WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Whether you are a parent trying to figure out 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:05.799 how to help your kid with their reading homework 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:08.199 or maybe an educator standing at the front of 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:10.720 a crowded classroom. Or just someone who is. 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:14.339 insanely curious about how the human brain actually 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:16.859 processes information. Exactly. Regardless of 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:19.199 why you are here, today's topic is going to fundamentally 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:22.079 change how you think about communication. Welcome 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.379 to this deep dive. We are so thrilled you're 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:26.480 joining us today. We really are. We are looking 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.539 at a pretty massive stack of notes today, including 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:32.259 an incredibly detailed Wikipedia article, and 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:35.560 we're covering the life, the career, and the... 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:38.009 Honestly, massive impact of Professor Pamela 00:00:38.009 --> 00:00:40.049 Clare Snow. It is a remarkable career to look 00:00:40.049 --> 00:00:42.630 at. It is. And our mission for this deep dive 00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:45.789 is to explore her groundbreaking work. We want 00:00:45.789 --> 00:00:48.729 to uncover the hidden, massive implications that 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:51.429 language and literacy have on a person's entire 00:00:51.429 --> 00:00:53.829 life trajectory. Right, because it touches everything. 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.179 Everything. We are talking about basic psychosocial 00:00:57.179 --> 00:00:59.700 well -being all the way to the literal difference 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:02.960 between freedom and incarceration. It is a heavy 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:06.760 but deeply fascinating topic. It truly is. And 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.140 to set the stage for you listening, it's vital 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:10.780 to understand that the source material we're 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:13.519 looking at today isn't just some standard dusty 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:16.920 biography of a university academic. No, not at 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.870 all. This is an exploration of how. Clinical 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:23.450 research can step completely out of the sterile 00:01:23.450 --> 00:01:26.069 laboratory environment. It walks right into our 00:01:26.069 --> 00:01:28.209 classrooms, our living rooms, and our courtrooms. 00:01:28.290 --> 00:01:30.670 Right into the real world. Exactly. It's about 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:32.810 protecting society's most vulnerable people. 00:01:33.390 --> 00:01:36.030 It is essentially a master class in putting knowledge 00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:38.709 to work. Okay, let's unpack this by looking at 00:01:38.709 --> 00:01:40.989 her foundation. Because a person doesn't just, 00:01:41.069 --> 00:01:43.030 you know, wake up one morning and start influencing 00:01:43.030 --> 00:01:45.590 national education and justice policies out of 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:47.689 nowhere. You definitely need a rock solid base 00:01:47.689 --> 00:01:50.290 for that. You do. Looking at her background here, 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:52.469 she started with a Bachelor of Applied Science 00:01:52.469 --> 00:01:55.969 in speech pathology. And that was alongside a 00:01:55.969 --> 00:01:58.230 graduate diploma in communication disorders. 00:01:58.629 --> 00:02:00.549 Both at the Lincoln Institute of Health Science. 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:02.930 Right, which was later absorbed into La Trobe 00:02:02.930 --> 00:02:05.609 University in Australia. But then I noticed a 00:02:05.609 --> 00:02:07.340 really interesting... pivot in her timeline. 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.639 Oh, the academic shift. Yeah. She gets her PhD 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.819 focused on acquired brain injury in 1997, again 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:16.419 at the Trobe. Then she gets a graduate certificate 00:02:16.419 --> 00:02:20.020 in higher education at Monash in 1998. But then, 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.139 and this is the leap, she officially becomes 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:25.479 a registered psychologist in 2003. It is quite 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:27.740 a leap. Why do that? It seems like a pretty unusual 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:30.560 detour for someone who already holds a doctorate 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.340 in a related field. What's fascinating here is 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:36.150 the sheer power. of those dual qualifications. 