By Alex Boss
The more words babies hear during their first 18 months of its life, the better they can read by the third grade. However, some babies hear fewer words from their parents and fall behind in their reading skills.
Kimberly Ross is trying to fix this word gap by educating parents during visits to Woman, Infant and Children (WIC) clinics.
“The idea is to get the message to parents through work forces such as WIC clinics,” said Ross, who manages the Early Brain Development & Language Acquisition Program Manager at the Georgia Department of Public Health.
This initiative is part of the Talk With Me Baby project, which is led by six leadership organizations with the goal of bridging the word gap in babies. Ross presented an overview of the project and its goals at the 2017 State of the Public’s Health Conference in Athens, Georgia on October 17th.
The program presented educational information in two phases. Phase one focused on informing parents through video material.
“We played a video in the waiting room of the WIC clinics,” said Ross, “It was a passive approach.” The downside was that many parents did not remember the material.
In phase two, WIC nutritionists had direct tools they could use with their patients, including a flip chart, stickers and a fridge magnet. The flip chart featured graphics on one side and coaching language skills on the other for parents to use with their children. The stickers included fun facts or pictures, and the fridge magnet had description for language that tied into food.
Out of all the tools used with patients the fridge magnet was the most informative and influential.
“They learned the most from it,” said Ross, “Staff like the magnet because participants could pick a goal.” The flip chart also received positive reviews. “The flipchart was engaging and staff liked how visual it was,” said Ross.
A limitation of the study is the low response rate, says Ross, which was 23 percent. However, looking towards the future Ross spoke about other initiatives in motion outside of the WIC clinics.
“There’s a pilot going on for early care teachers and in the Grady hospital system,” said Ross. “They are becoming a Talk With Me Baby hospital, so we’re looking at them as a pilot, for building this ecosystem where everybody who works in a mother baby unit is trained. We are trying to see what is really going to support this language rich environment.”
