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Human development: The Male Brain, A Child's Guide to Language, Alison Gopnik, Gever Tulley, Dr Stuart Brown, Dan Dennett, Pawan Sinha

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Please provide some ideas for each question so that I can write a complete response:

1. The Male Brain
Dr. Louann Brizendine discusses her latest book, The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think. An article about Dr. Brizendine and her research in her first book The Female Brain in a July 2006 issue of Newsweek started a media frenzy that has not abated.
After watching the video write up three interesting points you learned from watching the video. Provide two quotes from the video that illustrate these points and provide a question that you think would stimulate a discussion of issues raised along with your ideas for a possible answer.
Link: http://fora.tv/2010/03/31/Dr_Louann_Brizendine_The_Male_Brain.

2. A Child?s Guide to Language: Teaching a Second Language
Whether it?s English, Spanish, Chinese, or Urdu, babies and young children are able to pick up their native language with remarkable ease; no one language seems any more difficult than any other. Yet few children who are taught a language in school have anything to show for it when they grow up. Why is learning a second or third language so difficult? Are the teaching methods at fault? Enough is now known about the process of language acquisition to suggest that language teaching can be more effective. This BBC Horizon program looks at some of the different language acquisition methods in use in schools around the world.
Link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=465740548682968285#.

3. Alison Gopnik
"Babies and young children are like the R&D division of the human species," says psychologist Alison Gopnik. Her research explores the sophisticated intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think.htm.

4. Gever Tulley
Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a rollercoaster!
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html.

5. Dr. Stuart Brown
A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html

6. Dan Dennett
Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are funny).
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/dan_dennett_cute_sexy_sweet_funny.html.

7. Pawan Sinha
Pawan Sinha details his groundbreaking research into how the brain's visual system develops. Sinha and his team provide free vision-restoring treatment to children born blind, and then study how their brains learn to interpret visual data. The work offers insights into neuroscience, engineering and even autism.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/pawan_sinha_on_how_brains_learn_to_see.html.

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Solution Summary

The expert examines the human development of the male brain and a child's guide to language.

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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for your trust. As you know, I am limited by the ethical code of Brainmass and my profession to ensure that the assistance I provide to you will be constituted as a guide - to show you how your homework should be tackled and help you in your studies in this manner. Please ensure that you utilize the solution in this way. Now, I see that the problem that you are tackling is similar to the other ones that I have advised you with before. The idea is to follow the 3-2-1 format. So for each of the articles and videos presented, I have provided you with the following:

3 important Ideas, 2 Quotes related to the video and 1 question raised by the program.

Good luck with your studies.

Sincerely,
OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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A Child's Guide to Language

This 1983 documentary was produced by BBC Horizon and tackles the question of learning language, in particular how children come to learn language and use language to communicate and create meaning. The title of the documentary is 'A Child's guide to language."

For me, the following Ideas raised by the program are of great importance:

1. While babies say little, they understand a lot.
2. Speech is learned in stages.
3. At around the age of 3, much of the English grammar is firmly in place in the child which allows the child to communicate in a more complex manner.

2 Quotes that made an impression -

"For a long time, babies say little although they understand a lot." - This speaks of cognition and perception and the capacity of human beings, even at infancy to come to understand meaning through observation alone. It is in this way that babies learn.

"When speech comes, it usually appears in stages." - this is very true as the building blocks of learning begins from the very basic which starts the foundation of knowledge of that particular language.

1 Criticism

The program attests that children learn language in their own time and that attempts by adults to interfere do not usually have an effect. I would like to question this assumption as children learn language in primary social groups, though their parents and teacher. So while children learn in their own time, the intervention and programs instituted by schools and their elders actually facilitate the quality of learning they receive which in turn affects the way they learn and their quality of learning. Good schools produce quality learning whereas bad schools cannot necessarily ensure quality learning.

The Male Brain

This particular entry is a video featuring Dr. Louann Brizendine who is the author of the book "The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think" which was released in 2006. The video, in my opinion is more a promotion ...

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