This video shows that digital home assistants that are becoming must-have features in our houses might have an unexpected role in the development of children with language deficits.
Patrick Crispen, an assistant professor of clinical medical education at Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, has posted on Reddit a clip which purportedly depicts his 19-month-old son saying his first and only word "Google" when their Google Home replicates animal sounds.
Crispen son is in speech/language therapy because of "significant receptive and expressive language deficits," Crispen says in the Reddit and YouTube description.
"Put simply, he doesn't speak. At all. Zero words," he says.
"We've had a Google Home since last holiday season, and my son absolutely adores its animal sounds. So, you can imagine our pleasure and surprise when my son started doing this this weekend. That's right: My son's first (and currently only) word is 'Google.'"
Crispen tells Mashable that since his wife bought the home assistant for Christmas last year, the boy showed almost immediate interest and excitement in its ability to play animal noises.
"So that has now become an almost daily game that we play with him. (Us: 'Okay, Google ... what sound does a horse make?' Him: [excited giggling])," he says. "Oddly, Google Home’s nursery rhymes make him cry."
When the boy said his first word, "Google", his parents were both excited and relieved, Crispen recounts.
"Typically, by the time a toddler reaches 18 months of age, he or she has a vocabulary of at least 10 to 15 words," Crispen says. "Our son’s vocabulary was literally zero. Hence the concern."
The video triggered a debate on Reddit, with people being cynical and saying the video is a PR stunt.
Crispen replied saying: "I don't blame you for being cynical. But, as the goofy guy chomping on breadsticks in the back of the video, I can assure you this video and its story are completely true and uncompensated. I just thought people would enjoy the story as much as my wife and I did."
Others called the video dystopian but the boy's dad said the family is "thankful" for the positive steps he's taken.
"I think like any technology, its effectiveness comes from how it is being used and for what purpose," Crispen explains to Mashable.
"If you watch the video, you don’t see a kid plopped down in front of a computer screen mindlessly watching videos. Rather, you’ll see a mother and a son interacting with each other and with Google Home to generate animal sounds."
He's aware that people may find the video quite disturbing, in a Black Mirror-y kind of sense.
"A child’s first word is the name of a giant, multinational corporation? To some, that’s understandably depressing," he says.
"But if you look at what’s happening in the video, what you see is not a child going ‘hail corporate’ but rather a mother and son playing together with technology for fun and hopefully some learning.
"To me, any tool or activity that demonstrably promotes verbal language development in a language-delayed toddler is, by definition, neither dystopian nor disturbing," he added.
Indeed, other Redditors seem to agree with him, and even shared similar stories of their children:
Topics Google Google Home Reddit
