you won't believe this

[Tom Roeper]

Dear Kathy---
    I think the goal of having an impact on how knowledge is presented in
the media is an excellent one.  I'll suggest below how I think it might be
done, but some background on the article
might be helpful.
   I was cited very briefly in that article with an incredibly simple-minded
sentence.   The author is someone with a general interest in science and a
very young child.  That is the source of
his interest.   I spoke to him for over an hour----and said that I was
really not familiar with the instrument---but that any effort to assess
children should pay attention to how children show
kowledge of the actual structure of the language---and referred him to the
DELV which Harry Seymour, Jill deVilliers and I developed---and told him how
simple sentences like
"who ate what" can use very simple sentences to approach core features of
grammar.  I also sent him chapters and a copy of my book "The Prism of
Grammar"---hoped he might mention it, since
it is simple enough for parents to use and has been very well received.
   All of this I mention because it shows that the media often comes with a
pre-set idea of what they want to hear you say and what scope they will give
to it.  Therefore the way we might be
successful in reaching the public is in seeking to write articles
ourselves---perhaps with many authors who have legitimacy---in places like
Parents' magazine and places where one can
explain with simplicity how to think about their children and the tests that
they take.  I suspect it will not work by trying to persuade existing
journalists what you want them to say.

    The issue is much broader actually, as any of you familiar with the
legal wrangles over Larry P and evidence-based evaluation, already knows.
We also need to have more straightforward
evaluation of what goes to the public.  Parent magazines approve toys and
other things.  The FDA approves drugs----though often the science is very
ambiguous---but at an ASHA convention
all products seems equal.  It seems to me that outsiders should be able to
offer the public products that may not be subject to independent evaluation,
just like patients seek the right
to have experimental drugs.  But a more systematic method of evaluating
assessment products----and an effort to explain it simply through media
directed at the parents and public
would be a good idea.    We will need to write it ourselves.

That's how it looks to me, best, Tom


 This came after I discussed the matter with the author for over an

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 7:57 AM, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek <khirshpa at temple.edu>
wrote:

> I just read the article in the NYTimes on baby techtronics part of which
> described the Lena system.  Yes, Lena is in the news again.  The adds from
> their web site tell us that it is relevant to any parent concerned about
> "language delays, autism or transitioning an adopted child!"  I am copying
> the description from the Times and thought we might all want to check out
> how our research is interpreted in the marketplace. Does this require a
> response from our community?  What is our professional responsibility when
> this keeps coming up in the news?
> Kathy
>
>    Last on our list was the LENA System ($399) a language measurement tool
> developed by Infoture, in Boulder, Colo. The system is based on research
> demonstrating a correlation between the amount parents talk to their babies
> during their first three years and their professional success later in life.
>
> The LENA System includes a credit card device and several children's
> outfits designed with large pockets in the front. Several days a month, you
> slip the device into the clothing and it records conversation between parent
> and child.
>
> At the end of the day, you plug it into your personal computer. Special
> software (available for Windows, but not Macs) analyzes the speech —
> separating adult words and baby gurgling from other noises — and reports on
> how many words you have spoken to your baby, how often your baby responds,
> and where you match up against the rest of the American population, to
> ensure your infant is getting that all-important verbal edge on other
> infants.
>
> My girls are a bit too young for the LENA, which Infoture recommends for
> infants from 2 months to 4 years. Instead I called Jennifer Jacobs, a mother
> of two from Boise, Idaho, who used the device to ensure her youngest child,
> Katherine, was not getting left behind.
>
> http://www.lenababy.com/
>
>
> >
>


-- 
Tom Roeper
Dept of Lingiustics
UMass South College
Amherst, Mass. 01003 ISA
413 256 0390

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