Table of Contents
The Language Bridge --a chain of many body processes...
Referents are the tools we have available to shape the course of language development.
Referents need to be introduced to the child during †windows of opportunity.S
The first window of opportunity is 8 - 13 weeks after fertilization and the referent is the motherŠs diet.
The second window of opportunity is 7.5 months after fertilization to 2 years after birth.
In addition to diet, stimulation is a major factor in brain growth..
Puberty signals the end of another window of opportunity.
The Wild Child of Avyron was 12 years old when they tried to teach him language.
The Wild Child of Avyron was not able to learn language.
The "Wild Child" of Los Angeles was not able to learn language either.
Some pretty wild scholars received intensive early stimulation.
Are we stimulating our infants and toddlers enough?
Concepts are internal representations in the brain of outside referents in the world.
Two important parameters for Concepts are Retention and Retrieval.
When the process of retrieval for concepts fails receptively, we may find that familiar referents are now unrecognizable to us--AGNOSIA
When the process of retrieval for concepts fails expressively, we may find that we can't think of a thing to say--the, "My mind has gone blank," feeling.
Symbols are substitutes for concepts in the thought process.
Two important parameters for Symbols are Retention and Retrieval.
When the process of retrieval for symbols fails, we may find that words are now unrecognizable to us--APHASIA
When the process of symbol retrieval for language fails, we may find that wrote phrases & songs from the right (non language) hemisphere take their place.
The Mixer provides a process involving the storage and retrieval of a myriad of learned motor patterns.
We have been learning and storing motor patterns in the Mixer since birth.
When the process of retrieval for motor patterns fails, we may find that we make the wrong movements--APRAXIA.
A Transducer is a mechanism that provides a process to changes energy patterns (signals) from one form to another.
Two parameters of the Transducer are Structure and Function.
When problems occur in the growth process of the face, the face parts may not fuse causing a structural deficit.
In the Expressive Transducer--The Lips, Hard Palate and Velum (Soft Palate) are structures necessary to create oral pressure for speech.
Consonants are essential to speech intelligibility and require oral pressure to be produced.
Cleft lip and cleft palate can cause additional problems of parental rejection which results in a deprivation of important referents for the child.
Parents need to know that the prognosis for a normal life for the Cleft Lip and/or Palate child is extremely good.
The major impediment to the Expressive TransducerŠs function is Paralysis
In cases of paralysis the function of the Expressive Transducer (speech) may be emulated by computers.
The Receptive Transducer for Aural Communication is the ear. It is the Perceptual processes, however, that enable us to hear.
The Receptive Transducers converts only a small portion of the stimulus, but it is more than the brain can process.
Figure-ground discrimination is one perceptual process.
The Language Bridge is a chain of processes which joins two human brains.
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