TMW Center Newsletter October 2022

Language Input Can Be Promoted Early in Toddlerhood and Sustained Over Time Among Families Facing Socioeconomic Disadvantages

Limited educational attainment and language skills have been discussed as two major barriers to caregivers of low SES in enriching the language environments for their young children. Parenting: Science and Practice recently published research conducted by TMW Center Research Director Christy Leung, TMW Center Co-Director Dana Suskind, and sociology doctoral candidate Jose Eos Trinidad, that found supporting mothers with evidence-based knowledge and strategies to foster an optimal language environment for young children can overcome socioeconomic barriers and narrow early language input disparities. The randomized controlled trial examined whether the quantity and quality of maternal language input were increased through the 3Ts Home Visiting intervention early in toddlerhood, and whether increases in maternal language input were sustained over time among families of low SES—controlling for maternal education level, language skill, depressive symptoms, family adversity, child age, child language skills, and the length of recording. Read the full report here.

Guiding Public Discourse & Public Policy

Policymakers gathered Oct. 4 for a virtual Congressional Briefing on strategies to support children’s development, health and wellbeing. Dana Suskind joined a panel of early childhood experts to share with legislators how measures of brain function are indicators of improved academic, social and self-regulation skills later in childhood, and how modest economic support for young families positively impacts child outcomes.

Two weeks earlier, Dana traveled to Nebraska to deliver a keynote address at the fifth annual Thriving Children, Families & Communities Conference … on the heels of her late August keynote address at the Hunt Institute’s Early Childhood Leadership Summit in Phoenix. No rest for the weary when it comes to creating a world where all children have an equal opportunity to thrive!

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Read the rest of the October 2022 newsletter here.