Language Development in Children

The Children Development Institute in Orange, CA has developed a chart listing the "typical" language for a child develops from six months to eight years old. The site can be found at http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml

Broca's Area, Speech, and Wires in the Brain

Wires in the Human Brain Reveal Speech Surprise. That was the title of this article from Wired magazine. The article begins this way:

A rare set of high-resolution readouts taken directly from the wired-in brains of epileptics has provided an unprecedented look at how the brain processes language.

Though only a glimpse, it was enough to show that part of the brain’s language center handles multiple tasks, rather than one.

“If the same part of the brain does different things at different times, that’s a thunderously complex level of organization,” said Ned Sahin, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego.

The reality now is that as teachers of psychology, we oversimplify many ideas when it comes to brain parts and their respective functions. This article contains more insights into the complexity and a reminder to us that we need to keep asking questions and allowing for the scientific idea of "I don't know" and "this is what we know so far, but more is always being investigated and learned." Of course, that is one reason I love psychology--things are always changing--I kinda like that uncertainty.