00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:38.710 Think about what it means to be both a speech 00:02:38.710 --> 00:02:41.729 language pathologist and a registered psychologist 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:44.530 simultaneously. I mean, they seem like two very 00:02:44.530 --> 00:02:47.289 different skill sets. They usually are. Normally 00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:49.490 in academia and in clinical practice, these fields 00:02:49.490 --> 00:02:52.310 are heavily siloed. The speech therapist works 00:02:52.310 --> 00:02:54.810 on the mechanics of speech, right? Yeah. And 00:02:54.810 --> 00:02:56.650 the psychologist works on the feelings, the emotions, 00:02:56.770 --> 00:02:58.669 the behaviors. That makes total sense. Usually 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:00.870 if a kid is acting out in class, you send them 00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:03.030 to the counselor. Exactly. But if they have a 00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:05.069 lisp or a stutter, you send them to the speech 00:03:05.069 --> 00:03:07.610 pathologist. Two totally different doors down 00:03:07.610 --> 00:03:10.710 the school hallway. Precisely. Yeah. But by embodying 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:13.789 both disciplines, Professor Snow bridges this 00:03:13.789 --> 00:03:16.789 massive gap. It gives her a completely unique 00:03:16.789 --> 00:03:19.469 lens through which to view human development. 00:03:19.930 --> 00:03:22.469 Because she can see both sides of the coin. Right. 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:25.270 As a speech pathologist, she deeply understands 00:03:25.270 --> 00:03:27.789 the mechanical, the cognitive, the structural 00:03:27.789 --> 00:03:30.729 issues of language. She knows how words are formed, 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:33.610 how the brain retrieves vocabulary. How complex 00:03:33.610 --> 00:03:36.150 sentences are actually constructed. Yes. But 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:38.750 then, as a psychologist, she can immediately 00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:41.729 connect those structural issues to the emotional 00:03:41.729 --> 00:03:44.550 impact on the individual. Oh, wow. She isn't 00:03:44.550 --> 00:03:46.699 just looking at a slight delay in... language 00:03:46.699 --> 00:03:49.340 processing. She is looking at how that specific 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:52.240 delay shatters a child's self -esteem. How it 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.620 morphs their behavior. Exactly. How it degrades 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:56.699 their mental health over time. I really love 00:03:56.699 --> 00:03:58.419 that. It's almost like having a mechanic who's 00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:00.759 also a behavioral therapist for your car. That 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:02.699 is a great way to visualize it. Right. Because 00:04:02.699 --> 00:04:04.280 they don't just look at the engine and say, yep, 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:06.280 the spark plugs are misfiring. They understand 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.620 why the car is consequently refusing to merge 00:04:08.620 --> 00:04:10.819 onto the highway. Why it's stalling out at the 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:13.479 green lights. Yeah. And how the entire system 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.600 is reacting to that one single misfiring plug. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:19.620 She can look at a severe behavioral issue, say 00:04:19.620 --> 00:04:22.639 a teenager throwing a chair across a room, and 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:24.899 instead of just diagnosing it as an anger problem, 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.480 she can ask the critical question. Which is? 00:04:27.699 --> 00:04:31.319 Is this a purely psychological issue? Or is this 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:34.079 a child who literally does not have the vocabulary 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:37.100 or the expressive language skills to articulate 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.110 a profound internal frustration? Here's where 00:04:40.110 --> 00:04:42.029 it gets really interesting, because that exact 00:04:42.029 --> 00:04:44.670 question leads us directly into the real world 00:04:44.670 --> 00:04:47.029 application of her work. The stakes get very 00:04:47.029 --> 00:04:49.810 high, very fast. They do. According to our sources, 00:04:50.009 --> 00:04:52.170 she didn't just take this dual threat background 00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:55.470 and, I don't know, open a lucrative private practice 00:04:55.470 --> 00:04:57.970 for wealthy clients. No, she went in a very different 00:04:57.970 --> 00:04:59.930 direction. She pointed her research directly 00:04:59.930 --> 00:05:02.029 at the most vulnerable segments of our society. 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:05.509 Her work heavily focuses on language disorders 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:07.930 and vulnerable children and adolescents. And 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:09.870 the source material is... very specific about 00:05:09.870 --> 00:05:12.189 what that vulnerability looks like in practice. 00:05:12.449 --> 00:05:14.410 It's not just struggling with a spelling bee. 00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:18.610 Not at all. Her research draws a direct, scientifically 00:05:18.610 --> 00:05:22.310 backed line between language disorders and two 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:24.730 major societal issues. Mental health struggles 00:05:24.730 --> 00:05:28.730 and youth offending. Yes. This is where her work 00:05:28.730 --> 00:05:31.430 makes a dramatic entrance into the justice system. 