Among the many announcements made at this week’s White House Early Learning Summit was one in which Univision renewed its commitment to its “Pequenos y Valiosos” campaign to encourage members of its mostly Hispanic audience to talk, read, and sing with their infants and toddlers.
The campaign, “Young and Valuable” in English, Began in February 2014 and consists of public service announcements about the importance of early vocabulary development, scenes of parents interacting with young children integrated into popular shows, and free tools and materials for audience members. Univision works with two nonprofit advocacy partners, the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and Next Generation, on its campaign.
At the White House event, Univision committed to expanding its reach in 2015 to be more inclusive of fathers, grandparents, and other caretakers rather than focusing primarily on mothers. Research published recently in the medical journal, Pediatrics, has shown that babies hear more words from their mothers than from their fathers in the first months of their lives.
Univision plans to generate 200 million media impressions among its audience containing the messages that it’s important to talk, read, or sing to infants and toddlers. A single media impression consists of one viewer seeing a given message one time.
Research has shown that Hispanic children enter kindergarten knowing fewer words than their white peers.