Book Review: How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger
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If you’re a dog lover on Instagram or TikTok, then you’ve probably seen videos of some Insta-famous dogs pushing buttons that play recorded words to talk to their humans.
The original talking dog is Stella.
In How Stella Learned to Talk, Stella’s mom, speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger, describes how she pioneered the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices to communicate with Stella.
While Hunger has posted videos to her website Hunger for Words that show Stella in action, this book comprehensively documents how Hunger applied her knowledge of AAC to teaching her dog to recognize key words on recordable buttons she could push with her paw.
The mixture of memoir and how-to guide strikes an effective balance for this dog mom.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Emotional opening captures your attention
The book begins with a story that effectively illustrates the philosophy of presuming competence: the idea that everyone can learn and everyone has something to say.
Hunger was working with a speech language client who kept using a particular word on his communication device. After several weeks trying to understand what this 9-year-old boy on the autism spectrum was trying to say, Hunger’s frustration and his at this situation was palpable.
When Hunger connected the dots and figured out what this boy was trying to say, I was cheering for him, for his mom, and for Hunger. I love when authors give you an emotional connection to their story this early on. Definitely felt like an “I volunteer as Tribute” moment.
Hunger recreates Stella’s learning beautifully
A few times through the book, Hunger references how she documented the strategies she used to teach Stella how to use the AAC device. She must be a meticulous note taker because I felt like Stella’s progress was happening as I read.
Throughout the book, Hunger gives equal time to stories from her professional life that influenced how she taught Stella and personal stories about her, her husband Jake, and their family and friends.
As Hunger makes decisions about how to use an AAC with Stella, she explains a variety of concepts related to language acquisition and the strategies speech-language pathologists use to help their clients say what they want. Her use of analogies makes the concepts even easier to understand and apply.
Hunger doesn’t sugar coat the process though. In addition to all the successes, she describes the doubts that she considered multiple times throughout teaching Stella how to use her AAC device.
I felt the highs and lows of Stella’s learning like I was there with Hunger watching their progress.
How useful is this book if you want to try recordable buttons with your dog?
If you’ve been thinking about trying to use recordable buttons with your dog, then this book will offer plenty of insights for you. While it’s not an instruction manual, Hunger’s transparency about and commitment to the process create multiple examples of how to proceed that people could follow.
Most chapters conclude with a section called “Takeaways for Teaching Your Dog” that include several tips highlighting the key learning concepts covered in that chapter.
You should still read the entire book to understand the context of why Hunger made the choices she did with Stella at every step of her language acquisition.
Hunger thoroughly explains her decision-making process as she adds words to Stella’s AAC board. She describes the behaviors Stella displayed that communicated to her that she was ready to expand her vocabulary.
Be sure to follow Hunger and Stella on Instagram
to watch more videos of Stella using her language board to talk to her mom and dad.
Dog talking versus reading dog body language
I’m in a lot of dog Facebook groups, so when talking dogs pushing buttons on soundboards went viral during the pandemic, of course dog people were talking about this development.
I saw many comments where people expressed concern that dogs shouldn’t have to learn our language to communicate with us. Instead, people should learn how to read the body language that dogs use.
I agree that learning how to read a dog’s body language is essential for any pet parent. Knowing what your dog wants or needs improves his life, but being able to read the body language of other dogs is equally important.
You want to recognize when other dogs are shy, fearful, friendly, or even aggressive.
Rather than just waltzing up to any dog to ask to meet, take a few minutes to read the room. Look at the body language on the human handler and the dog, and ask if what you’re seeing looks like a pair that wants to meet you.
But why limit our communication with our dogs to body language? We don’t with other people.
I know my dogs know a bunch of English words, especially peanut butter. Why not improve our communication and understanding of the species we call best friends with AAC devices?
Before reading this book, I tried using a paw-sized recordable button with Bernie and Lizzie with no success. One of the a-ha moments I had while I was modeling the use of the button was that I enjoy training my dogs. I have many goals for us to achieve.
While I’d like to do all the things with my dogs, I do have to choose.
Since Bernie and Lizzie showed no interest in the buttons for weeks and weeks, I decided to move on, and focus on the other goals we have. But I’m not going to write off ever teaching my dogs how to use a soundboard. Maybe this project is one that I’ll try again in a few years. Maybe I’ll try teaching different dogs how to use an AAC device.
I’ve gotten much better at reading dog body language, but adding more communication pathways sounds like a good idea to me.
Hunger concludes her book with these questions and thoughts about this new field of research:
“Will this open new doors for interspecies communication research? What animals could be next? How will our new communication with dogs change how we treat them? How will this change our pets’ lives? How will this change ours?
It is time for us to start searching for the answers to these questions and many more. It is time to unite the human and animal worlds through language. It is time for a communication revolution. And I cannot wait to see what we all discover together.”
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