It’s
not every day that we get a chance to celebrate victories, is it? But
lately the good news about local efforts to close the word gap has been
buoying all of us at Too Small to Fail. People across the
country are in agreement that talking, reading, and singing to children
from birth strengthens bonds with them and builds vocabularies so they
can better prepare for school.
In this newsletter, we’d like to share some of that good news with you.
In case you missed it, last week Too Small to Fail launched
its first local campaign in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Working with community
partners like the George Kaiser Family Foundation, CAP Tulsa, and Tulsa
Educare, we announced a campaign that will help parents and caregivers
increase the number of words they speak directly to their babies and
toddlers every day. We’re really excited about this initiative, and are
hopeful that by working with local pediatricians, faith-based leaders,
business owners and others to share the campaign’s messages, we can help
close the word gap in Tulsa.
In
Chicago, PNC Foundation (part of the PNC Bank) just announced a $19
million, multi-year initiative to help Chicago parents and caregivers
build their children’s vocabularies. The initiative will fund early
learning and vocabulary programs—including the Thirty Million Words
Initiative started by Too Small to Fail advisory council member Dr. Dana Suskind—and will track the progress of the participating families for several years.
The
city of Providence, Rhode Island, announced just two weeks ago that it
was launching an intensive program that combines home visitation with
other community-wide efforts to empower parents to close the word gap by
speaking and reading more to their children. Providence Mayor Angel
Taveras has been a committed advocate on this issue, and expects the
program to eventually help more than 2,000 families in the area.
And
First Five California recently launched its new effort to help parents
and caregivers understand the importance of using everyday moments to
build their children’s vocabularies in a statewide campaign called
“Talk. Read. Sing.”. Commercials and radio spots are filling the air
with messages about baby and toddler development, and ways to get
parents and little kids more engaged in talk and play.
Finally,
our partner Univision Communications announced this week a national
month-long effort named “Accion por los Niños” aimed at Hispanic
families to raise awareness and increase the time they spend talking,
reading and singing to their very young children. The media company will
host a series of events across the country including reading gardens
with Univision celebrities, special programming in affiliate stations
and press events with elected leaders.
We
hope you find this good news encouraging, and that you can find a way
to support efforts to close the word gap—either in your family or your
community. Either way, we look forward to hearing about it.
In The News:
- “Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap in Kids Start at Home”, NPR, March 17, 2014.
- “PNC Launches $19 Million Vocabulary Initiative in Chicago”, Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2014.
- “Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word”, New York Times, March 25, 2014.
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Video
Check out one of the First Five California ads that aims to empower parents and caregivers to close the word gap. >> |
