Hillary Clinton In Tulsa To Launch 'Talking Is Teaching' Initiative

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Secretary Clinton's first name. NewsOn6.com regrets the error.

Tulsa is going to be the starting point of a national campaign to get parents talking with their children, even if they're too young to talk back.

It's a joint program of the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Clinton Foundation; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Tulsa to kick it off.

The Kaiser Foundation supports the Tulsa educare system, and it was there, that Kaiser and Clinton launched a $1.5 million PR campaign with a simple message, that talking is teaching when it comes to young children.

The former Secretary of State, and presumed future candidate for President, is teaming up with Tulsa philanthropist George Kaiser. On Monday they visited an educare, one of the early learning centers Kaiser supports.

It's children of a young age who will benefit from this campaign.

"We know that this kind of outreach really can work. We've seen other public education campaigns make a difference," Clinton said.

Clinton's foundation will work with Tulsa leaders to relay the importance of parents speaking directly to their children from birth.

Learn More About Talking Is Teaching

Research shows children learn the words and their brains develop better.

"When you read, when you sing, you are building brain capacity. You are creating the opportunity for that child to live up to his or her God-given potential," Clinton said.

3/24/2014 Related Story: Hillary Clinton In Tulsa Monday To Promote Education Initiative

"We found here in Tulsa, that many people know that reading is important, they understand that brain development is important, but they don't know that talking from the very time an infant is born actually helps build their brains. They may think, ‘we can talk to our babies once they start talking back' but it needs to start much earlier than that," said Ann O'Leary with Next Generation.

The publicity that will be tested in Tulsa could eventually be used nationwide.

"I believe that the example that is Tulsa, is one that should be emulated in every precinct, every village, every town in the United States and the world," said Mel Ming, Sesame Workshop CEO.

And this publicity campaign is going to take the form of a multimedia blitz. You'll see signs at bus stops and billboards. They also hope to get this message out through doctors and even ministers in the community. You'll start seeing that in 30 to 60 days.