Improving early child development with words: Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald at TEDxAtlanta

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the critical role of early language development in shaping a child's future health, wealth, and educational success. Drawing on research, the presentation highlights that by age three, children from professional families hear 30 million more words than those in poverty, which significantly affects their brain development and long-term learning outcomes. Programs like 'Talk with Me Baby' aim to teach parents, especially those in underserved communities, the importance of language nutrition, stressing that early, meaningful interactions between caretakers and children are essential for cognitive growth and future success.

Takeaways

• 💬 Language is a profound predictor of health and wealth, with its roots established by the age of three.
• 🧠 Human beings possess an innate capacity for language, distinguishing us from animals with our ability to learn and use complex languages.
• 📚 The Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary contains 600,000 words, highlighting the vastness of human language capabilities.
• 👶 Babies are biologically programmed to learn language, with a significant brain growth spurt occurring late in pregnancy.
• 🤱 The interaction between caretakers and babies is crucial for language development, as seen in the 'Still Face Experiment' from the Harvard Child Development Center.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Professional families tend to speak 30 million more words to their children by age three compared to families in poverty, impacting brain development.
• 🌟 Early language exposure is more important than socioeconomic status in determining a child's language development and future success.
• 📈 The number of words a child hears by age three significantly correlates with their vocabulary and academic performance later in life.
• 🏢 The 'Talk with me baby' public-private partnership in Georgia aims to address the language gap by educating parents on the importance of early language exposure.
• 🌱 Language nutrition is essential for brain development, laying the foundation for literacy, education, and ultimately, a child's success in society.

Q & A

What is identified as a profound predictor of health and wealth by the age of three?

Language is identified as a profound predictor of health and wealth by the age of three.

How many different words are there in the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary?

There are 600,000 different words in the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary.

What does the speaker suggest is the essence of what it means to be human?

The speaker suggests that language is the essence of what it means to be human.

What is the 'Still Face Experiment' mentioned in the script?

The 'Still Face Experiment' is an experiment from the Harvard Child Development Center that demonstrates the importance of interaction between caretaker and baby by showing how a baby reacts when the mother has a still face and does not respond to the baby's attempts to engage.

What was the long-term effect of early language exposure studied by Hart and Risley?

The long-term effect of early language exposure studied by Hart and Risley showed that there were 30 million more words spoken to children from professional families compared to those in poverty, which significantly impacted their language development and future academic success.

How many words per hour do parents in professional families speak to their children according to the study?

Parents in professional families speak over 2000 words an hour to their children.

What is the term used to describe the process where unused neurons in the brain shrink and die?

The term used to describe the process where unused neurons in the brain shrink and die is 'pruning'.

Why is the ability to read by third grade considered crucial in the script?

The ability to read by third grade is considered crucial because after third grade, students are expected to read to learn. If they cannot read on level by third grade, they may struggle to keep up with their studies and may never catch up.

What is the 'Talk with me baby' partnership mentioned in the script?

The 'Talk with me baby' partnership is a public-private initiative aimed at addressing the issue of language development in early childhood, involving various organizations such as United Way, The Anne E. Casey Foundation, Public Health, and the Department of Early Child Care and Learning.

What is the significance of the WIC program in the context of the script?

The WIC (Women, Infant, and Child Nutrition Program) is significant because it provides a platform for healthcare providers to educate mothers on the importance of language nutrition and to distribute resources, such as books, to encourage early language development.

What is the speaker's final message to the audience regarding language and babies?

The speaker's final message is to emphasize the importance of talking with babies as a means to improve their language development, which is crucial for their future health, wealth, and success.

Outlines

00:00

🗣️ The Importance of Early Language Development

The speaker emphasizes the critical role of language in defining human nature and its impact on health and wealth. By the age of three, a child's language skills can predict their future success. The speaker, an obstetrician-gynecologist, shares her personal experience with pregnancy and how it heightened her awareness of the importance of language. She discusses the 'Still Face Experiment' from the Harvard Child Development Center, illustrating how babies are biologically programmed to interact and respond to their caretakers, highlighting the hard-wired need for language development.

