ABSTRACT
Child language researchers have always been fascinated with the study of lan guage in atypical children. From early discussions about the Wild Boy of Aveyron, to contemporary studies of Genie, we have always believed that these unusual individuals can offer significant insights for our theories of how all children come to acquire this remarkable system called language. Perhaps the most intriguing of all cases is Christopher, the linguistic savant whose extraordinary, singular achievements in the domain of language have been so carefully documented by Smith and Tsimpli (1995). Christopher’s superb linguistic skills have provided him the means to learn somewhere between 15 and 20 different languages in both oral and written forms, despite the fact that he is mentally retarded with an IQ score in the mild to moderate range. Christopher, like other individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, provides important clues about the organisational structure and representation of language, as well as the relationship between language and other cognitive abilities. The study of atypical children is import ant for what can be learned about universal and non-universal aspects of lan guage and the acquisition process. In most retarded individuals the period of language acquisition is delayed and protracted, allowing one to view the stages of development in far greater detail and to investigate what may be variable among different children. In this chapter I explore language acquisition in a few different retardation syndromes, to address the kinds of questions that have been raised about the nature of language.
