How Stella learned to talk, the groundbreaking story of the world's first talking dog, Christina Hunger
Type
Classification
1
Content
2
Label
How Stella learned to talk, the groundbreaking story of the world's first talking dog, Christina Hunger
Language
eng
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-260)
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
no index present
Literary form
non fiction
Main title
How Stella learned to talk
Nature of contents
bibliography
Responsibility statement
Christina Hunger
Sub title
the groundbreaking story of the world's first talking dog
Summary
When speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger first came home with her puppy, Stella, it didn't take long for her to start drawing connections between her job and her new pet. During the day, she worked with toddlers with significant delays in language development and used Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices to help them communicate. At night, she wondered: If dogs can understand words we say to them, shouldn't they be able to say words to us? Can dogs use AAC to communicate with humans? Christina decided to put this to the test with Stella and started using a paw-sized button, programmed with her voice to say the word 'outside' when clicked, whenever she took Stella out of the house. Stella now has a bank of more than thirty word buttons, and uses them either individually or together to create near-complete sentences. How Stella Learned to Talk is part memoir and part how-to guide. It chronicles the journey Christina and Stella have taken together from the day they met to the day Stella 'spoke' her first word, and the other breakthroughs they've had since. It also reveals the techniques Christina used to teach Stella, broken down into simple stages and action
Table of contents
Presume competence -- Ozzie and Truman -- The chocolate-colored puppy -- Communication is everywhere -- Three feet from gold -- Now we're talkin' -- Independence -- Project disconnect -- Bye, Omaha -- The road to California -- Using words in new ways -- Creative combinations -- Help! -- Becoming automatic -- Hunger for words -- Language explosion -- Hello, world -- This is the beginning -- Appendix A: helping your dog learn to talk -- Appendix B: resources and recommended reading
Target audience
adult
Incoming Resources
- Has instance1