05:01

👩‍👧‍👦 The Impact of Parent-Child Interaction

This section delves into the long-term effects of early childhood interactions, referencing the work of Hart and Risley. They studied family life to understand the disparities in language exposure among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Their findings revealed that professional families spoke 30 million more words to their children by age three compared to those in poverty. This disparity in language exposure directly correlates with brain development, affecting a child's ability to learn and their future educational success.

10:03

🌱 Language Nutrition and Brain Development

The speaker introduces the concept of 'language nutrition,' explaining how language is essential for brain development and learning. The discussion focuses on how the quantity of words children hear impacts their cognitive abilities. The speaker points out that it's not just the number of words but the quality of interaction that matters. Using examples, she shows how language exposure can predict a child's reading level and academic success, with implications for high school graduation and societal success.

15:04

🤝 Public-Private Partnerships to Promote Language Development

The speaker discusses the 'Talk with me baby' initiative, a public-private partnership aimed at addressing language development in Georgia. The program involves various organizations and focuses on educating healthcare providers and parents about the importance of early language exposure. The speaker explains how the Women, Infant, and Child Nutrition Program (WIC) is being utilized to reach out to mothers and promote language nutrition alongside food nutrition, with the goal of improving educational outcomes for children.

20:05

🌟 The Potential for a New Public Health Revolution

In the final paragraph, the speaker compares the potential impact of early language development on public health to past transformative initiatives like clean water and vaccinations. She argues that focusing on language from an early age could be the next big step in improving life expectancy and societal well-being. The speaker concludes with a call to action, urging the audience to talk with their babies as a simple yet powerful way to enhance their future prospects.

Keywords

💡Language

Language is the central theme of the video, described as the essence of what it means to be human. It is the sophisticated system of communication that sets humans apart from animals. The speaker emphasizes that language is not just about making noise or gestures but involves complex cognitive abilities. In the context of the video, language is crucial for cognitive development, social interaction, and ultimately, a child's future health and wealth. The speaker mentions that human beings are 'hard-wired' to learn language from an early age, highlighting the importance of early exposure and interaction.

💡Hard-wired

The term 'hard-wired' refers to the innate, biological predispositions that humans have for certain behaviors or abilities. In the video, it is used to describe how babies are biologically programmed to learn language. The speaker cites the 'Still Face Experiment' from the Harvard Child Development Center to illustrate that babies have an instinctive need for interaction and respond negatively when it is not reciprocated, indicating a hard-wired need for communication.

💡Neurological development

Neurological development pertains to the growth and maturation of the nervous system, particularly the brain. The video underscores the role of language in stimulating and shaping a child's brain development. Each word heard and spoken can strengthen neural pathways, leading to enhanced cognitive abilities. The speaker highlights how the number of words a child is exposed to can directly impact the physical structure of the brain, affecting learning capabilities.

💡Interaction

Interaction is a key concept in the video, referring to the communicative exchanges between a child and their caregivers. The speaker stresses that it's not just the quantity of words but the quality of interaction that is vital for language acquisition. For instance, the 'Still Face Experiment' demonstrates the importance of responsive interaction for a child's emotional and cognitive well-being. The video advocates for active engagement with children to foster their language skills.

💡Poverty

Poverty is discussed in the video as a significant factor affecting a child's language exposure and subsequent development. The speaker mentions that children from families in poverty hear significantly fewer words, which can hinder their language acquisition and cognitive development. This lack of early language stimulation can perpetuate the cycle of poverty by affecting educational and economic outcomes later in life.

💡Early intervention

Early intervention refers to the provision of services or support to young children, especially those at risk, to enhance their development. The video discusses the importance of early language exposure as a form of intervention. The speaker cites the work of Hart and Risley, who found that the number of words children hear by age three can predict their language and cognitive abilities later in life. The video promotes initiatives like 'Talk with me baby' as a form of early intervention to address language disparities.

