"K" wrote in message
...
JennyC writes


I have a theory that children's mouths and facial muscles are trained into
certain positions while they learn the speak in whatever tongue they grow
up
with. That's why it's so hard to learn to speak another language properly
when you are older.

I read somewhere that very young children apparently are able to hear a
whole range of sounds, but they become accustomed to those they hear every
day, and stop being able to hear the ones they don't usually hear (in the
sense that the brain no longer recognises them). So learning a foreign
language later is difficult because the brain has lost the capacity to
hear the sounds that aren't also part of the native language.

Agghh So what on earth is my French going to sound like !
Jenny


One of my sons had a period of deafness while small. Although this was
corrected, and his results on tests showed him to be able to hear the
whole range of frequencies, the deafness seems to have coincided with the
critical period, and his speech and hearing was consistent with him not
being able to hear a whole range of sounds (basically all the consonants),
even though there was now nothing physically wrong with his hearing.


--
Kay