关键期假说

The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by neurologist Wilder Penfield and Lamar Roberts in 1959 and popularized by linguist Eric H. Lenneberg in 1967. Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967) were the first to propose a critical period for first language acquisition. This hypothesis was based on evidence from (1) feral children野孩and victims of child abuse who were reared without exposure to human language and thus were unable to fully acquire the ability to produce it; (2) deaf children who were unable to develop spoken language after puberty; (3) e vidence that children with aphasia失语have a better chance at recovery than aphasiac adults.