Norma S. Rees

A talent for language

Abstract The acquisition of language in children may be viewed as the manifestation of a set of talents, each covering a normal attainment of language skills. Included in the set are the talents for auditory processing, imitation, planning and producing finely controlled motor sequences, abstracting a phonological system, abstracting the grammatical rules of the language, symbolization, and discourse. A child having a language disorder may be deficient in one or more of these talents. Examples of specific language disorders following this scheme are given.