💡WIC (Women, Infant, and Child Nutrition Program)

WIC is a federal assistance program in the United States that provides nutrition education, healthy food, and referrals to health care for low-income women and children. In the video, the speaker discusses how the WIC program can be leveraged to address 'language nutrition' alongside 'food nutrition.' The program's regular contact with mothers provides an opportunity to educate them on the importance of language interaction with their children, thereby enhancing early language development.

💡Language nutrition

Language nutrition is a term coined in the video to describe the importance of language exposure for a child's cognitive and brain development. It is likened to physical nutrition, emphasizing that just as a child needs proper food for growth, they also need a rich language environment to develop their full cognitive potential. The speaker argues that language nutrition is a fundamental public health issue that can impact a child's future educational success and life chances.

💡Third grade benchmark

The third grade benchmark refers to the critical point in a child's education when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn. The video highlights that children who are not reading at grade level by the third grade are at a higher risk of academic failure and not graduating from high school. The speaker uses this benchmark to underscore the urgency of addressing language and literacy skills early in a child's life.

💡Public-private partnership

A public-private partnership is a collaborative approach where government agencies and private sector companies work together to achieve a common goal. In the video, the speaker mentions the 'Talk with me baby' initiative as an example of such a partnership, which includes various organizations aiming to improve early language exposure for children. This collaborative effort is seen as a way to address the systemic issue of language deprivation and its long-term societal impacts.

Highlights

Language is a profound predictor of health and wealth, determined by three years of age.

Humans have an innate ability to learn language, with babies being hard-wired to learn different languages.

The Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary contains 600,000 words, showcasing the vastness of human language capacity.

Babies are born with the ability to learn language, making them acutely programmed to understand and use words.

The 'Still Face Experiment' demonstrates how babies are hard-wired to interact and respond to their caretakers.

The importance of early language exposure is emphasized by the difference in word count between professional and poverty-level families.

Professional families speak 30 million more words to their children by age three compared to families in poverty.

Language exposure directly affects brain development, with repeated words strengthening neural pathways.

The lack of language stimulation can lead to neural pruning, decreasing the ability to learn.

Interaction, not just hearing words, is crucial for language development, as shown by the effectiveness of sign language.

Children from welfare families know significantly fewer words by age three compared to those from professional families.

Language nutrition is vital for brain development and forms the basis for all human learning.

The ability to read by third grade is a critical benchmark for future educational success.

Children who are not reading on level by third grade are at a higher risk of not graduating from high school.

In Georgia, 70% of children do not read on third-grade level, impacting the state's health and economic outcomes.

The 'Talk with me baby' public-private partnership aims to address language development in Georgia.

WIC clinics are being utilized to educate mothers on the importance of language nutrition for their babies.

The initiative includes video education for mothers and providing books to reinforce the message of language importance.

Language development is presented as the next transformational change in public health, with potential to significantly impact life expectancy and societal success.

The call to action for all is to engage in language interaction with babies to foster their development.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Xi He Reviewer: Peter Van de Ven

Thank you very much.

There is a profound predictor of health and wealth

that can be determined by three years of age.

And that predictor is language.

Language is the essence of what it means to be human.

Now, animals may have noises or gestures that they can communicate with,

I can assure you my cat

can get me up out of the bed at five o'clock in the morning

because he is hungry,

but human beings are much more adept

and much more facile at language.

I can tell you that language in the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary,

there are 600,000 different words

that American, that English people can know.

Lots of people spoke, speak more than one language.

So the ability of humans is enormous, you never really and truly see

a chimpanzee or a rhinoceros reading a book,

but humans commonly read books,

and we understand language.

Babies come into this world

acutely programmed to learn all these different words,

to learn the essence of language,

because language is what makes us human, and quite frankly,

language is what makes us survive.

