Brain Lateralization & Critical Period Hypothesis

Created and Presented By

Dwi Ilmiani

Introduction

The brain controls motor and sensory activities as well as thought process. It is divided into two parts called cerebral hemisphere: the right and the left.

Such separation of function is called lateralization.

The brain undergoes a gradual process of lateralization during which the left brain hemisphere and the right hemisphere develops their specialized function. (Lenneberg:1967, 158).

Brain lateralization

The left hemisphere

-Language-Logical- Aanalytical operations- Aabstractions- Structure- Disciplines and rules- Time sequence- Categorizing- Logic and rationally,- Deductive reasoning - Higher mathematic.

The right hemisphere

-Intuition- Feeling and sensitivity- Emotions- Daydreaming and visualizing- Creativity including art and music- Color- Spatial awareness- Non-linguistic sounds such as noises and animal sounds.

NORMAL BRAIN

Adult who have suffered brain damage in their left hemisphere fail to recover their language if they don’t recover in five month.

Split brain is a brain whose two hemisphere function independently so it can no longer flowed from hemisphere to hemisphere

SPLIT BRAIN

The critical age hypothesis

The term critical age hypothesis refers to “a biologically determine period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire (Brown, 2000:53).

Within this period, children learn language easily, swiftly, and without external intervention or teaching.

The critical age hypothesis

Socio-psychological conditions which make children easily acquire language

• Children have a compelling need to communicate• The language they are acquiring is their main means of

communications• Children are exposed to speech for much of the time. • Children easily identify with their speech model• Children have imitative impulse• Children are not inhibited in trying out incorrect utterances• Family member tolerate, even delight in children’s cite error• Adults gear their speech to children’s levels• Speech is used in a concrete way• Children’s main activities in life are acquiring language and gaining

knowledge about the word.

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