Language Skills: How Do We Get Them?

Language skills have been the key to our success as a species. Find out how a new study sheds light on how our brain structure combines with our environment in early childhood do enable us to communicate.

Our family cottage was a gathering place for the extended family, especially when it was new. One day my Uncle Elgin went for a walk with my niece Suzanne, who was about three years old at the time. Apparently, they had a wide-ranging conversation.

When my uncle and niece returned to the cottage, he told us how impressed he was with Suzanne’s communication skills. “She can tell me anything she wants to,” he exclaimed. All of my nieces displayed well-developed language skills from an early age.

They still benefit from those language skills in their adult careers. Maybe it runs in the family. Then again, their mother made a point of coaching them to speak correctly and actively discouraged baby talk from the very beginning. Maybe that set them up for success.

Raises the Age-Old Question of Nature Versus Nurture

This raises the age-old question of nature versus nurture. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all pondered…