This Big Orange Bus is on a national tour and it made a stop in Greenwich on Thursday to promote healthy child-parent relationships.
“Simply, the number of words you say to a child from birth to four years old predicts largely how well they will do at just about anything in their life,” said Chris Boggiano.
Chris Boggiano is the founder of VersaMe and the #WordsMatter Bus. He says every time a parent talks to a child, that child’s brain is stimulated and connections are made.
“Those connections determine how fast their brains run. It determines how strong a relationship they have with their parents,” said Boggiano.
The inside of the #WordsMatter bus is set up like a playroom so children can play while their parents learn from the VersaMe staff.
“If we can encourage parents to take those opportunities during everyday routines to be more verbal about what they are doing and narrate what they are doing, the impacts lifelong can be profound. Every little bit starts to add up over time,” said Boggiano.
And there is technology out there to help parents. This is a Starling- it works like a FitBit but instead of counting steps it counts words.
“As a parent talks to their child, this would be clipped onto the child’s clothing. Just like a FitBit, it would encourage the parent to spend more time talking and engaging with their kid,” said Boggiano.
The #WordsMatter bus will be stopping in other cities in the New York area. For more information, visit www.versame.com.
