Grimshaw G M, Adelstein A, Bryden M P, MacKinnon G E
University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Brain Lang. 1998 Jun 15;63(2):237-55. doi: 10.1006/brln.1997.1943.
It has been hypothesized that there is a critical period for first-language acquisition that extends into late childhood and possibly until puberty. The hypothesis is difficult to test directly because cases of linguistic deprivation during childhood are fortunately rare. We present here the case of E.M., a young man who has been profoundly deaf since birth and grew up in a rural area where he received no formal education and had no contact with the deaf community. At the age of 15, E.M. was fitted with hearing aids that corrected his hearing loss to 35 dB, and he began to learn verbal Spanish. We describe his language development over the 4-year period since his acquisition of hearing aids and conclude that the demonstrates severe deficits in verbal comprehension and production that support the critical period hypothesis.
有一种假说认为，第一语言习得存在一个关键期，该关键期会延续到童年晚期，甚至可能一直持续到青春期。这一假说很难直接进行验证，因为童年时期语言剥夺的案例幸好很少见。我们在此呈现E.M.的案例，他是一名自出生起就严重失聪的年轻人，在农村地区长大，那里他没有接受过正规教育，也没有与聋人社区有过接触。15岁时，E.M.佩戴了助听器，听力损失被矫正到35分贝，他开始学习西班牙语口语。我们描述了他佩戴助听器后4年期间的语言发展情况，并得出结论，他在言语理解和表达方面表现出严重缺陷，这支持了关键期假说。
