I just spent the weekend with my nieces and nephews, aged 2-6, who I’ve spent a lot of time with since they were each born. How do their brains acquire language? They use definite articles, punctuation, timing, and seem to comprehend some of the exceptions / contradictions in the English language. Scientifically / neurologically, what is going on here?
In: Biology
Human brains have evolved to learn language. The frontal lobe of the brain in humans is large and that’s one of its functions. It’s why people with brain injuries to the frontal lobe often lose the ability to speak or understand language.
Humans are also social animals. Young children are programmed to copy the behaviors of those around them. This includes speech.
Humans also are really good at noticing patterns. All languages are just patterns. Our brains like patterns and notice them in speech and try to copy them. It’s why many young children make predictable speech errors as they are learning to speak. For example, their brains notice that most past tense English verbs end in -ed and they will add it even to irregular verbs (I.e. they say forgotted instead of forgot) .
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