Is language, as food, a basic human need? Judging __1__

from the drastic experiment of Frederick in the

13th century it may be. Hoping to discover what

language a child would speak if he heard mother __2__

tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.

Today no such drastic deprivation exists as ordered __3__

by Frederick. Furthermore, some children are still __4__

backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that themother is insensitive to the cues and signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to

mop up language rapidly. There are critical times, it seems, when children learn more readily. Ifthese sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for

acquiring skills passes away and they might never be __5__

learned so easily again.

Linguists suggest that speech milestones are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age.But there are cases where speech has started late in a child

who eventually turns up to be of high IQ. Recent __6__

evidence suggests that an infant is born of the __7__

capacity to speak. But speech has to be triggered,

and this depends on interaction between the mother

and the child,where the mother realizes the cues and __8__

signals in the child's babbling, grasping, crying,

smiling, and responds to it. Insensitivity of the __9__

mother to these signals dulls the interation because

the child gets discouraged and sends out only obvious

signals. Sensitivity to the child's verbal cues is __10__

essential to the growth and development of language.