Wednesday 25 November 2009

Proofreading - what the doctor said

I have been helping a new student out with his paper for this conference in Singapore next month.

I can actually guess a bit when it comes to 'cortical processing of language' because I do some myself from time to time. With pictures, I can also get an idea about positron emission tomography (and the Latin, as I have said, helps).

I have no idea what otorhinolyrngology really means, but I can guess which part of my body might get poked and prodded if I went to see an otorhinolyrngologist!

I found talking with this very clever surgeon about language acquisition, learning, visual and audio cues, hearing, speech, speech therapy, voice timbre, rhythm/cadence, bi-lingualism & left-handedness/ambidextrousity absolutely fascinating - it does have a lot to do with my trade and from a completely opposite angle. We had polar perspectives but arrived at very similar conclusions (his empirical & medical, mine observational & linguistic)...

We finished our first chat together realising we had been talking about the same person for an hour! His data on hearing loss, and his insistence on the importance of early learning for speech development convinced me more than ever before of the crucial groundwork we are laying at Luna in our pre-school.

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