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.860 She has conducted crucial research on how children 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:37.579 and adolescents are interviewed when they are 00:05:37.579 --> 00:05:39.439 pulled into the legal system. Whether they are 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:42.459 there as witnesses to a crime, suspects accused 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:45.399 of a crime, or victims of a crime. Exactly. Wait, 00:05:45.420 --> 00:05:46.740 hold on. I want to pause right there because 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.100 this is a massive leap for a lot of people to 00:05:49.100 --> 00:05:51.560 make. It is a big conceptual jump. I can totally 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.100 understand a child getting frustrated in a classroom 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:56.680 because they can't read the board. But how exactly 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:59.899 does a speech or language delay translate to 00:05:59.899 --> 00:06:02.009 a teenager ending up in the back of a car? What 00:06:02.009 --> 00:06:05.389 is the actual tangible link there? Yeah, exactly. 00:06:05.709 --> 00:06:08.149 If we connect this to the bigger picture, we 00:06:08.149 --> 00:06:10.170 have to realize that communication isn't just 00:06:10.170 --> 00:06:12.569 about passing a Friday spelling test in the third 00:06:12.569 --> 00:06:15.250 grade. Right. It is out navigating incredibly 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:20.470 high stakes, life altering situations. Let's 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:22.050 paint a picture for you of what this actually 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:25.089 looks like. Okay. Imagine a teenager who has 00:06:25.089 --> 00:06:27.310 an undiagnosed developmental language disorder. 00:06:28.099 --> 00:06:30.540 They have struggled their whole life to process 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:33.620 complex sentences. Now imagine that teenager 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.639 is sitting in a stark, intimidating interrogation 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:38.819 room. Just the environment alone is designed 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.560 to be stressful. Highly stressful. And now you 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.660 have police officers asking rapid fire, complex 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:48.360 questions. In the justice system, language is 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:50.860 the primary currency. It's the only tool you 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:53.160 have. Exactly. A detective might ask something 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:55.399 like, where were you on the night of the 4th, 00:06:55.399 --> 00:06:58.000 and isn't it true you were seen with John before 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.519 the altercation started at the park? That's a 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.060 lot of information to process all at once. It's 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:05.500 a massive cognitive load. For someone with a 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:07.899 language disorder, their working memory might 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:10.439 only hold on to the very last phrase they heard. 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:12.800 Altercation started at the park. Right. They 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.680 might lose the timeline, the double negatives, 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.699 the conditional phrasing entirely. So what happens? 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:19.839 Do they just sit there in silence? Sometimes 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:22.279 they do, which the police might interpret as 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:25.199 being evasive or uncooperative. Oh, wow. Other 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:28.750 times, they might just say, yeah. to make the 00:07:28.750 --> 00:07:32.230 intimidating questioning stop. Basically, inadvertently 00:07:32.230 --> 00:07:34.670 agreeing to a premise they didn't actually understand. 00:07:35.029 --> 00:07:37.829 Exactly. Or, out of sheer linguistic frustration 00:07:37.829 --> 00:07:40.730 and panic, they might act aggressively. Because 00:07:40.730 --> 00:07:43.870 they're trapped. Yes. What looks like a hostile, 00:07:43.970 --> 00:07:46.529 guilty suspect to a detective might actually 00:07:46.529 --> 00:07:49.149 be a terrified child who physically cannot process 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:51.209 the linguistic demands being placed on them. 00:07:51.389 --> 00:07:53.649 That is heartbreaking. And the same applies in 00:07:53.649 --> 00:07:55.569 a courtroom setting during cross -examination, 00:07:55.709 --> 00:07:59.189 where lawyers use highly specific, convoluted 00:07:59.189 --> 00:08:02.410 legal jargon designed to trap people. I want 00:08:02.410 --> 00:08:05.230 you, the listener, to really put yourself in 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:07.290 those shoes for a second. Imagine sitting in 00:08:07.290 --> 00:08:09.769 that interrogation room or standing up in front 00:08:09.769 --> 00:08:11.610 of a judge in a crowded courtroom. The pressure 00:08:11.610 --> 00:08:13.930 is unimaginable. You are trying to defend your 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:16.569 life or explain a deeply traumatic event that 00:08:16.569 --> 00:08:19.490 happened to you, but the tools simply aren't 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:22.579 there in your brain. The words are gone. Your 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:25.000 brain cannot process the sequence of the questions 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.860 being fired at you. The sheer panic, the isolation, 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:30.439 the helplessness of that scenario is terrifying. 