Those early years are crit­ic­al. By age three, 85 per­cent of neur­al con­nec­tions are formed, mean­ing it’s dif­fi­cult for a child who has heard few words to catch up to his peers once he enters the school sys­tem.

While the word gap might sound like an edu­ca­tion prob­lem, the health consequences can be dire—and the be­ne­fits of elim­in­at­ing it can be im­mense. Pub­lic-health of­fi­cials in Geor­gia re­cog­nize this.

“This is pure bio­logy,” Brenda Fitzger­ald, Geor­gia’s Health Com­mis­sion­er and the wo­man in charge of state pub­lic-health pro­grams, said dur­ing an in­ter­view at her At­lanta of­fice. “Which is why it’s a pub­lic-health ini­ti­at­ive.”

Chil­dren with more words do bet­ter in school. Adults who were good stu­dents and earned a col­lege de­gree have longer life ex­pect­an­cies. They are at a lower risk for hy­per­ten­sion, de­pres­sion, and sleep prob­lems. They are less likely to be smokers and to be obese.

“There is no way we can sep­ar­ate health and edu­ca­tion,” said Jen­nifer Stapel-Wax, dir­ect­or of in­fant and tod­dler clin­ic­al re­search op­er­a­tions at the Mar­cus Aut­ism Cen­ter in At­lanta, and the self-de­scribed “chief cheer­lead­er” for the effort.

* * *

So in Geor­gia, from the gov­ernor’s of­fice on down to nurses and WIC (Wo­men, In­fants, and Chil­dren) clin­ics like the one the Pate boys vis­ited in Ma­con, the solu­tion and the mes­sage are clear: Talk with your baby (and help im­prove the state’s well-be­ing).

That second part is not touted much, but doc­tors and nurses be­hind the cam­paign hope that by en­ga­ging par­ents in the first part early and of­ten, the second part will fol­low—and they can al­le­vi­ate the need for costly in­ter­ven­tions down the line.

Talk­ing with your baby might sound ob­vi­ous. And of course most par­ents do talk to their ba­bies. But many are miss­ing qual­ity op­por­tun­it­ies to en­gage. Talk With Me Baby of­fers some guidelines for par­ents:

Speak to your baby while you’re preg­nant be­cause yes, she really can hear you in there. It might seem awk­ward to talk to an in­fant who does not talk back, but watch closely. She’s ac­tu­ally re­spond­ing. Tell her about what you’re mak­ing for din­ner, what you’re do­ing when you’re get­ting her dressed, and where you’re go­ing as you load her in­to the car­seat. See how she stops suck­ing that pa­ci­fier while you talk, or how she locks eyes with you? Those are signs that she’s listen­ing, and she un­der­stands a lot more than she lets on. Does your baby gurgle or coo back when you talk? That’s clas­sic “serve and re­turn” and it’s a crit­ic­al sign of brain de­vel­op­ment.

Nurses in Geor­gia have known all of this for years. But they hadn’t ne­ces­sar­ily been passing the mes­sage along to par­ents. Un­til now.

Back at the clin­ic in Ma­con, a Talk With Me Baby in­form­a­tion­al video plays on con­stant loop in the wait­ing room. Down the hall, Domi­n­ique says she was not read to as a kid, but there are books for Aiden and Air­on at home, and if it hasn’t been too busy a day, they read at night.