We've created a 8.5x14 4-fold brochure with examples, suggestions, and encouragement for parents learning why it's important to interact with babies during the first years of life. We hope that this will help you explain this to others. Please feel free to download and reproduce this to help spread the word. Please do not alter these documents in any way.
Talk to Your Baby - in Utero and Out
May 15, 2012
Has anyone ever told you how important it is to talk to your baby? Have you thought to yourself, "That's silly; my baby is too little to know what I am saying"? Even though babies can't answer back in conversation, that isn't an excuse not to talk to them. Studies have shown that the more you talk to your baby, the greater the chance he or she has of learning to speak and understand words.
Talking Children Up
April 30, 2012
Children who hear calm voices and a variety of words have a much greater chance of academic achievement, physical health, and well-being. Babies who are not stimulated by calm conversation are more likely to struggle to learn and less likely to make positive contributions to our community as adults. A child's brain development irrevocably changes, based on the words that she hears in the first three years of life.
Language can Break Cycle of Poverty
December 12, 2011
To break the cycle of poverty in Memphis, we must support programs that help children develop language skills in their first three years. According to the 2011 Data Book published by The Urban Child Institute, 40 percent of children in Memphis live in poverty, compared with 20 percent nationally. These children are at risk of remaining in poverty unless they receive help developing the language skills they need to succeed academically and cope with difficult emotions.
Touch. Talk. Read. Play. When it comes to a child’s ability to learn, these four little words hold huge weight and significance as the foundation for early brain development.
