By age three, young children from lower-income families have heard 30 million fewer words than children from upper-income families. Research shows that these inequities during the preschool and kindergarten years largely persist throughout life.
At this month’s Clinton Global Initiative America Meeting, The National Diaper Bank Network announced that it is thrilled to be teaming up with Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Clinton Foundation and The Opportunity Institute, to provide kids with the early language exposure that will get them ready to succeed in school. Our Talk Read Sing for Change program will deliver Penguin Young Reader Books and tips on doing fun language activities to parents through the diaper banks that already serve these families. We’ll also be distributing millions of diapers to these same families though the program, thanks to the generosity of Huggies.
Books and diapers may seem like an odd couple. In fact, diapers are an indispensible ingredient for early childhood success. Finding a way to meet a child’s basic needs can be an overwhelming task for parents struggling to raise a family in poverty. It will come before things like making up silly rhymes, singing a song at bath time or cuddling up with a book. That is why the word deficit is so enormous in the first place.
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