Evaluated by Harvard Medical School / Boston Children's Hospital's Brazelton Touchpoints Center, the hospital-based parent coaching model is ready for replication across the country.

ATLANTA, May 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As states and school systems across the country have begun to recognize the literacy crisis and begin efforts to improve reading outcomes, science points to a clear conclusion: the foundation for literacy is being built long before a child enters school.

PBS' Your Fantastic Mind is spotlighting Talk With Me Baby (TWMB), an evidence-based, hospital-embedded coaching model for helping families build babies' brains through language-rich interactions from birth. First implemented at Grady Hospital almost ten years ago in partnership with the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School, TWMB equips healthcare professionals, including nurses, clinicians and other professionals, to coach parents and caregivers in "language nutrition," the everyday talking, reading, singing, playing and responsive interactions that support healthy brain development, language acquisition and early literacy.

The episode places Talk With Me Baby as one part of a larger national challenge: with 2/3 of children not being taught to read by fourth grade, schools alone cannot bear the burden of solving the literacy crisis. The pathway to deep reading begins in the earliest moments of life, in the last trimester of pregnancy as the auditory channels and neural pathways for language-learning are being built. When a child is born, their brain continues developing rapidly – at a rate of a million synapses a second – and families are forming the bonds, routines, and interactions that build language.

"Every parent wants a better life for their child," says Comer Yates, the Executive Director of Atlanta Speech School. "Talk With Me Baby makes this possible in a way that is simple, human and scalable. This is a model for strengthening language and literacy outcomes before children ever reach a classroom, and it belongs wherever babies are born."

A longitudinal evaluation by the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, operating under the shared umbrella of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, strongly recommended replication of Talk With Me Baby. Evaluator Dr. Catherine Ayoub of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, who is in the Your Fantastic Mind episode wrote, "Further replication of TWMB is strongly recommended. It is supported by more than four years of incubation at Grady Hospital and overwhelmingly positive results." She further states, "in a world of unknowns... this is certain."

With this endorsement, the model is moving from local proof point to national opportunity. Since 2025, five healthcare providers, including Emory Healthcare, have joined the growing Talk With Me Baby network committed to changing the standard of care for every child born in America.

Talk With Me Baby is one part of the Rollins Center | Cox Campus full development continuum of language and literacy. The continuum begins in perinatal and pediatric care, continues through family engagement, early care and learning, and through structured literacy from kindergarten through adolescence, ultimately supporting the development of the deep reading brain — the capacity for deep reading, empathy and critical thinking -- for a lifetime.

The Rollins Center | Cox Campus is the nation's foremost center for advancing language and literacy. Its free, comprehensive, twice accredited, and immediately actionable professional learning, developed with preeminent national experts and scholars, now reaches more than 400,000 members across all 50 states and 138 countries, with 1.4 million courses completed and more than $210 million in fair market value delivered back to communities at no cost to educators, districts or systems.

In Georgia, this model has already demonstrated statewide scale through the Georgia Literacy Academy, powered by Cox Campus. More than 47,000 Georgia educators across 165+ districts have completed 1 million hours of structured literacy training, representing 124,000 workdays dedicated to evidence-based literacy practices and $54 million in fair market value since 2023.

Talk With Me Baby extends that same continuum to the earliest point of impact: birth. By integrating parent coaching into routine healthcare, the model helps families understand the power they already have to shape their babies' brain development and future literacy through everyday interactions.

The Your Fantastic Mind episode is available here.

About Talk With Me Baby

Talk With Me Baby is a hospital- and community-based parent coaching model that helps families support healthy brain development, language acquisition and early literacy through everyday interactions with babies and young children. First implemented at Grady Hospital in partnership with the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy, Talk With Me Baby is grounded in the science of early healthy brain development and designed for replication in hospitals, birthing centers and community health settings.

About the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy

The Rollins Center for Language & Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School is the nation's foremost center for advancing language and literacy. Through  philanthropic investment, Cox Campus has delivered more than $210 million in fair market value back to communities - scaling professional learning, systems-level partnerships and evidence-based implementation support at no cost to systems, districts, or individual educators. With content co-created by preeminent national experts and scholars, Cox Campus' literacy continuum spans perinatal and pediatric care, family engagement, early care and learning, structured literacy and the development of the deep reading brain.

Media Contact:
Andario Howard
Rollins Center for Language & Literacy
ahoward@atlantaspeechschool.org | (404) 333-6069

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SOURCE The Rollins Center for Language & Literacy