How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger

[King Bob]

A speech pathologist who works with children that use communication devices gets a puppy. She wonders if the dog could use something like that, so she gets big buttons that will say a recorded word when pressed. She starts with "outside," "water," "play," etc. and the dog picks up on it. By the end the dog has many buttons and puts together three and four word sentences. Along with this, she gets insights about her work with children from watching the dog. Anyone who's ever lived with a dog knows they understand numerous words, but it seems they can use them as well. (See also the NY Times article about Bunny, a dog on Instagram.)

Lots of interesting info on how toddlers pick up language, and instructions on how to teach your dog if you want to try this. A quick and enjoyable read, occasionally funny. Doom recommended? Maybe for those with dogs. DM might enjoy it due to his psych studies.