In the late 1970s, a new language was born. And Ann Senghas, Associate Professor of Psychology at Barnard, has spent the last 30 years helping to decode it. In 1978, 50 deaf children entered a newly formed school--a school in which the teachers (who didn't sign) taught in Spanish. No one knows exactly how it happened, but in the next few years--on school buses and in the playground--these kids invented a set of common words and grammar that opened up a whole new way of communicating, and even thinking.
Another vote for Portland Oregon. Love your show. Very thought provoking on any matter you happen to touch on.
In Milgrim's experiment, I wonder if there was an assumption (by the Teacher) that the Learner was a voluntary participant. ...
I think Tom Campbell explains it best in his book My Big Toe - reality is not objective and deterministic ...
Portland, OR adores you!! I have yet to mention your show to someone here and get any response besides, "I ...
Comments [8]
This blog shows the evolution of language. It captures the essence of memoir because it describes character, and connection. I could say that this is written in associative structure. It is a very inspirational piece.
hello im writing a research paper in sociology and i need to MLA cite this podcast. any idea of when Words was published, and under what company? Thanks
Hey Rachel, we do have a transcript of this episode. Head to the episode page (here: http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/), and click on the transcript button in the audio player.
I wish this edition was available with a transcript. I work at a Deaf residential school and would love to know my colleagues' perspective on this episode.
Wow, that back and forth between Ann Senghas talking and your commentary is very annoying.
I can just imagine all the deaf people coming here to see what is happening .
Are there transcripts for them ?
The question I had was if these kids & adults never learned to read? Considering their circumstances, I was guessing that they couldn't, otherwise I might assume that they could become familiar with concepts about the minds of others through the written word if not person-to-person communication. It's just something that was never mentioned in the piece.
The inability of the older generation of deaf kids to say where truck was is interestingly the same sort of answering process observed in autistic children. They also have a basic inabilty to form an idea of the mental state of others. This is a very basic human element, and one found in Great Apes, and chimpanzees too. Obviously humans have this capacity, but in both the deaf-and-untrained-in-language and autistic kids, it has been precluded in some way. This structural difference in autistic kids and the developmental difference in languageless deaf kids could hopfully be explored further and used to treat autism one day.
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