For Immediate Release: [DATE]

Contact: [NAME] [EMAIL] [PHONE]

[YOUR] Community Joins [COMMUNITY PARTNERS] to Launch ‘Talking is Teaching: Talk Read Sing’ Campaign

Local Multi-Media Campaign Joins National Too Small to Fail Initiative to Raise Awareness Among Parents and Caregivers About Early Learning and Brain Growth, Boost Vocabulary Among Children

[City, State] —Local business and community leaders, including [LOCAL PARTNERS] announced today the launch of a new campaign to boost the early brain growth and language skills of children in [COMMUNITY] from birth through age five. The campaign, titled “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” is a community-wide effort with promotion from Too Small to Fail, a national, joint initiative of Next Generation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

“Talking is Teaching: Talk Read Sing”, aims to close the “word gap“—a difference of about 30 million words that children in high-income families hear from parents and caregivers by their fourth birthday, compared to those in low-income families. The more words children hear and learn from parents and caregivers, the greater their chance of success through the preschool and kindergarten years, and the more benefits to their life-long health and well-being.

Research shows that parents and caregivers can help close the word gap by talking, reading and singing with their children from birth every day. These activities have a profound impact on the early learning of very young children because the structure of their brains is developing during the first few years of life, laying a foundation to grow and thrive.

The “Talking is Teaching: Talk Read Sing” campaign consists of a community-wide multi-media campaign that highlights for parents and caregivers how simple actions done every day from birth—like describing objects seen during a bus ride, asking questions, singing songs, reading aloud, or telling stories—can significantly improve a baby’s early vocabulary and brain development. Campaign messages will appear on billboards, bus ads and in paid media spots. Local organizations, churches, libraries and health care providers will also help raise awareness by sharing materials and information with parents and caregivers about early brain development. These campaign messengers will distribute “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” materials—including books, CDs and clothing with prompts that encourage parents to talk, read, and sing with their children—directly to families.

For more information, visit www.talkingisteaching.org, or Facebook.

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About Too Small to Fail

Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and Next Generation, aims to help parents, communities and businesses take meaningful actions to improve the health and well-being of children ages zero to five, so that more of America’s children are prepared to succeed in the 21st century.

Too Small to Fail has focused its work on closing the “word gap.” Studies have found that by age four, children in middle and upper income families hear up to 30 million more words than their lower income peers. This disparity in hearing words from parents and caregivers translates directly into a disparity in learning words. And that puts our children born with the fewest advantages even further behind. Among those born in 2001, only 48 percent of poor children started school ready to learn, compared to 75 percent of children from middle-income families.

The “word gap” is a significant but solvable challenge. Too Small to Fail is about parents, caregivers, other concerned individuals, and the private sector coming together to take small, research-based actions with big impacts.

Learn more at www.toosmall.org and on Twitter @2SmalltoFail.