•.. صَالة المُنتدى ..

• Is there a difference in the way the right side and left side of the brain contribute to language? At what age does that difference become established?

✓ Early evidence suggested that damage to the left side of the brain impaired language in a way that damage to the right did not.

✓ Where the damage occurred before the age of about five, the sufferer would sometimes fully recover their powers of speech.

✓Hence a theory (Lenneberg 1967) that, in infancy, the relationship between the two parts of the brain is flexible enough for language to relocate itself on the right when necessary.

This led to much discussion as to whether the period of flexibility
constitutes a Critical Period for learning a first language, after which a child is not be able to achieve full competence.