Parenting Counts

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Parenting Counts

• Family Foundations
• Strengthening Vulnerable Families Workshop
• January 28, 2006
• Terry Meersman
• Talaris Research Institute
• tmeersman_at_talaris.org

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Our Mission

• We are dedicated to
• advancing knowledge of
• early learning and the
• importance of parenting
• in the first years of life.

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Combining Research and Practice

• Support applied research from human development
  and prevention sciences
• Translate research into appealing and accessible
  program models
• Communicate research via
• www.talaris.org
• Research Spotlights
• Monthly e-mails
• Brochures
• TV/videos
• Books
• Training
• Partnerships with organizations reaching parents
  and caregivers

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What We Know from Science

• We are born wired to feel and to learn

• Early environments matter and nurturing
  relationships are essential

• Children can develop powerful skills in the
  earliest years

• We can increase the odds of good outcomes

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From Science to Public Policy

• Human development is shaped by a dynamic and
  continuous interaction between biology and
  experience.
• The foundation for later development is laid from
  birth to age five.
• Striking disparities in what children know and do
  exist before kindergarten.
• An inadequate foundation for learning is strongly
  associated with poor academic performance and
  significant societal costs.
• Investment in early learning may represent a
  virtually untapped opportunity for public sector
  return on investment.

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Parenting Counts
PBS/Talaris Parenting Counts campaign

• Nine, sixty-second television spots
• Lesson plans for parenting education
• Small-grant program to support 40 community
  outreach programs nationwide
• Web sites pbsparents.org and talaris.org
• Entering second year of implementation

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Elements of a Media Campaign

• Partnerships
• Message and Tone
• Program Design
• Creative Treatment
• Selected Issues

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Partnerships

• Start with a specific program partner in mind and
  design around their way of reaching an audience.
• Often partners cant articulate whats important
  in the area of social and emotional development.
• Seek other funding or operating partners to
  consolidate impact and consistency of messages.
• Partner attributes

- Trusted source for parents/leaders - Ability to
take a program to scale - Ability to sustain the
effort after demonstration phase - Substantial
presence in existing systems of care or media
market such as child care, schools or television
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Message and Tone

• Layer for desired impact Awareness, Knowledge,
  Behavior Change
• Make it entertaining, even humorous
• Keep it simple
• Dont preach or scare
• Be highly selective in a field full of confusing
  and conflicting messages
• Aim for actionable principles rather than vague
  generalities or how to tips

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Program Design

• Multi-media approach accommodates larger audience
  with different learning styles
• Design materials for human interaction, not as
  end products
• Be explicit about assumed theory of change and
  principles of adult learning and change
• Consider benefits of getting message to entire
  population spectrum, not just disadvantaged
• Create a big tent for diverse political
  ideologies and fields of interest (economists,
  scientists, policy makers)
• Work within existing systems of care, families
  and media rather than trying to create new
  channels

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Creative Treatment

• Modeling behavior may be more important than
  words used.
• Showing vs. telling, experiencing a childs life
  vs. advice for parents.

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Selected Issues

• Tension balancing entertainment value,
  simplicity, research content, depth and program
  salience.
• Expense up-front costs of creative development
  and translated research.
• Ensuring quality delivery accuracy and
  customizing to particular audiences.
• Program model what scalable model really
  achieves behavioral change.
• Cultural issues do parenting messages translate
  across cultures? How to deliver messages when
  science contradicts existing parenting,
  educational or health care practice?

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Our Vision

• Talariss vision is a world of socially and
  emotionally healthy children ready to learn and
  relate to others a world of confident, capable
  parents nurturing the potential within their
  children

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