use of experience-independent motor programs.

show abstract

Section: Implications For How Experience Shapes Vocal Motor Programssupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of an Acoustic Template Leads to Refinement of Song Motor Gestures

Méndez

Dall'Asén

Cooper

et al. 2010

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…With respect to the decelerating pattern of growth in children's grammar trajectories, this was not entirely unanticipated, given a long-standing perspective in the developmental literature that children's grammatical skills will plateau as they near adolescence; such perspectives view grammatical development as constrained by a critical, or sensitive period, corresponding to maturational constraints (Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler, 1974;Long, 1990). Neurobiologically, the plasticity of the syntactic-processing regions of the human brain appear to mature much earlier in time than the semantic-lexical processing regions of the brain (Hofman et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Nature of Grammar and Vocabulary Trajectories From Prekindergarten to Third Grade

Justice

Cain

Jiang

et al. 2018

J Speech Lang Hear Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This study investigated the longitudinal development of 2 important contributors to reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary skills. The primary interest was to examine the trajectories of the 2 skill areas from preschool to 3rd grade. Method The study involved a longitudinal sample of 420 children from 4 sites. Language skills, including grammar and vocabulary, were assessed annually with multiple measures. Multivariate latent growth curve modeling was used to examine the developmental trajectories of grammar and vocabulary, to test the correlation between the 2 domains, and to investigate the effects of demographic predictors on language growth. Results Results showed that both grammar and vocabulary exhibited decelerating growth from preschool to Grade 2. In Grade 3, grammar growth further flattened, whereas vocabulary continued to grow stably. Growth of vocabulary and grammar were positively correlated. Demographic characteristics, such as child gender and family socioeconomic status, were found to predict the intercept but not the slope of the growth trajectories. Conclusions Children's growth in grammar skills is differentiated in a number of important ways from their growth in vocabulary skills. Results of this study suggest the need to differentiate these dimensions of language when seeking to closely examine growth from preschool to primary grades.

show abstract

“…We know, from the (thankfully few) instances in which children have been raised in social isolation, that social deprivation has a severe and negative impact on language development; normal language skill is never acquired (14). We also know that, in children with autism, language and social deficits are tightly coupled (15).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human speech and birdsong: Communication and the social brain

Kuhl

2003

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of language in genie: a case of language acquisition beyond the “critical period”

Cited by 234 publications

References 41 publications

Acquisition of an Acoustic Template Leads to Refinement of Song Motor Gestures

Acquisition of an Acoustic Template Leads to Refinement of Song Motor Gestures

Modeling the Nature of Grammar and Vocabulary Trajectories From Prekindergarten to Third Grade

Human speech and birdsong: Communication and the social brain

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About