Kappler Blog Post 1

I enjoyed all of the topics in this course, but found a few topics especially interesting because they relate to me personally. Having a visual impairment, nonverbal language is one that I am not fluent in. Nonverbal language includes facial expressions, hand gestures, and body movement. While some movements are large and easy to read, such as frantic waving or stomping, many facial expressions or other gestures are much more subtle, such as a brief nod, wink, or glare. For me, I must be very close to someone to read these subtleties; otherwise I may be oblivious to them. Further, projecting my own body language to communicate with someone else nonverbally is problematic, as I cannot make direct eye contact, which is a key element of communication. Since I cannot observe social behavior, I have not entirely mastered the language to effectively communicate with it.

I also liked the topics of generalization and categorization because I can see it in action with my guide dog. For example, I taught her to find a chair, then applied the word “chair” to the object. Once she learned to locate a specific chair, I then applied the word to a different chair. As we worked, she generalized that a “chair” is anything I can sit on, whether it is an armchair, a stool, a couch, a bench, or a seat on a bus. Similarly, she can target doors: glass doors, wooden doors, sliding doors, or automatic doors. At first, the word “chair” or “door” is just a sound with no meaning, but over time she can categorize objects and generalize them in different contexts.