Beyond Words with Garrett Oyama

Beyond Words Ep. 25 | How Children Learn Words: Input, Context, and Generalization Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD for this podcast In this episode of Beyond Words, Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Catherine Sandhofer, professor of psychology at UCLA, about how children learn words, categories, and concepts through everyday experience. They explore why word learning is not just about hearing words m...

Beyond Words Ep. 24 | Gaze, Hands, and the Roots of Communication with Gedeon Deák, PhD In this episode of Beyond Words, host Garrett Oyama, MS, CCC-SLP, is joined by UC San Diego professor Gedeon Deák, PhD, to explore how infants learn to share attention with others and why these early interactions are so important for communication and language development. Together, they unpack the evolving nat...

Beyond Words Ep. 23 | Music, Voice, and Meaning: From Infant Speech to Social Signals with Greg Bryant, PhD Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD for this podcast In this episode of Beyond Words, Greg Bryant, PhD, joins host Garrett Oyama, MS, CCC-SLP, to explore how the human voice carries meaning through prosody, musicality, and nonverbal vocalizations. Together, they examine how infant-directed spee...

Beyond Words Ep. 22 | Active Infant Learning: Curiosity and How Children Seek Words with Martin Zettersten, PhD Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD for this podcast In this episode of Beyond Words , host Garrett Oyama, MS, CCC-SLP, welcomes Martin Zettersten, PhD, to explore how infants actively learn language through curiosity, attention, and everyday experiences. Dr. Zettersten shares insights from...

Beyond Words Ep. 21 | Understanding Autistic Language Variability, Strengths, and Meaning with Rhiannon Luyster, PhD Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD In this episode of Beyond Words , host Garrett Oyama, MS, CCC-SLP, sits down with researcher and clinician Rhiannon Luyster, PhD, to challenge some of the assumptions baked into how we assess and interpret autistic communication. Dr. Luyster brings h...

Beyond Words Ep. 20 | Neural Encoding of Speech: Insights from Aphasia with Dr. Jill Kries In this episode of Beyond Words, Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Jill Kries, cognitive neuroscientist, about how the brain transforms sound into language—and what this reveals about aphasia. They explore how aphasia may involve disruptions not just at the level of words and grammar, but in lower-level speech p...

Beyond Words Ep. 19 | Comics and Visual Language with Dr. Neil Cohn In this episode of Beyond Words , Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Neil Cohn, cognitive scientist and director of the Visual Language Lab, about how drawings and comics function as full-fledged visual languages. They explore how visual narratives have structure, grammar, and vocabulary, and why understanding comics isn’t as automatic...

Beyond Words Ep. 18 | Brain-to-Brain Synchrony and Attention in Early Development with Dr. Sam Wass In this episode of Beyond Words , Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Sam Wass, developmental neuroscientist, about how attention, arousal, and social interaction shape the developing brain. They explore how infants regulate attention in real time, how stress and environmental context influence learning,...

Beyond Words Ep. 17 | Language as a Complex Adaptive System with Dr. Joan Bybee In this episode of Beyond Words , Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Joan Bybee , pioneer of usage-based linguistics, about how language emerges through use, repetition, and social interaction rather than abstract rules. They explore why sounds don’t exist in isolation, how frequency and predictability shape speech and soun...

Beyond Words Ep. 16 | Speech Therapy in the Age of AI: Play, Screens, and Language Development In this episode of Beyond Words , Garrett sits down with renowned developmental scientist Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek —professor at Temple University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, bestselling author, and one of the leading voices in early learning, language development, and play. Kathy breaks do...

Beyond Words Ep. 15 | Before Words: Understanding Babbling with Dr. D. Kimbrough Oller What do a baby’s coos, squeals, and growls reveal about the origins of language? In this episode of Beyond Words , Dr. D. Kimbrough Oller — a leading voice in speech and language development — joins Garrett Oyama to explore protophones , functional flexibility, and why spontaneous infant vocalizations may hold t...

Beyond Words Ep. 14 | Inside the Language Network: Brains, AI, and What Words Really Mean Is language the same as thought? Dr. Idan Blank (UCLA) joins Beyond Words to explain why the answer is no — and why that matters for neuroscience, speech therapy, and AI. We explore the brain’s language network, how large language models learn, why Broca’s area is misunderstood, and what this all means for te...

Beyond Words Ep. 13 | Bilingual Brains and Sound Processing with Dr. Jennifer Krizman What does it mean to hear the world through two languages? In this episode, host Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Jenn Krizman , research scientist at the Brainvolts Lab (Northwestern University) , about how bilingualism reshapes the brain’s sound processing networks. Together they explore how speaking multiple lang...

Beyond Words Ep. 12 | The Developing Sound System: From Canonical Proportion to Cochlear Implants with Dr. Cychosz In this episode of Beyond Words , Dr. Meg Cychosz (Stanford University) joins host Garrett Oyama to explore how children develop speech and language—from babbling and canonical proportion to cochlear implants and multilingual environments. We dive into naturalistic data, cultural vari...

Beyond Words Ep. 11 | The Inner Voice: Exploring Intrapersonal Communication with Constance Bainbridge In this special archive episode, Garrett sits down with fellow UCLA PhD student Constance (Connie) Bainbridge , a researcher in the Department of Communication who studies the inner voice —how we communicate with ourselves. Connie is the Principal Investigator of the Stream of Mind Lab and her wo...

Beyond Words Ep. 10 | The Magic of the Sound Mind: Bridging Neuroscience and Speech Therapy with Dr. Nina Kraus In this special archive episode of Beyond Words, host Garrett Oyama sits down for his very first conversation with Dr. Nina Kraus — renowned auditory neuroscientist and author of Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World . Dr. Kraus shares her journey from studying...

Beyond Words Ep. 9 | The Power of Gesture in Language Development with Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD Watch on YouTube Join the Beyond Words Newsletter Join host Garrett Oyama as he sits down with Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow, one of the world’s foremost experts on gesture and language development. Together, they explore how our hands reflect what we know, how gesture supports...

Beyond Words Ep. 8 | Memory, Language, and Meaning with Dr. Charan Ranganath Join the Beyond Words Newsletter Get ASHA CEUs: Speech Therapy PD Watch on YouTube In this episode, neuroscientist Dr. Charan Ranganath (author of Why We Remember ) joins Garrett Oyama to explore how schemas , event boundaries , and the structure of language shape what we remember — and why. We discuss how memory works no...

Beyond Words Ep. 7 | The Neuroscience of Language: Brain Networks and Individual Difference with Dr. Ev Fedorenko Join the Beyond Words Newsletter Get ASHA CEUs: SpeechTherapyPD Watch on YouTube Dr. Ev Fedorenko (MIT) joins host Garrett Oyama to explore how the brain processes language — and why the language network is far more distinct and specialized than previously thought. From the surprising...

Beyond Words Ep. 6 | The Music and Speech Connection with Dr. Anita Collins Get ASHA CEUs: SpeechTherapyPD Join the Beyond Words Newsletter Watch on YouTube Join host Garrett Oyama in this Beyond Words archive episode with internationally renowned educator and author Dr. Anita Collins to explore one of the most practical and powerful tools for child development: music . Best known for her TED-Ed v...