Dr. Suskind is the author of Thirty Million Words: Building A Child’s Brain: Tune In, Talk More, Take Turns, a pediatric physician, Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, and the founder and director of the Thirty Million Words® Initiative. Dr. Suskind will discuss the importance of early language exposure for developing children and draw on her experiences with patients and neuroscience research during a virtual author talk on Sunday, June 6 from 4:00-5:00 p.m.  All are welcome to attend this free lecture; registration is required.

Dr. Dana Suskind’s work as a pediatric cochlear implant surgeon led her on a journey of discovery as to why it was that many of her patients did wonderfully after implantation, while 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® , the research program Dr. Suskind started in 2010, became the answer to that question.

Hear about evidence-based interventions that enable parents, caregivers, and practitioners to impact foundational brain development and address early cognitive disparities which have been found to have lifelong effects, particularly among children born into poverty.

Dr. Suskind will discuss Thirty Million Words and the work she is doing on an upcoming title that will be published in 2022.


This program was made possible by the Every Child Ready to Read Grant.