And here’s another reminder about our first live chat.

We’re going to do a live chat! Shani as a young dancer

It’s with Shaundra Daily. It’s happening at 7 pm ET on Wednesday, April 13.

And you’re invited.

Bring some finger food and some friends, especially if you think they (your friends…) could benefit from some “educational engineering.”

It’s gonna be fun.

Secret Lifers, are you ready for a hazardous and technically unexplainable journey into the outer stratosphere?

We thought so. Shani does a killer robot!

Join us right here on our homepage next Wednesday, April 13 at 7 pm ET. Our much beloved Shaundra Daily is going to stop by and answer your questions in our first ever, real-time, LIVE chat! It’s going to be lots of fun, and it’ll give you a new way to interact with one of our “Secret Life” subjects. I’ll be your host/moderator and may even bring some virtual chips and salsa.

So come keep us company next Wednesday night at 7 ET. We’re looking forward to it.

Today we feature our very first mother blogger, Joan Polete Bryant, the proud mom of Shani Daily. If you’ve seen Shani’s videos, you know what a great influence her mom has always been in her life. Many thanks to Joan for writing this post!

One particular verse in scripture states, “Point your child(ren) in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost” (The Message). This one and other scriptures were my guiding lights in steering Shani throughout her life—even now! Shani and her mom (without the PA system!)

Shani demonstrated a particular proclivity for math and science at a very early age. At that point, my thoughts were, “Hey, maybe she’ll grow up to be a doctor.” From that point on, whenever I wanted her attention, I would pretend to be on a PA system in a hospital paging “Dr. Bryant.” I even bought her a medical kit, complete with stethoscope! Now that Shani has earned her doctorate by combining her love for children with her curious nature for taking things apart, I could not be happier. While we are on the subject of her curious nature, I remember once when we hired a magician for her fourth or fifth birthday party. When all of the other children were laughing and clapping about all the magic being performed, Shani was quietly sitting back, watching the magician closely so that she could figure out how he was doing his tricks.

That’s our daughter—and we would not change anything about her! To God be the glory for all she has accomplished!

Shaundra Daily’s software has been instrumental in helping girls understand their emotions, and apparently she’s not alone in her thinking. When I read this article in the New York Times, I was happy to know that other Shaundra’s exist the world over. This guy helps kids emote.

The piece shines a spotlight on the work of Mexican child psychologist Julia Borbolla, whose kid-like animated characters have helped get inside victimized children’s inner thoughts so that doctors are better able to help them. And the reason these “emotional agents” have been so effective at getting to the root cause is because most children feel more comfortable talking to a “kid” than to an adult. This thinking isn’t new – it’s just that technology has finally enabled doctors to put this rationale to good use.

As someone who has been told all throughout my adult life that my animated facial expressions reveal what I’m thinking at any given moment, it’s hard for me to remember that I wasn’t always like this. But as a child, I internalized nearly everything. And while I was quite emotive and playful when it was just me and my Smurfette action figures, I shut down around everyone else. Not quite a “flat line,” to use Shaundra’s words, but close. So when I watched Shaundra’s videos and read the article, it struck me how important having this capability actually is in helping children. Perhaps if Shaundra’s or Borbolla’s software would have existed in my youth, I could have expressed my feelings and made others understand how my surroundings were limiting my ability to emote.

I’m comforted that the technology exists now to help other kids make sense of their emotions. So to all you Shaundra’s and Borbolla’s out there trying to make a difference, I support you.

And when are you going to build some software to help adults understand the rollercoaster ride we’re on?

Watching the “Getting Emotion” portion of Shaundra Daily’s “Secret Life” segment really hit home for me as an educator. It brings me back many years when I was teaching fifth grade. I had a brilliant and very likeable student, John (not his real name) in my class. And he had a personal connection to the very recent 9/11 attack. He was very articulate, but had become a bit of a loner and when asked to write or do any work that required putting pencil to paper, he would barely get any work done. Alternate tools can help you reach a student As you can imagine, this would affect anyone’s feelings of self-worth. A student who could clearly be at the top of a class might suddenly feel like he was “failing,” yet this simply wasn’t the case. Besides, these were apparently new behaviors for John.

I soon discovered that by allowing John to use a few alternate tools, he was able to participate and express himself in ways that for some reason, hadn’t worked before. What did I do? I offered him a few tools I had in the classroom. One was for writing. I had a few computers in my classroom and we had the software, Kidspiration, a visual word-mapping tool that allowed John to create a diagram of his story ideas and then type them out. He had a lot to say, but simply couldn’t get it down on paper; but he sure could type. I wish I had kept some of his work! I encouraged John’s parents to download the 30-day free (full) version so that he could use it at home as well. I believe they ended up buying it because it really helped him with all his subjects.

Shaundra’s work caught my eye. Although I taught for a good number of years, I never totally connected the link between emotions and learning. I knew that upset students couldn’t pay attention. But the thought of engineering a tool to help identify emotions so they don’t block learning is an astonishing thought. What an idea for teachers! Books are for reading, not for hiding behind!

Fear, anger, sadness, and enjoyment form the basic emotions. Within each emotion, a range of related feelings expand from there. But Priscilla Vail, an expert on learning, has explained it a different way. She describes emotion as the “on-off switch to learning.”

