User:Orangy123/Language deprivation

The "critical period of learning" hypothesis states that a person must be exposed to language within a certain time period to acquire language effectively. The certain time period ranges from early childhood to end of puberty. Evidence has shown that learning language during critical period will provide native-like abilities in morphology, phonology, and syntax. Late learners that miss the the critical period can still obtain basic syntactic abilities along with good use of vocabulary, but they will not achieve native-like abilities when it comes to grammar.

Besides critical period, another period of learning is called sensitive period. Sensitive period is described as any specific time period where learning is still possible even after critical period of learning. It has several sensitive periods. Evidence has demonstrated that it can affect language development including morphology, phonology, and syntax. However, as long as the language is learned at an earlier age, the language acquisition will not be affected.