SPREADING the MESSAGE of Early Talk
THROUGH HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS BY Shannon Nickinson STUDER COMMUNITY INSTITUTE
T
he message is spreading. As the Brain Bag project continues to educate local parents about the important role that parent talk and interaction plays in healthy early brain development, the project’s concept is gaining traction in other communities. Studer Community Institute has partnered with two hospital systems — one in Cincinnati and one in Laurinburg, N.C., — to help them bring the Brain Bag concept to their communities. The regional footprint of the project is growing, too. Beginning in 2020, these early literacy gift bags will be handed out to mothers at Santa Rosa Medical Center in Milton, thanks to publisher Sandi Kemp and the sponsorship of The Navarre Press’ Newspapers In Education program. Adding these mothers to the roughly 5,000 women who deliver babies at Escambia County’s three birthing hospitals will mean that nearly 5,350 families each year will get a gift that we hope will start them on a lifelong journey of learning. “My wife just mentioned to someone that new babies, in fact, now DO come with instructions!” said Pensacola dad Jay Brown, whose daughter, Lucy, was born in August 2019 at Sacred Heart Hospital. “The Brain Bag was such a nice thing to receive. I'm looking forward to reading ‘P is for Pelican’ when Lucy is a tad older, too. “Thankfully my wife, a former librarian, is already a big believer in reading to kids and the value of vocabulary, but I think your organization has great a mission and is doing wonderful things to that point.”
They are given free of charge to every parent whose child is born in Baptist, Sacred Heart and West Florida hospitals, because every parent will benefit from the message that talk and interaction is a key ingredient to healthy early brain development and ultimately school readiness. The Bags are given with a lesson in the hospital reviewing what’s inside and sharing with parents key points about
why parent talk is so critical to a child’s development — and ultimately school readiness. Those key points include: • 85 percent of your baby’s brain is built by age 3. The best thing you can do to help your baby’s brain grow is easy — Talk! • Your words are food for your baby’s brain. The more words a child hears in
BUILDING BLOCKS, A PARENT MAGAZINE
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