![]() More recently, Stella got wet playing in the snow, came inside, and said “water." She later pressed “water” when she saw Hunger watering her plants. It was remarkable enough when Stella learned to press the “water” button when she was thirsty, but then the puppy began using it when she wanted to go to the beach - a different kind of water. Maybe Stella could learn the same way, Hunger thought. While working with children who have limited verbal speech abilities, Hunger often used what's known in her field as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), which incorporates adaptive tech for language development, similar to the programmable buttons. She describes how she came up with the idea in 2018, soon after she and her then-boyfriend (now-husband) Jake adopted an adorable Catahoula (a breed from Louisiana) puppy they named Stella. Hunger writes about Stella's jaw-dropping achievements in a new book, How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog (May 4). Stella has learned to press the appropriate buttons with her paw in order to express her feelings and desires. How? Hunger, a speech-language pathologist, has affixed to a board on her floor several dozen programmable buttons with words recorded on them. When Christina Hunger is curious about what her dog, Stella, wants, she just asks her - or, more often, Stella simply tells her: “Come walk.” Or “Stella eat." ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Ariana Velazquez / HarperCollinsPublishers ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |