04 Taupule, a woman from Tuvalu

This recording was made by Johnson Siota was part of linguistic research conducted by Dr. Pita Sharples among the Sikaiana people of the Solomon Islands n the 1960s. The transcription in Sikaiana is by Priscilla Taulupo and the rough translation is by Bill Donner. The story of Taupule was well known to Sikaiana people during my stays in the 1980s on Sikaiana. She came from the Tuvalu and was dropped off on Sikaiana by a trader during her pregnancy, sometime in the late 1800s. She warned traders that life would change from contact with Europeans. her descendants felt a certain unity among themselves and with Tuvalu. There were several slightly different versions of the story. This one is told by her great grandson, Johnson Siota

Connections Network: Harnessing the Collective Influence of Grassroots Leaders to Address Health-Related Problems in Hawkins and Hancock County, TN

In March 2021, grassroots leaders in two counties in northeast Tennessee formed a new network called Connections. Leaders are working to strengthen the capacity of the network and member organizations by promoting partnerships as vital to address effectively rural social determinants of health. Connections provides network members with capacity-building tools and resources, including two funding opportunities, to achieve their missions and sustain impact. Network members are also aligning around common goals to address the socioeconomic conditions affecting health outcomes. Connections will utilize findings from network activities and collaborations to identify synergies that can accelerate improvements in community health and well-being

Infants' and toddlers' language development during the pandemic: Socioeconomic status mattered

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about children’s development. Here, we examined the impact of the pandemic on Canadian infants’ and toddlers’ (N = 539) language development. Specifically, we assessed changes in 11- to 34-month-olds’ activities that are known to affect vocabulary development (i.e., screen and reading times). We also compared these children’s vocabulary sizes with those of 1365 children collected before the pandemic using standardized vocabulary assessments. Our results show that screen and reading times were most negatively affected in lower-income children. For vocabulary growth, no measurable change was detected in middle- and high-income children, but lower-income 19- to 29-month-olds fared worse during the pandemic than during pre-pandemic times. Moving forward, these data indicate that educators and policymakers should pay particular attention to children from families with lower socioeconomic status during times of crisis and stress