Name: The birth of a word
Uploaded: 2011-03-10T16:21:00Z
Duration: 19 min 35 s
Description: MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Deb Roy: The birth of a word

The birth of a word

MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

A family installed cameras and microphones throughout their home, capturing a quarter-million hours of everyday life as their child learned to speak. By analyzing over seven million words and mapping daily routines, they uncovered surprising feedback loops between caregivers and a child’s language growth. This approach revealed how environments shape learning, offering a new lens for understanding not just family life, but also social media dynamics. The data’s richness brought intimate moments to life and pointed to the profound impact of context on how we communicate.