Friday Freebie: What I'm Reading in Ten Minutes or Less: "This Cute Shirt Could Make Your Child Smarter"

Want to know the best thing you can do to help your toddler develop language skills? Talk to him (or her). Answer his (or her) questions. Have one-sided conversations until he (or she) is old enough to hold up his (or her) end of the bargain.

Not surprisingly, kids who grow up in poverty participate in fewer conversations. Couple that with the lack of nutrition that is often a fact of life when families struggle to afford groceries and you've got a high probability of long-term deficits in language that will make learning and communicating difficult for a lifetime.

The folks at Too Small to Fail came up with a great solution for parents who want to reverse this trend, but don't always have the time, energy or wherewithal to engage their pre-verbal children in discussions  without a little nudge. A simple, non-threatening reminder that merely needs to be laundered in order to remain readily available throughout a child's toddler years, these visually appealing tee shirts are decorated their own topical conversation starters.

And it's not just tee shirts. It's billboards. Bus stop walls. Blankets and towels and onesies (oh my!) The baby items are distributed for free in a variety of locations in the Oakland, CA area, and are also available for sale at Talk Read Sing, where each purchase pays it forward in the form of a donation to a family in need.

Imagine that. Clothing that can build habits that last -- and impact -- a lifetime.

(To read the Huffington Post article that inspired this blog, click here).