There is a huge growth spurt,

a huge increase in capacity in the brain by at least a third

that occurs in the last part of pregnancy,

right before babies come into this world.

And I can tell you that babies are hard-wired to learn different languages.

I can tell you that

because the important thing about babies is not only that there is the capacity,

but how we learn language is from our caretakers.

That means mothers and babies have this unique experience.

I can tell you from the maternal point of view

that I experienced that in my own life.

Now, I'm an obstetrician-gynecologist;

I delivered lots and lots and lots of babies,

but the experience of delivering somebody else's baby

was completely different than my own pregnancy.

Now, I gotta tell you, I came to pregnancy,

and I was already a doctor.

I've known I wanted to be a doctor from age eight.

I loved it.

I was a really good surgeon.

I wasn't really even sure I wanted children.

And then, this pregnancy occurred -

by choice -

and all of a sudden,

I was acutely aware of my unborn daughter.

All of a sudden,

this woman that had been interested in the outside world

was only concentrated on my pregnant belly.

I wasn't really interested in anything

more than ten feet away from me.

The evidence of hard-wire is even more profound in babies.

What you are looking at is the development of language,

because language is the interaction between caretaker and baby.

This experiment from the Harvard Child Development Center

is about the importance of the hard-wire that is existing.

This is called the "Still Face Experiment."

What happened

is the mothers are instructed to turn away

and then turn back to the child and have a still face.

Watch what happens to the baby.

What you'll see happening is, first, she tries to engage.

"Ah-ah," smiles, coos, points - that's to elicit a response.

Points, then she coos, "Ah, ah, ah,"

"ma, ma, ma," and then she reaches out.

This is important, this is hard-wired.

And all of a sudden, she starts to get frustrated,

nothing is catching attention, there is this screech, "Ahhhhh."

She tries to comfort herself.

And then she looks away, tries to disengage,

makes one final, one more attempt to get her mother's attention.

And then she dissolves into hopeless crying.

It's hard-wired.

The Still Face Experiments are clear indicators that this is hard-wired.

So what's the importance?

What's the long-term consequence of this kind of biologic stuff?

Why is it important that a mother concentrates on her baby,

or that a baby concentrates and demands the attention of its mother?

The long-term effect of all this primitive stuff

was done in some, I think, some kind of brilliant work by Hart and Risley.

And they were experimenters who had been involved in the war on poverty.

They'd been involved in the war on poverty,

and they said,

"You know, there's a problem here,

because we are not really seeing,

with these early educational interventions,

although they are good, although there are some results,

we are really not seeing what we wanted to see."

So, they said,

"Can we look earlier?

Is there something that is happening before these babies get to kindergarten,

before these babies get to first grade?

Is there something happening that is important?"

Their work was an extreme, involved, deep observation of family life.

They went into the homes of 42 families,

and they had an intense observation of those families.

They looked at those families an hour a month, every single month,

from the time their children were seven months of age

until the end of the third year.

And what they found,

as by the title of my talk,

was really not what they expected.

First of all,

the children were all well-cared-for.

So it wasn't the changes in the children,

the difference in the children had nothing to do

with not having the physical needs met.

Secondly, it was not about race,

it was not about gender.

And here's the key:

it was not about money.

It wasn't determined by the number of toys that could be purchased by the parent.

It wasn't determined by the neighborhood they lived in.

It wasn't determined by the size of the house they lived in.

It was determined by the interaction of the parents with the child.

And the interaction that they saw after three years of observation

was that there were 30 million more words

that those families that were identified as professional families,

30 million more words that those families,

those mamas and daddies, said to their children

than the children in poverty.

The reality is, for those families in poverty,

those parents were only saying about 600 words an hour.

For the professional families, it was over 2000 words an hour.

Because the professional families

were having constant talking with their baby.

"Oh, your diaper needs to be changed.

Oh, bless your heart, I'll take care of that."

"Oh, look at those toes. Aren't those toes wonderful!

