Studer Community Institute has joined The Basics Learning Network (BLN) founded by Dr. Ron Ferguson, faculty director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, to ensure that parents and caregivers in Pensacola are fully equipped and supported to use The Basics Principles for early learning and brain development in everyday life. 

In 2020, SCI was among 36 other communities across the country in a pilot project to track the effectiveness of twice-weekly text messages to help parents talk and interact more with their children under 3.  

This month, The Basics Inc., the nonprofit organization that leads the BLN, released an analysis of data from that pilot group, which included more than 1,100 Pensacola area parents.  

The results are promising and show that the texts can give parents important nudges to do more to help build their child’s brain. 

Ferguson praised SCI’s leadership in launching The Basics in Pensacola and registering parents to use the Basics Insights.

“The team in Pensacola got busy during the spring of 2020 to register over 1,000 parents to receive our Basics Insights text messages, the most of any city in the Basics Learning Network during the same period,” Ferguson said. “Now, more of Pensacola’s infants and toddlers can achieve the early learning and brain development they need to thrive in school and life.”

The Boston-based Basics Inc. provides an online repository of videos, activities, handouts and other materials designed to provide routine interactions with families. The text program — called “Basics Insights” — is one of the newest tools in that kit.

“We are so proud to be part of The Basics family and to help the team in Boston learn more about how their tools can help parents,” said Shannon Nickinson, director of early learning for SCI. “The findings from the BLN team are exciting and show how important it is for every parent to get a reminder on how everyday things can be huge steppingstones in the development of a young child’s brain.”

The text messaging program sends parents twice-weekly early learning content designed to support them in applying The Basics principles with their children.

The Basics Principles are five simple and powerful ways for parents to build the foundation for school readiness from the beginning and to give their children a good and healthy start in life. The Basics campaign was inspired by the fact that 80 percent of brain growth occurs during the first three years.

Parents of babies, infants and toddlers ages birth to 3 are eligible to sign up for free twice-weekly text messages that suggest fun, at-home learning activities.

While parents of all backgrounds can enroll, a priority is making sure the text messages are helpful and accessible to families with low literacy levels or living in less advantaged circumstances.

Research has shown that sending parents tips through text messages is a successful way to educate them on child development and can improve academic performance.

The recently released report on the Insights pilot group highlights that text messaging is becoming a key component of The Basics whole-community approach for helping parents understand the power they have to shape early learning and brain development.

Data from the pilot implementation of Basics Insights show 37 organizations enrolled 2,296 families with children from birth to 3 years old from January through October 2020 (coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic).

Of the 2,296 enrollees, 780 (34%) responded to a baseline survey and 213 answered a 3.5-month follow-up survey, which they accessed by clicking on a link in a text message.

Data indicate that parents have embraced and benefitted from the messages. The report shows responses from parents after receiving the messages for just over three months:

— 74% report they have talked about the messages with a friend or relative.

— 82% totally agree and 16% mostly agree that they would recommend the messages.

— 61% totally agree and 30% mostly agree that the messages help them understand their child.

— 60% totally agree and 33% mostly agree that they learn new things to do with their child.

— 84% totally and 13% mostly agree the messages keep them thinking about how to help their child learn.

— 38% use all of the messages and 46% use most of them, for a total of 84% who use all more most of the messages.

The Basics theory of change is that the text messages reinforced by supportive conversations and more from the broader community can inform and inspire families from every background to apply The Basics Principles of early childhood development, helping over time to reduce achievement gaps during the school years.

“We are especially excited about The Basics partnership and the opportunity to reach more parents and their children through this engaging text message system,” said Quint Studer, founder of SCI. “This tool is another innovative way to improve kindergarten readiness and improve the quality of life in our community.”

Basics Insights has the following features:

• A three-year curriculum spanning from birth to age three. Parents and caregivers can enroll at any point.

• Two messages per week. The first message shares a science-based “Fact” related to the child or caregiver’s development. The second message offers a “Try This,” a specific suggestion for the caregiver related to the previous fact. • Additional tool with other Basics resources. The content for each week is aligned with one of the five Basics Principles. The text messaging can be used in combination with other Basics materials, such as videos and handouts from The Basics Community Toolkit. 

As the Network expands, the Basics Community Toolkit and other resources and activities provide ongoing opportunities to share lessons to maximize impact of the learning experience.

Almost every adult today has a cellphone. That’s according to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center which found that 99 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds own a cellphone of some kind, while 94 percent own a smartphone.

The spread of cellphones combined with texting technology opens up new opportunities to influence adult behavior. More than 95 percent of text messages get read compared to only 25 percent of emails, the Pew study showed.

And the messaging matters. Evidence is growing that prompts and reminders in text messages can improve a variety of health, education and life outcomes, from early learning to kindergarten through 12th-grade education and college attendance.

The bottom line is that Basics Insights text messages nudge parents and other caregivers to carry out behaviors across key areas for promoting young children’s learning and well-being.

The Basics Inc. responds in two ways. First to ensure parents with children in the birth-to-3 age range get registered for Basics Insights. Second to inspire parents by inquiring supportively and routinely about how they’re applying the messages, expressing excitement about the future for  families, the community, and the nation, by seizing the brain-building opportunities those early years provide.