Word: kuhl
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...experts point out that Bruer too has stretched his arguments far beyond what makes sense. "We may not have neuroscience research to back up a lot of what we believe about child development," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl, an expert on speech and hearing at the University of Washington. "But we do have a wealth of data over the past 40 years from developmental and cognitive psychology that tell us those early years are hugely important...
...they're deaf--they gradually lose the capacity to learn it at all. Similarly, kids who have uncorrected eye disorders early on will lose the capacity to coordinate the vision in both eyes. "We can't prove conclusively that these deficits involve the wiring of the brain," admits Kuhl. "But we're pretty sure it isn't happening...
...real problem with parents' playing Mozart or making the baby listen to foreign-language tapes or forcing him to look at works of great art is that this satisfies the parents' agenda, not necessarily the child's. "Babies are like little scientists," says Kuhl, who, along with two co-authors, presents her ideas in a book also coming out next month, The Scientist in the Crib. "They take in data, make hypotheses about the outside world and test them." This sort of learning goes on throughout life, but Kuhl argues convincingly that the process is most intense and wide ranging...
...some ways the exaggerated, vowel-rich sounds of Parentese appear to resemble the choice morsels fed to hatchlings by adult birds. The University of Washington's Patricia Kuhl and her colleagues have conditioned dozens of newborns to turn their heads when they detect the ee sound emitted by American parents, vs. the eu favored by doting Swedes. Very young babies, says Kuhl, invariably perceive slight variations in pronunciation as totally different sounds. But by the age of six months, American babies no longer react when they hear variants of ee, and Swedish babies have become impervious to differences...
Experts say that how well incentives pay off depends on how shrewdly local politicians weigh the costs and benefits. "Incentives shouldn't be a one-size-fits-all deal," says Ken Kuhl, manager of Arthur Andersen's business-relocation service in Atlanta. "What's outrageous for one community may be perfectly reasonable for another." The trouble comes when politicians get caught up in battles with rival cities and states and frantically hurl money at corporations...