Adoptees offer clues on skills of language - featured February 19, 2010
< Back to Previous Page[Source: Boston Globe, February 15, 2010]
As Andy Ross learned to speak English, he progressed from simple word combinations like “Andy shoe’’ to the more complex “my red shoe,’’ just like any toddler.
But Andy was older when he began to learn English, after being adopted from Russia, and his chatter, taped in weekly sessions, has provided scientists important clues about how language develops.
Harvard psychologists are finding that preschool-age children adopted from foreign countries learn English in the same sequence as babies: starting with single words and progressing to word combinations and complex grammar.
That means it is not the maturity of the brain but the nature of language itself that dictates how it is learned, the Harvard scientists say.
Read the rest of this Article on the Boston Globe Website
As Andy Ross learned to speak English, he progressed from simple word combinations like “Andy shoe’’ to the more complex “my red shoe,’’ just like any toddler.
But Andy was older when he began to learn English, after being adopted from Russia, and his chatter, taped in weekly sessions, has provided scientists important clues about how language develops.
Harvard psychologists are finding that preschool-age children adopted from foreign countries learn English in the same sequence as babies: starting with single words and progressing to word combinations and complex grammar.
That means it is not the maturity of the brain but the nature of language itself that dictates how it is learned, the Harvard scientists say.
Read the rest of this Article on the Boston Globe Website
Tags: News of the Week Newsletter February 2010 Language SLP Article
