Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

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Si se hubiera quedado ahí, el libro ya sería bueno. Pero lo que lo hace excelente es la capacidad crítica con el ser humano, el primate, que capaz de creerse más inteligente que las demás especies, comete atrocidades y actos que denotan lo contrario.

Employment advisers will visit the Beyond Words’ book clubs to use the new books and help members explore volunteering and work. People with learning disabilities will be trained as a national network of peer supporters to work with the clubs. Time listening to each other will help you to make your own decisions. Using Books Beyond Words in clinical interactions: Betty is a New Caledonian crow who uses previous experience to reason through problems. Having learned what a hook is, she bends straight wire into hooks to reach food deep inside tubes. Presented with an array of wires, Betty chooses the correct length and diameter for the task before her." As biologist Carl Safina shows in Beyond Words, many animals have complex emotional and intellectual lives. Safina invites readers to view animals as individuals who have their own “personalities” (“who, not what”). The chimps and dolphins in Beyond Words are even more interesting than anything in the Uplift novels - and they happen to be real!In one particularly good section of the book, Safina recounted his days at university, sitting in the classroom listening to lectures on the evils of anthropomorphizing animal's actions. I too have sat in lectures along with myriad undergrads and grads who heard largely the same thing Safina did. It is bored into our brains that since we cannot speak the same language, we cannot ask animals what they think and feel, and thus it a sacrilege to anthropomorphize their actions. After all, we can only observe actions, not thoughts or feelings. We must take caution in our interpretation of these actions. Safina agrees with this but suggests that in fact the professors themselves have made assumptions. Safina claims it is just as wrong to assume they do not have emotions and feelings similar to humans. If we can only measure behaviors, then Safina cautions, just stop there. No need to come to unfounded conclusions that since humans can't observe a feeling or thought, that it does not exist. Great argument. Aren���t we, by fits and starts, even through the darkness of unspeakable human horrors, always searching for peace, always seeking more perfect ways of taming ourselves? Self-domestication does indeed seem part of the human program. The process of becoming more civil is called civilization. This is a stunning book, the section on killer whales a true revelation—and as Safina himself points out, since the study of the behaviour, emotions, intelligence and consciousness of our fellow creatures is such a relatively new field (mere decades, barely begun) there are more revelations to come. And yet, surprisingly perhaps given its subject, Beyond Words is not an angry book; it’s remarkably restrained—albeit through gritted teeth at times when describing some of the grosser idiocies and atrocities routinely perpetrated on other animals by us. When I chose to read this book I thought I was going to get something like The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think which I gave four stars, but rather than concentrating solely on dogs the focus would cover many animals. Carl Safina's book is wider in scope and completely different in focus. Hare's book is very good, but Safina's is better, in my view! Hare's book draws conclusions by looking at particular experiments, stipulating how they were carried out and analyzing their results. It is a book about the latest scientific studies on dogs’ cognitive abilities. When I came to Poland at the beginning of the war, my daughter Anastasia asked me, whether I could share my experiences with a Polish artist who wanted to document it all in drawings. How do you tell your story of escape from your war-torn homeland? How do you share your emotions and put them into words coherently, for the other side to understand?

Heartbreaking book. Dense with concepts and information. A read to be savored. Let it make an impact on you. If you've ever wondered how unique humans are with their emotions, family relations, problem solving, and intelligence get this book.The project builds on the success of book groups for people with learning disabilities and autism and will be the start of a new focus on four stages of employment including leaving school or college, exploring work, finding and staying in a job. CEO, Alicia Wood, has re-articulated what Beyond Words stands for, defining our strengths in supporting both visual and emotional literacy and exploring a wider readership for our stories, with our main focus being book clubs or groups whether in community, educational or therapeutic settings. It’s too easy for a professional to assume that you won’t understand. It’s called ‘diagnostic overshadowing’ and it applies whether you have an illness like depression or whether you have heart disease. It’s when the health or care professional thinks that your worries, or your pain are due to your learning disability or because you’re an autistic person. At the beginning of Phase one, a senior leadership team member and a teacher from each school were trained in facilitating whole-class book groups. Each book group identified three ‘best hoped for’ learning outcomes (BHFOs) linked to the school’s SEMH curriculum and individual targets. Using the Beyond Words storylines, which typically move the main character from personal difficulty through reflection to solution, teachers and TAs supported pupils to think through personal wellbeing and safety issues linked to their own experiences. They facilitated pupils’ comments, thinking and discussions around: Consider the similarities between male wolves and men. They’re quite striking. Males of very few species directly enhance the survival of females or young year-round. …

Lucy Goes Riding is a brand new book all about the joy of shared activities and making friends. It shows Lucy trying out horse riding for the first time, making new friendships and strengthening old ones. This story was developed in memory of our colleague and friend Carrie Dunton, who died in 2021. The importance of friendships and horses were just two of the many things that mattered to Carrie. We miss you Carrie and are sure this short story will give pleasure to many people. The chapter on elephants is somewhat boring, but digestible. The chapters on wolves and killer whales are decent, but, sadly, not free of these rambling and sometimes ridiculous interpretations. The third chapter... I can't even tell what's it about; just random stuff, I assume. Our CEO, Katie Smith, said: “Picture-based, word-free resources like these are vitally important in helping people who find visual mediums easier to understand than written ones. They allow people to build understanding of the vaccination process, as well as having open discussions about their anxieties, questions, and emotions. We are delighted to have been able to bring our approach to such a valuable resource”. It has been 475 days since the tragedy hit our country, and it is still keeping the nation and the world in great distress. The enemy is committing new crimes in Ukraine on a daily basis. Women and children, who have managed to escape the atrocities, continue to live, learn, work and simply breathe, in Poland and other countries which have offered refuge since the start of the war.

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In 2011 with the support of the University, Sheila launched a new charity in which she hoped Nigel’s leadership potential would be able to develop. Since its launch in the community, Beyond Words has evolved in unexpected ways, always seeking to find ways to empower people in their own lives - including in schools. Beyond Words is now an award-winning small charity with a growing impact, even finding new ways to reach people during the pandemic. This is particularly important as COVID-19, and the importance of the vaccine, is no longer front and centre in the media. We hope this resource will help people to continue conversations about the importance of protecting their health, in many ways, in the long term”.