Give a dog a voice and she will use it

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, language, dogs, speech therapy

Meet Stella, subject of the book by Christina Hunger, How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog.

Ms Hunger, a speech therapist who works with pre-verbal toddlers and autistic children, got Stella as a puppy several years ago. She noticed that Stella's gestures and sounds were similar to the things a young child or other non-verbal person will do to communicate.

She frequently uses AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication) devices with her clients to enable them to begin speaking when it seems that the usual abilities aren't (yet) working. She bought four recordable "speak-back" buttons and placed them where Stella would go to request to go outside, or play, or eat. It took the dog a few weeks to first try pushing one of the buttons. During those weeks, whenever Christina would take her outside, for example, Christina would say, "Outside" and push the button that also said aloud, "Outside". Similarly for the others. Once Stella figured out what the buttons were for, she began using them.

Over time, Christina and her husband added more buttons, until they decided to attach them to a single board in one place, so Stella could use them in combination if needed (such as "outside" "play") without walking from place to place. It took Stella some time to get used to the new arrangement, but then she took off. The board shown here has 25 word buttons and one with the phrase "love you". That was a year or two ago. I think the number of words Stella can now use has grown beyond 40.

Throughout the book the author makes it clear how much repetition and patience are needed. She also discusses speech therapy issues that are common to Stella and the toddlers she works with, such as the frustration a child (or dog) experiences when she wants to communicate something more clearly. Sometimes Stella has used word combinations to express a thought not on the board, such as "water bad" when the bowl was empty; "empty" hadn't been supplied (this is my illustration, I couldn't find the place in the book where this first occurred, and the book has no index). Little children do the same thing, particularly those with an AAC that they are outgrowing. We learn that children pick up words faster than we expect, so she is always ready to add many words to a child's AAC. AAC devices for children can often use thousands of words. Time will tell how many Stella learns!

Christina's blog is here, and there are dozens of videos on YouTube about Stella's accomplishments.