Scientists Teach Father To Communicate Emotions Using Rudimentary Hand Gestures

Researchers were able to successfully teach a father how to communicate his emotions with rudimentary hand gestures. The stunning development happened after Stanford researchers spent nine months trying to train 42-year-old Pittsburgh father Ron Myers to express simple sentiments like pride and love in a way few thought possible. To conduct the study, researchers used large, simplistic diagrams depicting hand gestures a dad might use to show emotion in a way Ron could easily comprehend. When Ron was able to successfully identify an emotion, he was given rewards to reinforce good behavior, including buffalo wings or a moment to read a page of a Tom Clancy novel. Despite Ron's breakthrough, researchers say he still has a way to go before achieving full emotional maturity, as after several months of work with Ron, he still retreats to the corner of the lab to look up drywalling techniques on the Internet whenever his real family drops by to see him.