History In 2007, Dana Suskind, M.D., a pediatric surgeon, asked herself why it was that many of her patients did wonderfully after they received a cochlear implant, and others did not. Her initial search revealed an important answer: the ability to hear was not enough; differences in early language experiences caused learning disparities. These differences, she observed, were true in hearing and deaf children alike, with children from low-income families at greatest risk. This led Dr. Suskind to ask herself an even more important question: what could she do about it? Thirty Million Words® (TMW), the research program Dr. Suskind started at the University of Chicago in 2010, became the answer to that question. TMW develops evidence-based interventions that enable parents, caregivers, practitioners, and researchers to impact foundational brain development and address early cognitive disparities which have been found to have lifelong effects particularly among children born into poverty. To date, TMW programs have reached over 3,000 families in the Chicagoland area, with early results indicating an increase in caregivers’ knowledge and behaviors that utilize language to support young children’s brain development. Many more cities and municipalities have expressed interest in launching TMW interventions. Given the power of adult-child interactions in a child’s earliest years, and Dr. Suskind’s determination to broaden TMW’s reach, she quickly recognized the need for a community-wide and population-level approach. She began exploring a public health framework that places parents and caregivers at the epicenter of the solution and focuses on how to bring best practices and interventions that work to scale. Such an approach prioritizes prevention, beginning as early as an infant’s first day of life, and works from within education, health, and social service systems to better support families. To bring this vision to fruition, Dr. Suskind began to collaborate with Dr. John List, Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and a leading global economist known for using field experiments combined with behavioral economics to solve social issues. His work in the early childhood space with the Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC), an innovative preschool/parenting program, and his expertise in the science of scaling made him an ideal partner. Dr. Suskind has always understood the importance of reaching more than one family at a time. Dr. List has always understood the importance of using economic models for social change. Both recognize the need for the science of scaling to be central to their work to take programs to scale. Together, they imagine a country in which effective programs to support early brain development become as ubiquitous as actions to support children’s physical health. Building on their shared beliefs and TMW’s early work, Drs. Suskind and List established the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, a joint venture between the University’s Biological Sciences and Social Sciences Divisions. The goal of the TMW Center is to create a population-level shift in knowledge and behavior of parents and caregivers in order to optimize the foundational brain development in all children, particularly among those growing up in low-income households. This bold and multi-faceted approach will engage families, harness technology, leverage behavioral economics, work across systems, and teach us how interventions can be scaled effectively across the country.
| Types | Organization |
| Start date | 2007 |