In January 2022, Atlanta’s new Mayor Andre Dickens shared his vision to make Atlanta the best place to raise a child. This commitment to children and families in the city was especially bold, given the well-documented disparities in educational and economic access among children born in the city and resulting tragically low rates of social mobility. Grady Hospital is partnering with the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy to change the odds for every child – a critical first step toward realizing Mayor Dickens’ promise, and they are making their approach – known as Talk With Me Baby (TWMB) – available to every hospital across Georgia and throughout the nation.
Science shows brain circuitry for speech, language, and hearing (and many other development processes) is being constructed before birth and continues through adulthood with exponential growth of more than 1 million brain connections forming each second from 0-3yrs old. From the third trimester, babies hear and process sound from the outside world, especially the voices of their mothers. Prenatal exposure to language builds the foundation for cognitive development. What starts as crying, cooing and sporadic eye gaze – with caregivers intentionally delivering “language nutrition” – becomes babies’ first words, phrases, conversational abilities and ultimately the development of literacy.
TWMB’s role is to help each family learn the practices of early communication with babies from the moment they are born. This not only establishes the child’s brain connections of trust and safety, but also deepens parents’ bond to the child, lowers the risks of post-partum depression and builds the foundation for the child’s advancements through school and life.
Grady Hospital’s TWMB is a caregiver coaching program that provides parents with the agency to deliver “language nutrition” to their babies in ways that are fun, engaging, and culturally affirming. In partnership with the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy, Grady Hospital is now making Talk With Me Baby available to all birthing centers – a critical step in building the universal continuum of early healthy brain development and language acquisition necessary to eradicate illiteracy in the state.
Recently, The Brazelton Touchpoints Center which operates under the shared umbrella of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, concluded their independent evaluation of TWMB, grading the program an “A” in design, implementation and outcomes for caregivers and children. Some of those results are shared below:
Mothers/Babies/Families
5,787 families received TWMB coaching during their inpatient stay at Grady Hospital during the initial 5-year program period (2017-2022). According to the Brazelton study:
- Family commitment: 99% of families held positive attitudes about supporting their child’s brain and language development.
- Long-term integration: 91% of families reported continued application of serve and return language practices in their homes over the four years following leaving the hospital. After working with TWMB coaches, families believe that there is value in talking to their child(ren) and that language-rich interactions are beneficial.
- Child outcomes: 79% of children with parents who received TWMB coaching were identified as having typically developing communication behaviors with scores well above the cutoff on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Scores were consistently high regardless of their child’s age or time since TWMB coaching.
Healthcare Professionals
401 healthcare professionals provided families with TWMB coaching and educational sessions during their stay at Grady, offering perinatal care in inpatient units and embedding the TWMB information-sharing and coaching into their regular care routines.
- Ninety-three percent (93%) of the Grady healthcare professionals involved in the study Agreed or Strongly Agreed that TWMB deepens families’ knowledge of and fosters children’s language development and that TWMB is an important part of their role as a healthcare professional.
Dr. Catherine Ayoub, Brazelton Touchpoints Center wrote:
“Further replication of TWMB is strongly recommended. It is supported by more than four years of incubation at Grady Hospital and overwhelmingly positive results after a comprehensive longitudinal evaluation.”
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT:
In 2023, the Georgia Legislature passed the Georgia Early Literacy Act (HB 538), inviting a coordinated statewide reform effort to change literacy outcomes for all of Georgia’s students. Waiting until pre-K to apply this reform is far too late.
The practices of Talk With Me Baby are now being implemented at Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta. The Rollins Center for Language & Literacy and Grady are also engaged with other healthcare providers, birthing centers, and hospital delivery departments to make TWMB available to all child-facing healthcare staff and patient families. The goal is to establish Talk With Me Baby as the standard of care for every birthing center and hospital in the country. For more information, please email us at partnerships@coxcampus.org.
Cox Campus, an online learning platform designed to provide free and unrestricted access to the Science of Reading coursework, content, and professional learning resources, serves teachers and other providers across the learning continuum – prenatal through literacy. This year, Cox Campus celebrates 10 years of service, while The Rollins Center for Language and Literacy will celebrate 20 years of service. This work has been made possible by the support of local and national foundations committed to literacy and justice for all. Cox Campus provides language and literacy resources to over 300,000 members across all 50 states and in over 138 countries globally.
