WFYI's Learning Services Department in partnership with the Indiana Head Start Association and the Indiana Public Broadcasting stations announces a project designed to educate thousands of Head Start parents on early infant brain development and good parenting practices, Parenting Counts. As a result of this partnership, all Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations (IPBS) will broadcast nine Parenting Counts interstitials in 2007. Eighteen regional train-the-trainer workshops will be held across Indiana in order to train Head Start professionals in all 92 counties in Parenting Counts.

2007 Parenting Counts Train The Trainer Workshops (9kB .pdf get Adobe reader)

Parenting Counts was developed by KCTS/Seattle Television, in cooperation with PBS as a public broadcasting multimedia initiative. Using content provided by the Talaris Research Institute, the Parenting Counts campaign disseminates research-based information about how children think, feel, and learn and supports parents with examples of best parenting practices.

The goals of the initiative are:

• Stimulate greater awareness of early learning (birth to five years)
• Promote more effective parenting and caregivers techniques
• Enhance parent-child relationships

For more information about this exciting initiative, contact Gail Strong at (317) 614-0451, or via email

Several award-winning, funny, respectful, positive 60-second video spots present a message about best parenting practices for brain development in children between birth and age five.

These short segments and companion materials are based on research findings provided by Talaris Research Institute of Seattle, which studies brain development in children from birth to five years of age-the stage of life in which the critical foundation for lifelong learning is built. Segments explore key questions like: "Why should parents talk to babies in high funny voices?" and "How does stress affect infants?" More...