This was an article on the website of the BBC that caught my eye, as I had a class discussion on Friday on the difference between sensitive periods and critical windows in development. The article (not the scientific one, but the one from the Beeb), made it very clear:

Environmental influences have their biggest impact before the age of four, as the brain’s wiring develops to process new words, say UK and US scientists.

The research in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests disorders causing language delay should be tackled early.

It also explains why young children are good at learning two languages.

And they take it even a bit further:

“This is important since language is commonly altered or delayed in many developmental disorders, such as autism.”

Enter Doroty Bisshop, a renowned researcher, and lucky for us also an avid blogger, who wrote an important correction to this article (based on the press release). I urge you to read the whole blogpost, but the message is clear.

“But the study described on the BBC Website did NOT identify a ‘critical window’. It was not about autism and not about intervention.”