Respond meaningfully to at least two of your peers. Base your response on your classmate’s review of the speech, and include the following:
· Compare and contrast your peer’s response with your own. How was their analysis different than yours for each of the following?
· Audience
· Introduction
· Body
· Conclusion
· Presentation Aids
· Delivery
· What methods did the speaker use that you could effectively use in a speech of your own?
If sources are used, be sure to include citations and references in APA format.
Estimated time to complete: 2 hours
Response posts are worth 50% of your grade on this discussion. Please review the rubric to ensure your peer responses meet the criteria .
Hello Everyone:
Audience: What was the speaker’s target audience? How do you know?
After watching the video, I noticed a mix of parents and grandparents, younger adults, and older adults. Some of the younger adults included moms and dads, and some came without spouses or partners; they could be single parents, but most probably, parenting techniques are part of their main concern and interest for attending this show.
Introduction: Identify the speaker’s attention-getter, topic, and thesis. Did the attention-getter grab your interest? Why or why not? What was the speaker’s thesis or central idea?
· Attention-Getter: I think she used different attention-getter techniques. Having baby Ari sit in his high chair with giggles at the beginning of the show brought laughs and joy to the audience, then introducing his dad and pointing to his role in demonstrating her central idea, which is a perfect anecdote. In addition, she raised a speculating question to challenge the audience if they ever knew that a game of peek-a-boo could change the world! Personally, I did not know that, and this daring question interested me in learning more about this experience. I think using baby “Ari” and his dad was an appropriate attention-getter human device; she used them as a reference to her main topic.
· Topic: The speaker “Molly” said that she would be talking about some powerful things that grownups can do that can shape children and shape them as adults as well.
· Thesis/Central Idea: I believe her thesis would be, “Thanks to scientists, we now know just how important the first five years are for our health and development, especially our brains.” What made me think this is her thesis is that she referred back to Ari and how he started to learn since he was in his mom’s tummy.
Body: How did the speaker support her claim (thesis)?
The speaker started showing pictures of Ari’s family, including when his mom was pregnant and after he was born, which referred to the same thesis. Then, she explained how he was very tiny when born and that he was crying and pooping a lot. This statement is used to show how changes happened to this baby inside his brain to the point that now he laughs and giggles a lot. Which means he has grown and learned more than we think as parents. She supported her thesis with visual aids; she used beanbags to show the volume of a baby’s brain against the volume of a child’s brain. Molly, the speaker, is very clever because she included facts about brain development and how adults can help their children during their years of development. For example, the baby’s brain develops faster in its early years than in any other year, with the ability to create up to a million neural connections every second. Most importantly, she connected this fact with how adults and parents can help children during this sensitive time by explaining the Serve & Return strategy and its five important tips (connection, talking, playing, having a healthy home, and community). Scientists developed this strategy to promote healthy children’s development. Lastly, she further explained her thesis by exhibiting the strategy’s five points when baby Ari and his dad Amarjot demonstrated each of these points live to the audience. This experiment was very helpful in proving her thesis, demonstrating it in real life, showing immediate effects, and proving her credibility.
Conclusion: Did the speaker end strongly? Why or why not?
Yes! The speaker’s ending was very strong. She not only explained the benefits of using these five tips but also demonstrated how they work. She reminded the audience of her thesis, the main points of her topic, and the serve and return strategy and encouraged them to practice them as early as possible and more often. The conclusion, which ended with cheers for Amarjot and Ari, was a positive sign of the success of her speech, especially when the audience stood up enthusiastically, cheering for her outstanding performance and delivery.
Presentation Aids: Describe the presentation aids used by the speaker. Were they effective? Why or why not?
The speaker’s aids were very effective and appropriate for the topic and the audience. Using the beanbags as a descriptive visual was a clever choice to show the difference between a baby’s and a child’s brains. Also, the short live video used to demonstrate the five tips of the Serve & Return strategy successfully and effectively demonstrated each point and how they worked. The video was the strongest aid in proving her thesis and credibility. In addition, she used scientific information that backed her central idea.
Delivery: Evaluate the delivery of the speech. What was done particularly well?
I loved that the speaker was a 7-year-old child who demonstrated her ability to deliver a successful speech because her parents used the Serve & Return strategy. I enjoyed how she incorporated fun facts and appropriate jokes and stated how other kids in the world could be more fortunate if their parents did the same as her parents. What I enjoyed the most was the short live performance by baby Ari and his dad Amarjot, demonstrating how the strategy works and how it is successful. I believe all parts of the speech were done well; the introduction and attention-getter were appropriate for the topic and the audience. I enjoyed seeing the crowd standing up for the speaker, showing how much they enjoyed her informative speech.
· Audience: The speaker’s audience is parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and anybody having interactions with kids or raising them. I think this is the audience because she is informing the audience that forming interactions and bonds with their kids, especially the first 5 years of their lives, is important to their growth.
· Introduction: Her attention getter was when she stated, “Imagine a game of peek-a-boo could change the world” (Wright, 2021) and starting with the baby on stage before she comes out. The statement about peek-a-boo grabs my attention because it stimulates curiosity in me and encourages me to reflect on the topic. When I first heard this, I wondered how a game of peek-a-boo could change anything. Also, the story of her neighbor’s baby was part of the attention getter. This anecdote shows the beginning of the baby’s upbringing that shaped him, and it made it relatable. The topic of this speech is “the powerful things grown-ups can do that shape children and the adults they become” (Wright, 2021). Furthermore, the speaker’s central idea is that positive and nurturing interactions with kids during the first 5 years significantly impacts children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development, laying the foundation for lifelong success and well-being.
· Body: The speaker supported her claim by using how scientist proved how important the first 5 years of development was, saying how many connections the brain could make, breaking down the scientist “Serve and Return” method by breaking it down into the 5 things our development depends on (connecting, playing, talking, healthy home, and community), and showing how the interactions help the child with its future.
· Conclusion: In my opinion the speaker ended strongly. I say this because she restated her main points and she made everything she said connect. Also, she included a call to action and left a lasting impression. The appeal to emotions with if the 30 seconds of no reaction was a lifetime situation and her being sad left an impression on me. I would want my child to feel safe and to trust me and if a game of peek-a-boo could change that, I would do it. Also, she left with an outro that was made to say she answered the questions on how peek-a-boo could change the world.
· Presentations Aids: The presentation aids by the speaker include the baby and his father interacting (video aid), bean bags that showed us the different sizes of the brain at each stage (prop), and a colorful PowerPoint with little words (visual aid). Also, the PowerPoints included pictured that aided her words and pulled on my heart strings. All her presentation aids were effective to me because I got to see her main points being put into action. Seeing the difference between the father giving the baby attention through activities and taking the attention away was powerful.
· Delivery: The speaker’s overall delivery was done in a fantastic way. The speaker appealed to emotions during the speech with her making them laugh and showing them how the interactions will benefit a child in real time. Also, as a 7-year-old, she spoke with clarity, and she stayed engaged with the audience. She even gave her speaker credibility with the fact she was a “7-year-old talking about brain science” (Wright, 2021).
References:
Wright, M. (2021, July). How every child can thrive by five [Video]. TED Conferences.