Emotions give us a way to gauge the world. Without emotions, our world would be flat and dull. We wouldn’t experience the joyous dizziness that comes with falling in love, feel the surge of contentment looking at magnificent mountain peaks, or grieve over the loss of a loved one.

10 questions just weren’t enough for Shani Daily. So she’s actually back to answer three MORE questions. We heart Shani!

How did you choose dance? She’s a natural!

I didn’t. I think dance chose me. I was a gymnast for many years, but a combination of fussy knees and a slight bit of fear of vaulting ended that career early. The day I left my gym, my mom took me to a dance studio that a friend of mine attended. Afraid that I’d be put into “baby” classes, I didn’t mention that I had never taken a dance class. As a result, in my first year of dance, I was in pointe, advanced jazz, advanced tap, and acrobatics. I had to use my peripheral vision to watch everybody else so I could pretend I knew what I was doing. Luckily, there is some overlap between dance and gymnastics; although dancers who have danced all their lives can always tell I was a gymnast.

Have you ever combined dance and engineering?

Yes. I worked on a project my first year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called Roballet. This was a great experience where the kids programmed lights, music, and animations that were controlled through sensors attached to their bodies. Currently, my company, g8four, just launched a learning boutique called Techniq. We’re going to be conducting workshops for students to learn through the arts and technology. In one workshop, called Algorhythms, students spend part of the day learning swing dance or hip hop, and the other half of the day using computers to program 3D dance partners.

Are there other secrets you wish you had?

La Dame de Fer While I love dancing with all my heart there are few things that I consider equally as fantastic.

1 Movie, cartoon, or commercial voice over. Just imagine me saying, “Moms who love kids have kids with good Techniq.” Awesome, right?

2 Movie stunt double. I think it would be amazing to be able to be somebody’s stunt double. I say stunt double rather than actress who performs her own stunts, because I don’t imagine I would ever be chosen for a role.

3 Former Olympian. For a long time, I thought I could be the next Betty Okino. Unfortunately, gymnasts can’t be Olympians if they won’t vault. Who knew?

Shaundra Daily builds software that helps kids recognize, and learn from, their emotions. It’s a topic close to her heart: when she was a child, she says, she “didn’t really get emotion.”

Many children with autism struggle with a similar problem: not being able to fully communicate their emotions, or fully understand what others are feeling. Fortunately, scientists like Shaundra are building high-tech tools that can help. Read. My. Stress Levels. (Image courtesy of nerissa’s ring)

Last summer, I had the pleasure of seeing one of Shaundra’s MIT colleagues, Rosalind Picard, give a talk at the World Science Festival in New York about several of her autism projects.

One of her team’s tools, called the Q Sensor, is a wristband that measures the electrical conductivity of the skin and then wirelessly transmits this data back to computers or cell phones. Skin conductance is a good measure of the body’s response to stress. So, when wearing the device, individuals with autism—or their teachers or family members—can monitor their emotional response even if they don’t show it on their face or express it verbally. (You can see a video of how the Q Sensor works here.)

Individuals with autism also have trouble reading other people’s facial expressions and emotions, which Picard has addressed in another project. She created a video system to be used during one-on-one conversations. The system can predict simple emotions—such as confusion, interest, or disagreement—based on footage of head movements and facial expressions. One person in the conversation wears a pair of glasses outfitted with a tiny display that shows this feedback about the other person’s emotions. Ideally, this tool will help people with autism interpret subtle cues during real interactions.

That’s only two of Picard’s many amazing projects. Check out the full list here.

When Shaundra Daily’s mother was a girl, the family lived in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. And it was with love that Shaundra’s grandmother—a maid her entire life—told her daughter that “you can be a secretary or you can be a maid—those are the two options.” The doctor as a young soccer player. Shaundra’s mother thought about it, sized up those options, and decided it would be best to go to school and learn how to be a secretary. As Shaundra said when she told us this story, “that was the time.”

Things had changed some by the time Shaundra was a girl. And there were more possibilities. “My mother completely rejected the notion of limits,” Shaundra said, “which is why she always said, ‘whatever you want to do, do it.’” In fact, when Shaundra displayed an early gift for math and science, her mother had her own way of helping to cultivate those talents (and FYI, Shaundra’s maiden name was “Bryant”):

“If I was in the house and she was downstairs [and wanted my attention], she would always act like she was on a PA in a hospital, and she’d say, ‘SHH—Dr. Bryant. Calling Dr. Bryant.’ And she would always do that and get a kick out of it. So now that I’m actually finished with my dissertation, I am a doctor. My mom gets a kick out of the fact that she’s literally been saying that my whole life.”

Nowadays, in spite of the fact that she has earned that doctorate and is now an engineer running a company with her husband, Shaundra’s natural humility makes her wary of considering herself a role model. But as her mother has told her, “Regardless of how you feel about it, that’s what you are.” And Shaundra has come around to the idea:

“The numbers of women and minorities that are in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are so small that when you are one, you do become a role model. I understand that there is this probability when I get in front of a group of girls or when I get in front of a group of African-Americans, that I do serve in this role. And I’m open, and I’m honest, and I share as much as possible.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the doctor is in the house.

Dancer + Engineer = Dancineer! (Have you seen Shaundra do “the robot”? Watch her 10Q video.)

And when you’re done with that, use the comments to ask her your questions.

UPDATE: We are no longer taking more questions for Shaundra. But check out her answers in the comments. She may have answered a question you were going to ask!