Abstract
This paper addresses Landau–Kleffner syndrome (LKS), a childhood aphasia, from the perspective of I-language and the critical period for first language acquisition. LKS involves a language disorder and behavioral disturbances resembling autistic spectrum disorders due to electroencephalographic abnormalities with continuous spike-and-waves during sleep over the temporal regions. Comparing LKS with other childhood syndromes, the architecture of language is explored through elucidating the linguistic mechanisms behind the language disorder in LKS on the basis of Hickok & Poeppel’s (2007) dual-stream model of speech processing. It is claimed that early onset LKS provides further support for the critical period for first language acquisition and modularity of mind (the faculty of language), and that verbal auditory input during the critical period is most crucial for language recovery and development in LKS. Considering that electroencephalographic abnormalities affect cognitive/motor functions, ameliorating neural dysfunction in the affected brain areas with proper application of trans-cranial direct current stimulation is recommended.
Highlights
Landau–Kleffner syndrome (LKS) is a clinically rare language disorder of acquired childhood aphasia involving epilepsy that emerges with epileptiform electroencephalographic (EEG) abnormalities over theWe would like to express our gratitude to two anonymous Biolinguistics reviewers for providing us with very constructive comments as well as criticisms on an earlier version of this paper, along with very useful information on relevant literature related to this topic
In view of the linguistic profile of LKS discussed in section 2.1.2 and Stefanatos’s (1993) insight into LKS as “an apperceptive disturbance in which there is primary impairment of processes subserving the auditory analysis of acoustical features [amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM)] necessary for speech perception” (p. 412), we propose to analyze LKS as affecting the system for spectrotemporal analysis located bilaterally in the dorsal superior temporal gyrus (STG)
We argued that this childhood language disorder provides further empirical foundations to the critical period for first language acquisition and modularity of mind as well as modularity of faculty of language (FL), while elucidating the linguistic mechanisms behind the language disorder in LKS by invoking the framework of Hickok & Poeppel’s (2007) dual-stream model of speech processing
Summary
Landau–Kleffner syndrome (LKS) is a clinically rare language disorder of acquired childhood aphasia involving epilepsy (with or without clinical seizures) that emerges with epileptiform electroencephalographic (EEG) abnormalities over the. If LKS happens to children, there are many cases where it comes after the onset of the critical period (Lenneberg 1967), with initially normal first language acquisition, followed by the syndrome of childhood aphasia, and possibly later disappearance of the symptom within the critical period. This corresponds to the case of ‘ordinary LKS’
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