The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
Organisms are genetically programmed to acquire certain abilities at a certain time after which it becomes either difficult or impossible to acquire them. For humans, it is more difficult or impossible to acquire language after the ‘critical period’.
Evidence:
Victor
▫ found in the woods when he was 12 years
▫ never acquired the language: only producing two words ‘lait’ (milk) and ‘O Dieu’ (Oh, God)
Genie
▫ was found 13 years old when she was found isolated, neglected, and abused.
▫ She failed to acquire the language using grammatical forms inconsistently.
Mike paint
Applesauce buy store
Genie have Momma have baby grow up.
Is the CPH supported by experiments?