Abstract:

Lets Talk Mom is a social intervention and a research project directed to low-income pregnant women in Chile. The initiative seeks to communicate neuroscientific information to them, starting when they get pregnant until their child is four years old. The aim of the program is to communicate information to mothers on how to use language and to carry out early cognitive stimulation to take care of their children in the best possible way given the environment. In this paper we propose that using narratives, in conjunction with other ludic activities is one possible way to communicate neuroscience in an understandable, reliable and enjoyable way to audiences with low literacy and low income levels in Latin America.

Several studies associate living in an environment of chaos and inequality with cognitive/social development disadvantages. The relationship between learning skills and poverty has been well documented. Recent studies explain that poverty might affect brain development and therefore academic performance. The reality in Chile suggests this same situation: income level appears to be crucial in developing learning skills. Despite this evidence, in Chile, and in most parts of the world, public policies have failed to provide solutions to reduce the stresses of living in poverty during pregnancy. We believe that one possible way to alleviate this problem is to design a science communication strategy in order to equip pregnant woman (in poverty situations) with neuro-scientific information so that they become aware of the danger for their children in early development stages due to stress situations and therefore to enable them to identify, prevent and handle such situations.

The importance of communicating science by means of narrative forms has been suggested by several authors. Research in the fields of narrative and figurative language has spawned important conclusions concerning the importance of narrative cognition and its implications in education and communication. According to Gardner (2001), in his theory of multiple intelligences, one of the ways in which complexity can be presented and communicated is by means of a narrative. Stories are attractive to people of all ages and conditions. Narrative provides a precise tool with which to represent and transmit knowledge; it is an effective emotional detonator, a long term mnemonic structure, and an important reinforcement for learning. The presentation of scientific information by means of short stories, novels, drama and comic strips should be considered as an important resource for the dissemination of knowledge, among the range of instruments at the disposal of science communicators.

Keywords:

Science education, Science Communication, narratives, cognitive/social development.