-
Period: to
Prenatal Development to Age 2
The prefrontal cortex begins to function effectively right after birth. Newborns can distinguish all sounds of the human language, but cannot comprehend the language itself. Newborns prefer listening to speech sounds over nonspeech sounds. Speech sounds can activate the auditory and motor areas in the cerebral cortex (Berk & Meyers, 2016, p. 187). -
Period: to
Age 2 to 5 (Pre-school)
The prefrontal cortex goes through rapid myelination and formation. During these years, children would have obtained a statistical learning capacity. This would mean that children would have analyzed the speech stream for distinct patterns and have acquired multiple speech structures so that they can use them for learning their meanings. -
Period: to
Age 6 to 12
The prefrontal cortex goes through an acceleration of growth in adolescence. Their vocabulary of speech would have expanded during these years of childhood. They can now form complete sentences and phrases. They are more fluent in speech and tend to not use isolated words when speaking.