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Published online 16 May 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050516-1
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Language learning declines after second year of life
Deaf children should get cochlear implants sooner, study suggests.
Our ability to learn language is already on the wane by our third year of life, according to a study of profoundly deaf children given cochlear implants to restore some of their hearing.
The research supports the widely held belief that there is a 'sensitive period' for language learning, during which the capacity to acquire vocabulary and grammar is heightened.
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