Language is the scaffold of the mind

The lack of language affects even functions that do not seem to be intrinsically “linguistic,” such as math. Developmental research shows that keeping track of exact numbers above 4 requires knowing the words for these numbers. Imagine trying to tell the difference between 7 apples and 8 apples. The task becomes almost impossible if you can’t count them—and you can’t count them if you never learn that “7” is followed by “8.” As a result of this language-number interdependency, many deaf children in industrialized societies fall behind in math, precisely because they did not learn to count early on

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