Woman whom claims there's a baby language. (1 Viewer)

[Not-That-Bright]

I'll get an article up for this soon - But all I have to say is, I don't like her. She reminds me very much of scam artists such as that Irish guy that goes around calling himself a "baby detective".

I predicted at the very beginning of the show that the sort of 'tests' that would be performed would involve basically testimonials from parents, much akin to the testimonials you see late at night for how the "miracle magnet bed" cured Aunt Betsy's arthritus. That was also all that she offered up when she was questioned (for like... 20 seconds of the halfhour/hour long special) about what scientific research she has to back her up - A claim that 90% of parents had noticed improvements.

I have a few basic tests:

- Feed a child to full, if he makes the sound she claims is for "hungry" then obviously that is wrong.

- Put the child in some discomfort, if he does not make the sound she claims is for "discomfort" then obviously that is wrong.

etc.

I know such tests are problematic in many ways (including ethical) but they're a much better way to justify such bullshit claims than to go about sprouting testimonials. I do have an open mind to such things, I do believe that baby's communicate etc - I am open to serious testing of whether this language is accurate... but to be blunt guys, I smell a rat.

 

[littlewing69]

Yeah I call bullshit.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

though she does have alot of ppl that support her, yeah i have to agree that she does remind me of those scam artist

Alot of people support scam artists

 

[Nesty]

stupid people fall for stupid things

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Not true. Very intelligent people can be tricked, the most intelligent in society can be tricked.... Trickery is an art you have to be trained to understand, much like alot of things.

For example: Many intelligent people will be tricked watching a magicians show, merely because they don't have knowledge of how such tricks can be accomplished.

 

[runtlocks]

Herb Powell made a machine for this years ago, back when the Simpsons was still good.

 

[housemouse]

So......what your saying is that everything this woman is doing is all apparent and that she wasted 8 years of her life?

 

[maidenchyna]

Did anyone else find the actual show itself really hard to watch? Random people calling out to her, whatshisfatface feeding answered-questions to the baby whisperer, and REALLY ANNOYING BABIES WHO WOULDN'T SHUT UP IN THE BACKGROUND!!

woosaaahh...

 

[sam04u]

Hmm.. this is pointless. I would rather spend time figuring out how a babies mind works and collates information. eg(In the future it may be possible to give a babies brain a mental workout by showing it various patterns/colours/sounds and smells. These will enable the baby to develop the cognitive skills to be able to do the most advanced mathematics at a younger age because of the cognitive development. True Story.)

 

[littlewing69]

Hmm.. this is pointless. I would rather spend time figuring out how a babies mind works and collates information. eg(In the future it may be possible to give a babies brain a mental workout by showing it various patterns/colours/sounds and smells. These will enable the baby to develop the cognitive skills to be able to do the most advanced mathematics at a younger age because of the cognitive development. True Story.)

Can't we let them just run around in blissful ignorance for a few years?

 

[sam04u]

Oh, and ofcourse we have a language programmed into us from birth just as all other animals do. Just like a cat is born knowing how to meow, we have evolved with this language. But, it's less efficient then the language we have now which can be shared and used to combine and communicate ideas. (Ofcourse it's possible that the full potential of the brain could only be used through those natural signals. I mean, by nature the human brain is the most complex thing on the earth.)

 

[sam04u]

Can't we let them just run around in blissful ignorance for a few years?

You've heard of information overload right? This is just going to get worse in the future. If we prepare babies by such meaningless exercises which they wont remember they will be able to find life and school and such twice as easy. Making life more easier instead of more difficult. It wouldn't be expected that they had to be smarter than the kids of today. Instead they would have more cognitive development giving them the potential to be smarter with less effort.

 

[littlewing69]

You've heard of information overload right? This is just going to get worse in the future. If we prepare babies by such meaningless exercises which they wont remember they will be able to find life and school and such twice as easy. Making life more easier instead of more difficult. It wouldn't be expected that they had to be smarter than the kids of today. Instead they would have more cognitive development giving them the potential to be smarter with less effort.

More corporate drones. Splendid!

 

[iambored]

Not true. Very intelligent people can be tricked, the most intelligent in society can be tricked.... Trickery is an art you have to be trained to understand, much like alot of things.

For example: Many intelligent people will be tricked watching a magicians show, merely because they don't have knowledge of how such tricks can be accomplished.

not-that-bright, just may be bright
basically i hate all this crap, i hate scam artists, i hate things that aren't standardised and then used as evidence. i didn't see the show but if there were people calling out to her i would have been put right off

Oh, and ofcourse we have a language programmed into us from birth just as all other animals do. Just like a cat is born knowing how to meow, we have evolved with this language. But, it's less efficient then the language we have now which can be shared and used to combine and communicate ideas.

are you one of those chomsky-innate people? what do you think of freud btw? i'm just interested.

 

[gerhard]

im a language acquisition device-ist
and i fucking hate freud.

 

[iambored]

im a language acquisition device-ist
and i fucking hate freud.

edit: i interpreted that wrong. interesting. i think of the 2 theorists as similar because i think of them both as quite extreme. but i probably don't know enough to know how their theories properly work.

i'm a language (external) acquisition person however with a little innateness. i generally take half-half of everything. besides connectionist theories, they're generally utter crap, some are ok, some imo are too complicated for things that are so simple.

 

[KFunk]

are you one of those chomsky-innate people? what do you think of freud btw? i'm just interested.

I've been interested in reading up on chomsky's innate language idea but I haven't found the time to get that deep into the literature (do you know a good text which lays the idea out clearly?). Nonetheless, it seems relatively plausible to suggest that, at birth, we all have brains whose language 'centres' are structured similarly, with similar mechanisms of interaction. This then lends itself to the notion that we could all acquire language in a similar way, with the underlying structure/network of the brain lending itself to certain linguistic outcomes. In particular I appreciate chomsky's suggestion that the sensory input we get as children doesn't seem to be an adequate source, in itself, of the rules and structure of language. That we might have an underlying structure on which to pin this input (he makes the analogy of DNA and compounds in our body... DNA = underlying structure, and proteins/carbs/fats/nucleic acids etc = seemingly inadequate input) is an interesting notion. What is some of the evidence in favour of external aquisition?

 

[katie_tully]

I got given a book the other day by some self proclaimed baby whisperer chick.

Here is a list of people I don't take advice from;
Childrenless women
Big W check out chicks that weigh 500lbs and insist on telling me how big my baby is going to be. Hello, you're a 40 year old check out chick, not a sonographer - fuck off.
Random strangers
Cats