Summary: In this program, Dr. Jonathan Miller investigates both the predictable and the unexpected effects of damage to Broca's and Wernicke's areas on patients' abilities to communicate verbally and through sign language. In his efforts to expose the physiological roots of language expression, Dr. Miller traces the evolution of brain research, from the scientific blind alley of phrenology to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Starting right from infancy, this program charts the development of language during childhood. Basic language acquisition, learned from rudimentary and higher-level child/caregiver interactions, is described. Aspects of competence that go beyond the purpose of simple communication are also considered, including the skill of using conversation for establishing and furthering social...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: I want my diaper changed. "I want to go to sleep." These are two of many examples of what a pre-verbal child can communicate through American Sign Language. Using the work of researcher Joseph Garcia, founder of the business Sign with Your Baby, as a platform, this program illustrates the benefits and positive implications of introducing ASL to children regardless of whether their hearing is...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: IQ used to be the standard by which all were judged. Today, EQ allows for a broader understanding that encompasses attributes such as logical, linguistic, musical, kinetic, and emotional intelligences. This program provides an in-depth analysis of intelligence, including how it is defined and its neural components. Leading experts such as Harvard's Howard Gardner; Daniel Goleman, author of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reudiger Gamm performs complex arithmetic instantly and without help-his brain stores numbers like a calculator. Orlando Sorrel remembers exactly what he was doing on any date, at any hour, and can accurately predict the day of the week thousands of years in the future. Kim Peek-the original "Rain Man"-has read 12,000 books and hasn't forgotten a single word. What lies behind these astonishing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Communication is at the core of the human experience, even though effective communication takes a lifetime to learn. This program explores how we develop the arts of speech and physical expression to make ourselves understood and to understand others. Visiting a group of 25 three-year-olds, the film observes them learning as many as ten new words a day-some already grasping the first 1,500...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mute until the age of nine, Stephen Wiltshire learned to communicate through realistic, richly detailed drawings. Alonzo Clemens sculpts clay animal figures with great precision, even though he can barely form a sentence. Matt Savage faced extraordinary developmental problems as a child but has become a teen prodigy among jazz musicians. What is the relationship between creativity and autistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Anna has built a successful business from the ground up-and upon retirement, leaves the company to her employees, not to her son. What does that decision tell us about Anna's psychology, and about the development of the human brain over a lifetime? This program explores the emotional and neurological side of learning, explaining how the brain processes and stores experiences and prepares for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: How do multiple intelligences and different thinking styles relate to traditional IQ scores? What role should teacher creativity and the family play in shaping student intelligence? In this interview by Phillip Harris, of Phi Delta Kappa, Robert Sternberg-IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University-answers questions about the IQ-based "single trait notion of intelligence"; the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From prenatal Mozart to hothousing, the debate surrounding intelligence and how it is best cultivated is a controversial one. But is there really an optimal window of opportunity for neural development? This program invites John T. Bruer, author of The Myth of the First Three Years; Colin Blakemore, of Oxford University; UCLA's Paul Thompson; Bill Greenough, of the University of Illinois; and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Neuro-imaging has greatly improved our understanding of speech development. This video shows how the early detection and treatment of speech problems could potentially help a generation of children.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The emphasis in this program is on the development of language in babies and young children. The program follows this development from the first cry of an infant in the delivery room through that of a seven-year-old, when language development is almost complete. The program features babies and children attempting to communicate, from crying and babbling to making grammatical errors to speaking...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Approximately 70,000 years ago, humankind began talking, and hasn't stopped since. In this fascinating program, a diverse group of experts-an evolutionary linguist, a neurologist, a geneticist, a neuropsychologist, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, and an Oxford professor of communication-discuss the birth, development, and transmission of the mysterious phenomenon called language....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Statistically speaking, why have men and women not proved equally adept at the same things? In this program, researchers debate whether differences in brain architecture lead to a division of talents and aptitudes between the sexes-and draw some startling conclusions. To illustrate these differences, children are observed in classrooms, on the playground, and at home.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: For decades, IQ tests have been the gold standard for measuring intelligence. But is one standardized test really adequate for every taker? This program advocates a different approach, creating an array of unusual challenges to assess brainpower and positing an argument for the interplay of multiple intelligences. Assisted by the insights of Harvard's Howard Gardner and experts using brain...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is the difference between the mind and the brain? Are they separable? Are they even quantifiable? And where does the soul fit in? In this thought-provoking program, experts including Oxford mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Dennett, and cyber-age techno-visionary Jaron Lanier contemplate the social and moral impact of brain research and questions such as how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The average person will speak approximately 370 million words in his or her lifetime-a simple fact. And yet the underlying structures-sociological, anatomical, developmental, intellectual-have proved to be some of science's most impenetrable mysteries. This program spotlights researchers who are unlocking the deepest secrets of speech: Deb Roy and the Human Speechome Project; Tecumseh Fitch and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the development of language during the first six years of life. While language development begins at birth with the sound of the human voice, caregivers need to provide the building blocks so that children can learn language skills during these first six years.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Social context, intonation, and body language add a vital layer of meaning to the spoken or signed word-a layer that can manifest only in conversation. In this program, Dr. Jonathan Miller addresses the subject of group talk, offering his observations on topics including the concept of "speech acts" a la Austin, Wittgenstein, and Searle; the implicit mechanics of verbal give-and-take; and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: One of the great success stories from the world of autism, Temple Grandin revolutionized the field of livestock management, empowered by her sensitivity with animals. Tommy McHugh displayed no such sensitivity-until a brain hemorrhage transformed him from a brawler into a gentle soul. As scientists continue to investigate differences between the male and female brain, the special...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why do girls demonstrate greater reading and writing ability than boys? Is the female brain hardwired for faster verbal development? Should men let women do the talking? This program studies language differences between the sexes and explores the possibility that many communication skills are gender-specific. Following two teams of well-educated adults as they undergo a crash course in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006