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:34.059 It's a complete systemic failure. And her research 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:37.120 also applies the same lens to the treatment and 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.639 management of rehabilitation after a traumatic 00:08:39.639 --> 00:08:41.960 brain injury. Which she studied during her PhD. 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:44.039 Right. If you have an acquired brain injury, 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:47.990 your language skills are often compromised. And 00:08:47.990 --> 00:08:50.710 yet you are thrust into a medical and legal system 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.230 where you have to constantly advocate for your 00:08:53.230 --> 00:08:56.549 own care. You have to understand complex medical 00:08:56.549 --> 00:08:58.789 jargon. Navigate insurance claims. Again, it 00:08:58.789 --> 00:09:01.830 is high stakes communication where a deficit 00:09:01.830 --> 00:09:04.269 can ruin your life. It really makes the stakes 00:09:04.269 --> 00:09:06.809 of Professor Snow's research so deeply relatable 00:09:06.809 --> 00:09:09.789 and undeniably critical. It proves this isn't 00:09:09.789 --> 00:09:11.590 just some academic exercise to get published 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:14.129 in a journal. Not at all. It is about basic human 00:09:14.129 --> 00:09:16.129 rights. It's about fair treatment under the law. 00:09:16.509 --> 00:09:19.549 And frankly, it perfectly explains why she steered 00:09:19.549 --> 00:09:21.690 her career in the direction she did next. How 00:09:21.690 --> 00:09:24.370 so? Because once you see that undeniable connection, 00:09:24.669 --> 00:09:27.590 once you see the data proving that language deficits 00:09:27.590 --> 00:09:30.190 lead to catastrophic life outcomes like incarceration, 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:33.269 you are morally compelled to look at how we are 00:09:33.269 --> 00:09:35.570 teaching language to these kids in the very beginning. 00:09:36.009 --> 00:09:38.529 Which brings us to her career progression and 00:09:38.529 --> 00:09:41.389 what educators refer to as the reading wars. 00:09:41.649 --> 00:09:44.169 Yes, the reading wars. Looking at the timeline 00:09:44.169 --> 00:09:46.470 in our sources, she worked in medical education 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:48.950 at Monash University for quite a while, from 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:52.190 2005 to 2015, eventually becoming an associate 00:09:52.190 --> 00:09:54.980 professor. I find it interesting she was in medical 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:57.259 education. It shows she was deeply involved in 00:09:57.259 --> 00:09:59.340 training future doctors and health professionals. 00:09:59.639 --> 00:10:02.960 She was likely imparting this exact wisdom about 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:05.019 communication and vulnerability to the medical 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:07.000 front line. Getting them to recognize the signs 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.700 early. Exactly. But then she makes a massive 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:13.240 systemic move. In 2015, she moves to La Trobe 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:16.159 University as a full professor. And then we hit 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:19.259 a major milestone in 2020. The Solar Lab. Yes. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:21.419 She forms the Science of Language and Reading 00:10:21.419 --> 00:10:23.519 Lab, which is brilliantly acronymized. as the 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.299 solar lab in the School of Education alongside 00:10:26.299 --> 00:10:29.559 Tanya Seri. That's a crucial partnership. Why 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:31.980 is the shift to the School of Education so significant 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:34.120 here? Because it's the ultimate preventative 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:36.279 measure. She takes all her clinical knowledge 00:10:36.279 --> 00:10:38.820 from speech pathology, all her insights from 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:41.039 psychology, and all of her data from the justice 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.480 system and brings it right to the source. Where 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:45.980 the teachers are trained. Yes. The solar lab 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:48.700 is entirely focused on the science of how we 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:51.259 actually learn to read and process language. 