Culturebox: Research in the Crib

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the good word Research in the Crib What happens when language scientists use their own children as test subjects? By Arika Okrent Posted Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010, at 4:14 PM ET It's become the norm in America for parents to capture their children's smiles, tantrums, and impish shenanigans--sometimes cute, sometimes deeply embarrassing--on blogs, YouTube videos, and Twitter feeds. But MIT professor Deb Roy makes even the most obsessive at-home documentarians seem inattentive: He recorded, on video and audio, nearly every waking moment of the first three years of his son's life--not as an exercise in parental vanity, but in the name of science. His goal was to create as complete a picture as possible of how one child learns a language. For his study, "The Human Speechome Project," he embedded 11 cameras and 14 microphones in the ceilings of his home, and set them to record for an average of 12-14 hours a day. Now Roy and his team have begun the enormous task of trying to make sense of the data--all 120,000 hours of it. Roy's decision to use his own child as a research subject makes people uncomfortable: When the New York Times wrote a story about Roy, the comments were on the outraged side. Recording a child for amusement is one thing, but taking those recordings to the lab for analysis may be quite another. It may seem unethical--perhaps even dangerous to the child's mental health. To continue reading, click here. Arika Okrent holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Dickerson: Democrats Finally Get the Feisty, Fired-Up Obama They Want The Flirty Repartee of the New Parker Spitzer Rom-Com You're Not Responsible for Quran Burners. Don't Hold Muslims Responsible for 9/11.	Advertisement
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