Giving babies an abundance of words, right from the start!

A partnership project of:

Family Reading Partnership
Community Organizations and Businesses

Funded by Park Foundation

Programs Included in the Every Baby! Every Day! Initiative

Resources

Project Background

This initiative, launched in January 2014, is dedicated to babies as the starting place in for a family to create a language-rich environment. We want to ensure that every single baby born in Tompkins County, NY experiences talking, singing, reading, and playing every day, beginning at birth or even before, so all babies in our community are surrounded with loving words and stories.

Why Babies?

The special time of a baby’s birth is one of great opportunity and optimism, when no achievement gap yet exists and families are motivated to create a bright future for their babies.

Language and literacy development begins at birth, in the home. Babies’ language and literacy development is completely dependent upon hearing words through social interactions with the people in their lives.

During the first two months, a baby’s brain develops at a rate unequaled at any other point in life, creating neural networks that are essential to the development of language and literacy. This is a crucial time for exposing babies to an abundance of words through talking, singing, reading aloud, and playful engagement.

In the first months of life, before baby becomes mobile, and while he or she is a most attentive audience, families will have their best success building language and literacy habits and routines into everyday life.

Our Comprehensive Approach

We give support and inspire families with babies and those who work with them, to give babies a “diet high in words,” which includes giving additional books and resources to families who need it most. We encourage all community members to join us surrounding every baby, every day, with talking, singing, reading, and playing! Every Baby Every Day Vision Statement