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:54.080 She recognized that if you want to keep teenagers 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.899 out of those interrogation rooms, you have to 00:10:56.899 --> 00:10:58.840 equip their first -grade teachers with the right 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.470 tools. And when it comes to those tools, Professor 00:11:01.470 --> 00:11:04.190 Snow is definitely not quiet about what she finds. 00:11:04.350 --> 00:11:06.870 She is a very vocal advocate. Our sources show 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:09.230 she frequently speaks out on how reading is taught 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:11.909 in Australian schools, and she strongly advocates 00:11:11.909 --> 00:11:15.289 for explicit phonics instruction. Which is the 00:11:15.289 --> 00:11:18.090 core of the Reading Wars debate. Right. For our 00:11:18.090 --> 00:11:20.370 listeners who might not be... deep into educational 00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:23.309 theory, the reading wars essentially describe 00:11:23.309 --> 00:11:26.990 the massive ongoing debate over how to teach 00:11:26.990 --> 00:11:29.690 kids to read. It's been raging for decades. On 00:11:29.690 --> 00:11:32.190 one side, you have the phonics approach, which 00:11:32.190 --> 00:11:34.850 is about explicitly teaching kids how to sound 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:37.210 out letters and decode words systematically. 00:11:37.629 --> 00:11:40.250 Building from the ground up. Exactly. On the 00:11:40.250 --> 00:11:42.370 other side, you have approaches often called 00:11:42.370 --> 00:11:45.929 whole language or balanced literacy, which sometimes 00:11:45.929 --> 00:11:49.129 lean more on having kids memorize whole words 00:11:49.129 --> 00:11:52.429 or use pictures and context clues to guess what 00:11:52.429 --> 00:11:55.129 a word might be. And Professor Snow plants her 00:11:55.129 --> 00:11:58.409 flag firmly on the side of explicit, systematic 00:11:58.409 --> 00:12:01.629 phonics. Firmly. She argues for teaching the 00:12:01.629 --> 00:12:03.669 foundational building blocks of language clearly 00:12:03.669 --> 00:12:07.490 and directly, relying on cognitive science. Naturally, 00:12:07.610 --> 00:12:09.960 with that level of advocacy comes a bit of controversy. 00:12:10.259 --> 00:12:12.840 Our notes indicate that she has been a very vocal 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.299 critic of approaches to early reading instruction 00:12:15.299 --> 00:12:19.100 that she specifically identifies as pseudoscientific. 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:21.320 She doesn't hold back. She doesn't. One of the 00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:23.639 programs she has publicly criticized is something 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.379 called the Aerosmith program. I think it is important 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:28.480 to pause here for a second. Go ahead. Just to 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.000 be completely clear for you listening, we are 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.759 not taking a stance on the Aerosmith program 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:35.740 today, nor are we going into the weeds of what 00:12:35.740 --> 00:12:38.500 that specific commercial program entails or claims 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:40.360 to do. Right. That's beyond the scope of this 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:44.000 deep dive. Exactly. We are simply reporting that 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.019 within the highly contested landscape of reading 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:50.460 instruction, Professor Snow. firmly identifies 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:53.139 these types of programs as pseudoscientific. 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:56.539 And she strongly opposes them based on her own 00:12:56.539 --> 00:12:58.600 interpretation of the clinical research. Yes. 00:12:58.659 --> 00:13:01.299 Right. Our job isn't to judge the specific programs 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:03.860 or pick a winner in the reading wars. Our job 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:07.090 is to examine her role within that debate. And 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:10.070 her role is that of a fierce, uncompromising 00:13:10.070 --> 00:13:12.769 advocate for evidence -based, scientifically 00:13:12.769 --> 00:13:15.750 backed reading instruction. If you analyze this 00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:17.909 pivot in her career, I think it reveals something 00:13:17.909 --> 00:13:19.990 profound about her character as a researcher. 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:22.149 It really does. She could have easily stayed 00:13:22.149 --> 00:13:24.350 comfortably in the realm of diagnosis. Absolutely. 