Some TED Talks of interest to SLPs and Language Folks

Summer is a great time to slow down and think. TED Talks have long been one of my favorite ways to take in some new info- these short (varying from 5-20 min) presentation recordings are created at Technology-Entertainment (the E should be Education for as much as these talks address that area)-Design conferences around the world and feature leading researchers and creative people speaking on important topics. TED Talks are naturally facilitated by technology as they are available on YouTube and the free TED app.

All of the talks are food for summer thought but a few have caught my eye recently as relevant to speech and language:

Disability-led innovations for the masses- SLP and Assistive technology trainer Chris Bugaj, author of The Practical and Fun Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools and the A.T.TIPSCAST, explores the many examples of accommodations for people with disabilities (e.g. touch screens) that have become the norm, illuminating principles of Universal Design.

How to speak so that people want to listen- Sound consultant Julian Treasure discusses subtly "unexpected behaviors" in social communication and the effects of aspects of speech such as register and prosody, providing a good resource to use with clients working on these areas.

Autism — what we know (and what we don’t know yet)- Geneticist Wendy Chung shares what we know about autism, both from a genetic and developmental perspective.

What makes a word "real"?-English professor and linguist Anne Cuzan explores our evolving language and the notions that word changes reflect the populace's usage and not just our judgments of what should be "correct" English.

Use these as jumping off points to other talks- I am happy to have just discovered the "Words, words, words" playlist while writing this post!