Dyslexia: The great orchestral work that is speech

The brain collects first grammatical information about a word before it compiles information about its sound. 

Credit: Susanne Schauer 

What goes on inside our heads is similar to an orchestra.

For Peter Hagoort, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, this image is a very apt one for explaining how speech arises in the human brain.

"There are different orchestra members and different instruments, all playing in time with each other, and sounding perfect together."

When we speak, we transform our thoughts into a linear sequence of sounds. When we understand language, exactly the opposite occurs: we deduce an interpretation from the speech sounds we hear.

Closely connected regions of the brain – like the Broca's area and Wernicke's area – are involved in both processes, and these form the neurobiological basis of our capacity for language.

The 58-year-old scientist, who has had a strong interest in language and literature since his youth, has been searching for the neuro-biological foundations of our communication since the 1990s.

Using imaging processes, he observes the brain "in action" and tries to find out how this complex organ controls the way we speak and understand speech.

Making language visible Hagoort is one of the first researchers to combine psychological theories with neuroscientific methods in his efforts to understand this complex interaction.

Donders Centre

Because this is not possible without the very latest technology, in 1999, Hagoort established the Nijmegen-based Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging where an interdisciplinary team of researchers uses state-of-the-art technology; MRI and PET scanners, to find out how the brain succeeds in combining functions like memory, speech, observation, attention, feelings and consciousness.

Peter Hagoort

The Dutch scientist is particularly fascinated by the temporal sequence of speech.

He discovered, for example, that the brain begins by collecting grammatical information about a word before it compiles information about its sound.

This first reliable real-time measurement of speech production in the brain provided researchers with a basis for observing speakers in the act of speaking.

They were then able to obtain new insights about why the complex orchestral work of language is impaired; after strokes and in the case of cognitive disorders like dyslexia and autism.

"Language is an essential component of human culture, which distinguishes us from other species," says Hagoort.

"Young children understand language before they even start to speak. They master complex grammatical structures before they can add 3 and 13. Our brain is tuned for language at a very early stage," stresses Hagoort, referring to research findings.

The exact composition of the orchestra in our heads and the nature of the score on which the process of speech is based are topics which Hagoort continues to research.

Modafinil and Sleep: A Sociologocal Speculation

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution is a major proponent of the Great Stagnation thesis: that new innovations are not having the same impact on productivity as those we saw in the previous 150 years.

Think of iPads versus electricity and cloud computing versus the railroad.

Hence, we can expect to see slowing growth in GDP per capita as future productivity gains will take much more effort to unlock.

This week The Economist took up this line of thought with a thorough briefing on the subject that broadly agreed with Cowen, although with some equivocation.

Overall, I think the argument has a lot of merit but there may be at least one more piece of low hanging fruit: a vast reduction in our need for sleep.

The American Time Use survey reports that an average American work day includes 8.8 hours of work and 7.6 hours of sleep.

Sleep is the second largest single use of time. However, new drugs such as Modafinil appear to vastly reduce the need for sleep without significant side effects (at least so far).

Based on reports from users, it seems that people could realistically [edit: potentially (see update)] cut their sleep requirements to as few as 2.5 hours a night without a decrease in mental acuity. That gives us another 5 hours to distribute over the day.

Workers would probably prefer to allocate the bulk of that extra time to leisure but I doubt employers will let that happen.

Let's make a generous breakdown and give work an extra 3 hours and let workers spend another 2 as they wish. This increases working hours by around 34% and potentially increases leisure time by 80%.

This increases the number of hours a worker spends at work from around 1800 hours a year now to about 2,400.

The argument against the use of drugs such as Modafinil, is that a rapid introduction of these pills would amount to an increase in the labour supply and cause a fall in hourly wages or unemployment.

However, it's likely that individuals would generally still see an increase in their overall income and their additional leisure time (2 hours extra) would allow this to be translated into an increase in demand in the economy through increased consumption.

 Overall the transition to a sleepless world seems beneficial to humanity. There's nothing special about the 7 hours of sleep we get right now and I think people would rightly be opposed to a change that made everyone spend an extra hour asleep every day.

Caveats:

• I've never used Modafinil. This is because I don't know where to buy it, I have some moral qualms about using it when the rest of the world is not and because it is still a bit early to conclude that there are no long term health effects; 
• Some people I've talked to have raised the issue of environmental damage. I think the total environmental impact of a sleepless world could be positive or negative but surely the damage would be lower per unit of output (because there are a lot of fixed carbon outputs per work day such as commuting and building overheads). At the very least, a sleepless world looks like a more environmentally friendly growth strategy; 
• This argument is premised on the safety of these drugs. Clearly the calculus will change if they are shown to have negative long term consequences; 
• For those people who already work long hours with little sleep, these drugs should at least make that lifestyle less dangerous. There is convincing evidence that chronic lack of sleep is harmful in normal circumstances; 
• The precise amount of sleep that a Modafinil user can get by with seems to vary but all sources I've seen suggest it is dramatically lower; 
• The short term costs of a rapid change might be substantial so gradual adoption is probably preferable from the standpoint of welfare.

Real the full article here

Dyslexia: Letter Reversals - Bulldog demo video - YouTube

Let me introduce you to the Bulldog Letter Reversals, a downloadable games, worksheets and kinaesthetic activities pack for children aged 5-12 years.

The company claims that Bulldog, the adorable dog featured throughout this multi-sensory learning pack, helps children to learn and remember the difference between ‘b’ and ‘d’.

They also claim that introducing your child to Bulldog, will give him / her a strategy to remember the difference between ‘b’ and ‘d’ and in most cases it will resolve the problem entirely and you will have a happy smiling child again.

The company expects the Bulldog theme keep children engaged and motivated, helping them have lots of fun whilst they learn.

Check out the video below and decide for yourself!



Testimonial
“My students loved the games and materials! They would ask me ‘Can we play Bulldog again?’ Not only were the games fun for them, but they are confusing b/d far less now, and with more of the games (and flashcards) confusion will soon be a non-issue. The worksheets have also been popular with the children (and parents, for homework). Greatly recommended!”Debbie Took Primary School Teacher, Henley-on-Thames.

Check out the website  www.bulldogletterreversals.com

The Secret Powers of Time - Animated video

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world. View the full video of Professor Philip Zimbardo’s talk at the RSA.

Dyspraxia: Work with Your Child's Teacher to Identify and Address Math Disabilities

Mathematics disabilities are identified through a variety of procedures. Usually the classroom teacher or parent observes that the child is having persistent difficulty learning mathematics and tends to perform poorly on classroom math assessments compared to the rest of the class. For example, the child may have trouble remembering what the teacher has taught or she may have difficulty using effective strategies to solve math problems.

By observing and working directly with a child over time, the teacher can determine if her difficulty learning mathematics is persistent. Unfortunately, mathematics disabilities are usually not identified until the upper elementary school years because early problems often go undetected and assessment results may not be sensitive enough to detect a problem until the later grades.

Information about the child's performance can be gathered in several ways. Weekly tests, homework, and class work samples are examples of information the teacher can collect about the child's progress learning the mathematics curriculum. The teacher may adapt how instruction is provided to accommodate a child's learning needs and then note how the child responds to those adaptations.

The teacher may also seek assistance from a specialist or school support team who can offer additional ideas about how to adapt instruction for the child who is struggling to learn the curriculum. The teacher may also consult with the child's parents to understand how the child is doing on math homework. All of this information helps the teacher and school support team develop a profile of the child's learning difficulties and her response to instruction and adaptations.