00:13:24.409 --> 00:13:26.470 She could have spent her entire career just writing 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:28.610 observational papers about the fact that language 00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:30.610 disorders exist and that they cause problems 00:13:30.610 --> 00:13:32.570 in courtrooms. And that is a perfectly respectable 00:13:32.570 --> 00:13:35.659 academic career. A highly successful one. But 00:13:35.659 --> 00:13:38.600 instead, she pivoted to encompass not just the 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:41.679 diagnosis, but actively fighting to change how 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:44.259 early reading instruction is implemented on a 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:47.240 systemic level. She is trying to stop the problem 00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:50.299 at the root. Before these kids ever end up in 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:52.200 the justice system or the mental health system 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:55.440 she studied earlier in her career. She is essentially 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:58.399 practicing preventative medicine, but applying 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:00.480 it to the education system. That's a perfect 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:02.620 way to phrase it. And what I really admire about 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:04.700 her approach is that she doesn't just keep this 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:07.440 vital information locked away in peer reviewed 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.220 journals. The ones that cost $50 an article to 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:13.299 read. Exactly. Which leads us perfectly to her 00:14:13.299 --> 00:14:15.620 public translation and her industry recognition. 00:14:16.059 --> 00:14:18.159 Yes, her commitment to public translation is 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.220 arguably just as impactful as her primary research. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.799 She runs a very popular blog called The Snow. 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:26.539 report. It's a fantastic resource. Through this 00:14:26.539 --> 00:14:29.519 platform, she bridges the massive, often frustrating 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:32.679 gap between the ivory tower of academia and the 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:35.899 general public. She takes dense, complex, highly 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.500 technical research on language and literacy instruction 00:14:38.500 --> 00:14:41.899 and translates it into plain English. She makes 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:43.879 it so that parents trying to help their kids, 00:14:44.059 --> 00:14:45.899 teachers standing at the whiteboard, frontline 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:49.159 clinicians and government policymakers can actually 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:52.100 understand the science. And use it immediately. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:55.360 That translation piece cannot be overstated. 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:58.639 Often, we have brilliant, life -changing research 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:01.519 just sitting in academic archives gathering digital 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.919 dust. While teachers in the classroom are pulling 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:06.759 their hair out, desperate for solutions, the 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.509 Snow Report acts as a direct pipeline. It bypasses 00:15:10.509 --> 00:15:12.549 the academic paywalls and delivers the science 00:15:12.549 --> 00:15:14.649 of language straight to the people who are teaching 00:15:14.649 --> 00:15:17.250 our kids to read every single day. Translating 00:15:17.250 --> 00:15:19.429 science is a completely different skill set than 00:15:19.429 --> 00:15:21.809 conducting science. And she seems to have mastered 00:15:21.809 --> 00:15:25.149 both. She definitely has. But she hasn't abandoned 00:15:25.149 --> 00:15:27.250 the academic world to become just a blogger. 00:15:27.350 --> 00:15:30.090 Oh, not at all. She maintains a massive, highly 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:32.710 respected footprint in the formal academic literature. 00:15:33.029 --> 00:15:35.750 If there is a major academic journal focusing 00:15:35.750 --> 00:15:38.730 on how humans process language, she is likely... 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.259 helping run it. She is everywhere. She's an editor 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:44.899 of a major speech pathology journal, ACQ. She 00:15:44.899 --> 00:15:47.159 acts as an editorial consultant for the International 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:49.919 Journal of Speech Language Pathology. She sits 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.200 on the editorial board of the journal First Language. 00:15:52.419 --> 00:15:54.700 And she is an associate editor of the Reading 00:15:54.700 --> 00:15:57.059 League. Summarizing all those roles gives you 00:15:57.059 --> 00:15:59.779 a clear picture of her peerless standing in the 00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:03.049 academic community. To hold that many editorial 00:16:03.049 --> 00:16:06.429 and consultative positions means that other experts 00:16:06.429 --> 00:16:09.629 in the field implicitly trust her judgment. They 00:16:09.629 --> 00:16:13.360 trust her to determine what constitutes Rigorous, 00:16:13.379 --> 00:16:16.879 valuable science. She is essentially a gatekeeper 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:19.399 for quality across multiple international publications, 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:22.299 ensuring that the research shaping tomorrow's 00:16:22.299 --> 00:16:25.240 policies is actually sound. And the wider professional 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:27.279 community certainly agrees with that assessment 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:29.580 because her trophy cabinet is just incredibly 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:32.279 well -stocked. It's quite the list. We aren't 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:34.159 going to read her entire resume, but to give 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.159 you an idea of the peer recognition we are talking 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:38.600 about, she hasn't just published a few papers. 