Oh, and look at that belly button. That is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

You are my beloved child."

Thirty million more words.

That's important because neurological development of the brain,

actual physical development of the brain, depends on words.

Each time a word is said,

it shoots up the neuron,

it stimulates the neuron.

And when that word is repeated,

that same path is stimulated again,

and it'd get stronger and stronger and stronger,

and it branches out so there's capability of learning.

And if those words are not repeated,

the opposite occurs.

Those neurons shrink and die

and go away.

The scientific word is pruning.

But what it means is, it decreases the ability to learn.

Now I've got to tell you one more thing, it's not just hearing the words.

Because babies put in front of televisions,

it's like the Still Face Experiment,

they don't learn.

They don't learn, because it is the interaction.

And children who are deaf can learn language.

"Thank you,"

in sign language is language, it is symbols that mean something.

It's language.

So it's not the hearing,

but it's the interaction that is most important.

And it is enormously important.

This is a graph

of the effect of those 30 million different words on these children.

At the end of the three years,

those babies that were born to welfare parents knew 500 words,

while those babies in the "professional" families knew over a thousand words.

It makes a difference.

This whole process is language nutrition.

And what it means is

that language is absolutely important for the development of the brain.

Language is absolutely the basis from which all human learning occurs.

If you think about it,

what language nutrition really is,

is the development of neurons,

the development of the brain,

is absolutely, biologically dependent on language,

which leads directly to the ability to read,

which leads directly to graduation from high school,

which leads directly to college education,

or high school education.

The importance of learning to read,

the importance of this language nutrition,

is that there were profound effects that they observed that were long-term.

It wasn't just short-term,

it was long-term.

They looked at these same children five years later,

and they found that they could tell that the gap had increased

between those children.

It'd gone from 500 to 1000 words

to the ability to pass standardized tests at third grade.

And why is that benchmark so important?

Third grade is important in the whole part of human learning

because up to third grade you learn to read.

After third grade,

you read to learn.

If you cannot read on level by third grade,

you can't read the text,

so you can't keep up.

You may never catch up.

For those children who are not reading on level by third grade,

they are four times more likely not to be able to graduate from high school.

And remember this language nutrition model?

If they can't read,

they don't graduate from high school,

and that leads directly to a problem with success in the society.

If you are really behind in reading,

there's a six times greater chance that you won't graduate from high school.

Now, the problem in Georgia is

that 70 percent of Georgia's children do not read on third grade level.

70 percent.

That has profound implications for the state

and profound implications for the individuals that are involved.

There is this ranking called "American's National Health Rankings."

And in those health rankings,

there are two clusters that keep me up at night.

Two clusters that,

as a state health officer,

I worry about.

One cluster is about infant mortality, and prematurity, and all that.

And we have made some progress there;

that's a talk for another day.

The other cluster where they were at the very bottom of the pack,

where we are at the lowest tenth of the country,

has to do with this whole business about literacy at third grace.

We have high numbers of children in poverty,

high numbers of failure to graduate from high school,

high numbers of income disparity,

lack of health insurance,

underemployment,

unemployment.

All of this caused

by our lack of ability to read on level at third grade.

Also, as a state health officer,

I can tell you,

that is unacceptable.

It is unexpectable,

especially since I know it's not the neighborhood,

it's not the income,

it's not the genetics,

it's the exposure to language,

the early exposure to language.

So we are involved in a public-private partnership called "Talk with me baby."

And this is to solve this problem that we have here in Georgia.

This is a public-private partnership.

It involves United Way,

it involves The Anne E. Casey Foundation,

it involves Public Health,

it involves the Department of Early Child Care and Learning.

But all of it is the same;

all of it is to change the paradigm.

For example, The Marcus Foundation, which is one of our partners,

they are involved in developing the tools to teach healthcare providers,

to teach nurses, hospitals, and doctors how to tell their patients about this,

the importance of early learning,

and also how to tell their patients how to do it.

