What are the areas of professional practice that capture my interest (this might be a disorder, anything relating to treatment or diagnosis, etc.)? With respect to this general topic, what would an essential question for me be? What do I already know about this topic? What don't I know about this topic?

I have two main areas of interest right now. I am interested in audiology, I think the whole transfer of energies is really interesting. I am also interested in how children develop language and why there is so much of a difference in opinion and age levels of language learning. I don't know if I know enough about either of these to be able to formulate an essental question, but I will try. My father-in-law is really smart, but his family said he didn't start talking until he was 5 years old. They say that one day he just began to talk in sentences. He still doesn't talk a lot, not near as much as my mother-in-law, but he doesn't seem to have any long-term effects from later language development. I don't know if he didn't talk because he didn't want to or if it was just because he didn't need to. My question is: Why do some children learn language later than others? and what does this mean for their development and their future? My youngest child didn't really start talking until after he turned 2. There were many different excuses for this, but he seems to be fine now. He has been evaluated at Marshall and they said he was above average for his age. I don't understand how a child who starts out a little behind can catch up or how a child who doesn't talk at all doesn't seem to have any problems later in life. I don't know a lot about this topic at all. I would like to learn more, but it isn't going to happen this semester unless it is part of a project for this class.