00:16:38.679 --> 00:16:41.279 She has effectively swept the board in her field. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.879 She received a fellowship from Speech Pathology 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:47.840 Australia in 2012, and then they awarded her 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:51.139 full life membership in 2020. She picked up the 00:16:51.139 --> 00:16:53.700 Learning Difficulties Australia Mona Tobias Award 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.740 in 2017. She has won multiple editors awards 00:16:56.740 --> 00:17:00.000 for her research publications in 2013 and 2020. 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:02.340 And she was selected to present the prestigious 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:06.500 Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture in 2015. What 00:17:06.500 --> 00:17:09.039 does that level of sustained peer recognition 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:12.339 tell us about the impact of her work? When you 00:17:12.339 --> 00:17:15.140 look at that collection of major accolades, it 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:17.619 represents much more than just a successful long 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:19.900 -running career. What does it represent? It represents 00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:22.099 a professional life that is fundamentally dedicated 00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:24.680 to the idea that knowledge is only truly valuable 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:27.759 when it is shared and applied. She isn't winning 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:30.180 these awards just for theoretical postulating. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:32.220 Or coming up with interesting ideas in a vacuum. 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.490 Right. She is winning them because her work demonstrably 00:17:35.490 --> 00:17:38.369 changes lives. From the child struggling to decode 00:17:38.369 --> 00:17:40.349 their very first sentence in a first grade classroom 00:17:40.349 --> 00:17:42.970 to the teenager trying to navigate a high stakes 00:17:42.970 --> 00:17:45.849 police interview without the vocabulary to defend 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:48.029 themselves. Her research provides a protective 00:17:48.029 --> 00:17:50.970 shield. It does. So what does this all mean? 00:17:51.210 --> 00:17:53.569 That's the big question. When we zoom out and 00:17:53.569 --> 00:17:56.029 look at the complete picture of Professor Kamala 00:17:56.029 --> 00:17:59.650 Snow's work, the core takeaway for you is that 00:17:59.650 --> 00:18:02.309 literacy and language development are not just 00:18:02.309 --> 00:18:05.210 simple educational milestones. They're not just 00:18:05.210 --> 00:18:08.009 boxes to tick on a report card. No, they are 00:18:08.009 --> 00:18:11.269 fundamentally, inextricably tied to social equity, 00:18:11.470 --> 00:18:15.490 to lifelong mental health, and to justice. Her 00:18:15.490 --> 00:18:18.069 career shows us with stark scientific clarity 00:18:18.069 --> 00:18:20.869 that teaching a child to read properly using 00:18:20.869 --> 00:18:23.470 evidence -based methods is quite literally a 00:18:23.470 --> 00:18:25.670 protective measure for their entire life. It 00:18:25.670 --> 00:18:27.869 is the armor they wear out into a very complex 00:18:27.869 --> 00:18:30.630 world. It absolutely is. And as we wrap up our 00:18:30.630 --> 00:18:33.009 analysis of her incredible body of work, this 00:18:33.009 --> 00:18:34.769 raises an important question for you to consider. 00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:37.130 I'd love to hear it. If unrecognized language 00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:40.289 disorders are a major driving factor in use offending 00:18:40.289 --> 00:18:42.190 and how vulnerable children interact with the 00:18:42.190 --> 00:18:45.069 justice system, how many behavioral or societal 00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:47.349 issues are we currently treating as criminal 00:18:47.349 --> 00:18:50.089 or disciplinary that might actually at their 00:18:50.089 --> 00:18:53.069 very root just be untreated communication barriers? 00:18:53.390 --> 00:18:57.470 Wow. That is a massive paradigm shift to think 00:18:57.470 --> 00:19:00.450 about how many kids are being punished simply 00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:02.509 because they don't have the words. It's something 00:19:02.509 --> 00:19:04.549 we all need to think about. Thank you so much 00:19:04.549 --> 00:19:06.970 for joining us on this deep dive. I hope this 00:19:06.970 --> 00:19:09.369 conversation has given you a completely new perspective 00:19:09.369 --> 00:19:12.349 on the profound power of words, the rigorous 00:19:12.349 --> 00:19:14.789 science of reading, and the incredible work being 00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:17.690 done behind the scenes by researchers like Professor 00:19:17.690 --> 00:19:20.930 Snow to protect the vulnerable. Keep staying 00:19:20.930 --> 00:19:23.210 curious. Keep questioning the world around you, 00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:25.410 and we will see you. on the next deep dive.