Juan and Anita speak Spanish at home to their infant daughter, Maria. When Maria begins school in the United States, where English is spoken by the teachers and her classmates, the teacher finds she often rolls her Rs. Maria's language development provides us with an example of:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Maria's continued use of rolled Rs in English suggests that she has developed a perceptual schema for this sound that is experience-dependent, based on her exposure to Spanish at home. This is an example of experience-dependent processing, which refers to how the brain's neural circuits adapt to the specific experiences of an individual. It is not an example of speech impairment or low IQ, and there is no evidence here to suggest that synaptic pruning (the refinement and strengthening of neural connections) is a factor.

Juan and Anita Speak Spanish at Home to Their Infant