In public health,

we are going directly to the mamas,

because in public health,

we have an interesting little program called WIC.

WIC is the Women, Infant and Child Nutrition Program.

Now, WIC is different from a regular food stamp program.

In WIC, you don't just get a little plastic card

and go to the grocery store and do whatever you want.

In WIC, you have to come to see us,

every three months to see a nutritionist.

And you can only purchase certain foods with your WIC card.

We see this as a unique opportunity to take food nutrition,

which is so important for our citizens of this state,

and talk to them about language nutrition.

And there are a lot of people in WIC,

50 to 60 percent of Georgia's babies qualify and are in WIC.

50 to 60 percent.

And all those low-risk mothers.

And WIC is everywhere,

there are 159 counties in Georgia,

and we have 159 or more WIC offices in Georgia.

We have a WIC office capable of reaching these people,

every single place in Georgia.

There is not a single place in Georgia that you can't get to a WIC office.

We hired the Marcus Foundation to come up with some videos,

and these videos will be played in the WIC clinics.

And they'll tell these young mothers,

these young needy mothers,

these poverty mothers that we're going back to the original studies,

about the importance of food nutrition.

They'll tell these mothers how to do it,

because it is not just straight forward,

"Oh, talk to your baby and you'll be fine."

There are subtleties that you need to know,

and these videos are designed to do that.

It'll tell them such things as

a baby is born recognizing its mother's voice,

therefore when you start talking to your baby,

it's when your baby is still in the womb.

So this program is designed to get to all these mothers.

So far, what we have done is,

we want to know what works.

I believe it'll work,

but what we want to know is, does it really work?

So we have evaluated

the average number of words that the children in our WIC clinic know.

And we are going to start the videos,

and we are going to couple it with the reinforcement -

remember those every-three-month visits for pregnant women and children?

We are going to reinforce that with the nutrition saying to them,

"Food nutrition is important,

but language nutrition may be even more important for your baby."

And when that mama goes home from the WIC clinic,

she's going to be taking a book.

I really think that ...

this will change the dynamics here in Georgia.

I know for a fact

that it is all about language.

The most important concept is the development of language.

I know that the Office of the Budget for the House of Representatives

recently did a study, and they looked at the evaluation of the war on poverty

that was started back in the '60s,

and according to our budget office,

we've spent five trillion dollars on it.

And here's what's happened to the poverty rate.

In 1965, when it started,

the poverty rate was 17.3.

In 2012, after five trillion dollars,

it is 15.

That's not much progress.

I present to you,

I think the problem is

we didn't look for the answer to the problem early enough,

and we didn't -

we weren't including language.

We have to include language.

Language is the very basis of solving the problem of poverty.

Life expectancy at the time of Christ was 20 to 30 years.

Life expectancy for human beings a thousand years later was 20 to 30 years.

Today, you people sitting out there,

your life expectancy is 80 years or more.

You survive birth,

you survive learning to drive as a teenager,

and you have a great chance of living to 80 or more.

That expected change in life expectancy

is not because of bypass surgery or CAT scans.

Bypass surgery and CAT scans are great;

they may add a year or two.

But those transformational changes

are from more basic, primary, primitive public health initiatives.

Those changes in life expectancy are from clean water,

and an effective sewer,

and vaccinations,

and the developement of antibiotics.

I can tell you that in 1900,

the things that were killing us,

the three killers of human beings in 1900,

was pneumonia, TB, and diarrhea.

And I can also tell you

that the things I mentioned -

clean water, sewers, vaccinations, antibiotics -

those are responsible for the expected change in life expectancy.

I can also say to you

that I believe

that we are on the precipice of the next transformational change

in public health.

That transformational change,

I truly believe,

is the deep understanding of the importance of language development,

and the determination that we have

absolutely universal, effective, early language development.

My message to you as a state health officer of Georgia today is really simple,

but I think it is important.

And my message to you is:

talk with your baby.

Thank you.

(Applause)