What Difference Do 30 Million Words Make?
Event Details
Before they are even one year old, infants born into poverty score lower in cognitive development than their more affluent peers. By their fourth birthday, these children will have heard, on average, 30 million fewer words than others their age. Those 30 million missing words affect future learning, academic readiness and achievement, occupational status, and even health and social well-being in adulthood. Dana Suskind will discuss the University of Chicago's Thirty Million Words Initiative, which she founded and directs. This behavioral research program translates emerging brain science into practical lessons—and behavioral nudges—that allow parents to harness the power of their words and nurture their children's intellectual and educational capacity.
Dana Suskind is professor of surgery and pediatrics and also directs the Pediatric Cochlear Implantation Program at the University of Chicago Medicine. She is an adviser on Hillary Clinton's Too Small To Fail initiative and part of the White House initiative on ending the achievement gap.
Learn more about the Thirty Million Words Initiative and read two whites papers on the topic, "Bridging the Early Language Gap: A Plan for Scaling Up" [PDF] and "Early Language Gaps: Sources and Solutions" [PDF].
$20/person for general admission
$10/person for recent graduates (College alumni of the past 10 years and graduate alumni of the past five years)
Two complimentary registrations for members of the Alumni Leadership, Chicago, Harper, and Phoenix Societies
Includes program and refreshments
Program
6:00 PM-6:30 PM: Registration
6:30 PM-7:45 PM: Presentation and discussion
7:45 PM-8:30 PM: Reception
Speaker Profiles
Dana Suskind (Speaker)
Dr. Dana Suskind is a pediatric otolaryngologist who specializes in hearing loss and cochlea implantation. She directs the Pediatric Hearing Loss and Cochlear Implant program.
Dr. Suskind is the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative. Based on scientific research that shows the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, Thirty Million Words helps parents enhance their home language environment in order to optimize their child's brain development and, therefore, his or her ability to learn.
An evidence-based intervention, Thirty Million Words is supported by a broad coalition of public and private partnerships and is an extension of Dr. Suskind's Project ASPIRE, which she created to assure that her patients from disadvantaged backgrounds reached their full listening and spoken language potentials. Dr. Suskind's ultimate goal, and that of her dedicated team, is to help all children reach their full potentials and to close the ever-widening achievement gap.