degree of maturation.

Mature language function

involves the comprehension, formulation, and transmission
of ideas and feelings by the use of conventionalized
verbal symbols, sounds, and gestures and their sequential
ordering according to accepted rules of grammar.
Facility in symbolic language, which is acquired over a
period of 15 to 20 years, depends on maturation of the
nervous system and on education. Many attempts have
been made to crystallize the essential difference between
human language and that of the higher primates that are
able to communicate. Such distinctions, of course, bear
on the definitions of language-dependent function, such
as thinking, analysis, synthesis, and creativity. Beyond
simply the complexity and range of symbolic representation
and grammar available to humans in comparison to
animals, Chomsky has proposed that the ability to frame
recursive ideas (ones that refer to themselves by embedded
phrases, such as: "John's sister 's house" ) underlies
creativity in human language and an infinite variety of
sentences. This has been challenged but is an interesting
concept.
Although speech and language are closely interwoven
functions, they are not synonymous. Language refers
to the production and comprehension of words whereas
speech refers to the articulatory and phonetic aspects of
verbal expression. A derangement of language function