Abstract
The Internet provides us with many learning opportunities. In this Resource Review, I describe several informative videos for speech-language pathologists.
Personalized Synthetic Voices
TED Talks Rupal Patel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d38LKbYfWrs
https://www.ted.com/talks/rupal_patel_synthetic_voices_as_unique_as_fingerprints?language=en
Our voices are a part of ourselves. Although augmentative devices enable people to express themselves, these synthetic voices are usually a poor reflection of natural human voices. Many people may use the same generic voices. In a Ted Talk, Dr. Rupal Patel, director of the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory and professor of speech-language pathology and audiology at Northeastern University, describes VocaliD, which she uses to create personalized voices for people who have severely impaired speech. VocaliD blends the speech of two individuals—a donor and the recipient. First, a recording is made of whatever vocal sounds the recipient is able to make. Sometimes, this only amounts to a single vowel sound, but it is often enough to discern the pitch, volume, and personal identity of his or her voice. The next step is accomplished with the help of a volunteer voice donor. For the best results, the donor is a close match to the recipient in terms of size, age, region of origin, and other characteristics. The donor records several hundred to several thousand sentences, with the idea being to capture all sounds and sound combinations that occur in the language. By assembling a large collection of voice samples, Dr. Patel expects to be able to capture the range of voices needed for creating a close match for virtually any recipient, young or elderly, large or small.
Thirty Million Words Initiative
Dana Suskind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP_wu7GuP60
In this webcast, Dr. Dana Suskind, an otolaryngologist, describes her Thirty Million Words Initiative. A study by researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1995 found that some children heard 30 million fewer words by their fourth birthdays than others. The children who heard more words were better prepared when they entered school. These same children, when followed into third grade, had bigger vocabularies, were stronger readers, and got higher test scores. This disparity in learning is referred to as the achievement gap. Dr. Suskind learned of this 30 million word gap in the course of her work as a cochlear implant surgeon at University of Chicago Medical School. She had thought that providing children with implants would solve their language learning difficulties. As she followed children, she discovered that children who were exposed to less language interactions increasingly fell behind. The Thirty Million Word Initiative has developed programs for parents to show the kind of parent-child communication that enables optimal neural development and has tested the programs in and around Chicago across demographic groups. The Thirty Million Initiative teaches parents to follow three Ts: Tune in to what your child is doing; Talk more to your child using lots of descriptive words; and Take turns with your child as you engage in conversation. Parents are shown how to make the words they use more enriching. For example, instead of telling a child, “Put your shoes on,” one might say instead, “It is time to go out. What do we have to do?”
Why Is Autism More Common in Males?
Simon Baron-Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPAh2qK_Gys
It is well known that autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed more frequently in males than females. In this talk, the British researcher, Baron-Cohen, describes gender differences from a few hours after birth and explains how many attributes of autism represent extremes of male behavior. He cites a study where babies (each only a few days old) were shown both a picture of a human face and a mechanical mobile—male babies looked at the mobile more often than the face, and vice versa for the girls. Baron-Cohen wondered what males might produce more of that could produce this connection. The answer is testosterone. He says that males produce twice as much testosterone in the womb, and prenatal testosterone influences brain development. He and his colleagues tested fetal testosterone and found higher levels predicted autistic traits in the child.
These next set of videos address issues related to cultural/linguistic diversity.
Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf
Ted Talks Grace Lin: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Windows-and-Mirrors-of-Your
Grace Lin is an Asian American, the author of When the Mountain Meets the Moon, a 2010 Newbury Honor book. In her Ted Talk, Lin describes what it was like for her growing up without seeing persons of her ethnicity in the books she was reading, and how she began to write books with Asian characters. She explains that books can serve as both mirrors and windows. Children from nonmainstream backgrounds need to see themselves mirrored in the books they read; and mainstream children need to be able to use books as windows into other worlds. She believes books can erase bias and make all cultures universal.
The Danger of a Single Story
Ted Talks Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Adichie is a noted author of Nigerian heritage. Like Lin, she describes the experience of growing up never seeing anyone like herself in the books she read. She explains that she was an early writer and when she began to write, she wrote exactly the kinds of stories she was reading. All her characters were white and blue eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out. Yet, in Nigeria, she had never seen snow, she ate mangoes, and she never talked about the weather, because there was no need to.
The Art of Choosing (the way the United States values choosing)
Ted Talks: Shenna Iyengar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDq9-QxvsNU
Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices—and how we feel about the choices we make. In this Ted Talk, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke vs. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her research, which has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions. Mainstream Americans value the ability to make their own choices; they like to be given multiple choices, and they expect to be permitted to make their own choices. Not all cultures view choice-making in this way. Professionals in mainstream educational and medical systems give people multiple choices, yet persons from some cultures expect the professionals to make decisions and do not expect or want choices. This thought-provoking video should make viewers consider how they provide services to families from diverse backgrounds.
Cultural Neuroscience and the Collective Good
Joan Chiao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVQZxs1Rng
Joan Chiao specializes in cultural neuroscience, the study of how cultural values, practices, and beliefs shape and are shaped by the mind, brain, and genes across multiple time scales. Anthropologists have described the differences between collective/interdependent cultures and individualist/independent cultures. Traits of collective cultures include the following:
Each person is encouraged to be an active player in society, to do what is best for society as a whole rather than themselves.
The rights of families, communities, and the collective supersede those of the individual.
Working with others and cooperating is the norm; everyone supports each other.
Traits of individualistic cultures include the following:
Individual rights are seen as being the most important. Rules attempt to ensure self-importance and individualism.
Independence is valued; there is much less of a drive to help other citizens or communities than in collectivism.
Relying or being dependent on others is frequently seen as shameful.
People are encouraged to do things on their own; to rely on themselves.
Mainstream North American, Australian, New Zealand, and Northern European cultures tend to be individualistic/independent; Latin, African, and Asian cultures tend to be collective/interdependent. Chiao explains the gene-culture interaction—culture and genes have co-evolved. This co-evolution has implications for how we develop services and provide interventions to diverse populations. Understanding the nature of gene-culture interactions helps us understand how the human brain is shaped by man-made sociocultural contexts, helps us understand cultural differences in human behaviors, and may help us develop constructive ways to deal with misunderstandings and conflicts between different cultural groups.