How To Spark Learning Everywhere Kids Go — Starting With The Supermarket

NPR:

Picture this: You’re in the supermarket with your hungry preschooler in tow. As you reach into the dairy case, you spot a sign with a friendly cartoon cow. It reads: “Ask your child: Where does milk come from? What else comes from a cow?”

In a small study published last year, signs like these, placed in Philadelphia-area supermarkets, sparked a one-third increase in conversations between parents and children under 8.

The extra family chatter happened only in low-income neighborhoods. Research shows that’s exactly the place where it’s needed most: Studies have documented a “word gap” that can lead, ultimately, to poor kids starting school months behind in language development.

…

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff, the authors of Becoming Brilliant, on a bigger answer to that question: a pilot project called Urban Thinkscape.

Read the whole story: NPR