National Collaborative for Infants & Toddlers

The NCIT PN-3 Messaging:

The messages below build out our narrative. They are the key points that NCIT advances through communication, policies, practices and behaviors to reinforce the narrative. This message ladder outlines the structure and key supporting points advocates are finding most effective. 

By using these messages—adapted to fit each organization’s mission and voice, and to address each audience’s values and needs—NCIT members can reinforce the core idea: As a society, we must prioritize and support babies and toddlers.  

How to Use:

Consider this message ladder as a sequence of talking points that build on each other to create a full conversation—each part serving a function in creating the case for normalizing and prioritizing PN-3 investment.

And while we share examples of proof points for you to use, we encourage you to insert your own as needed. Our work together is ever-evolving—let us know what sources and message points you find yourself coming back to, including sources from your own research. 

You can also download a PDF of this messaging for easy reference.

The Core Messages:

1. Babies are born with amazing capabilities. A strong start in life builds a solid foundation for the future. This is possible when parents and caregivers have access to what they need to raise healthy babies and toddlers: health, nutrition, social, economic and learning supports that serve each family’s unique strengths and needs.

2. Parents and caregivers want the very best for their babies and toddlers. But not everyone has access to what they need because of policies and social practices (which affect families differently, often based on race or income). Policies and systems must be built for all families, from education and health care to economy and justice.   

3. We know what works to create stability and opportunity for all babies and toddlers—in turn, building strong and resilient communities for all of us. 

4. We live up to our country’s promise when we commit to all of our youngest generation. NCIT educates and advocates for policies that support all babies and toddlers to have what they need to grow into socially, emotionally and physically healthy children—and then into engaged adults active in our communities and economies. Join us.

Building Out the Messages—Supporting Points and Sources

Message 1 

Babies are born with amazing capabilities. A strong start in life builds a solid foundation for the future. This is possible when parents and caregivers have access to what they need to raise healthy babies and toddlers: health, nutrition, social, economic and learning supports that serve each family’s unique strengths and needs.

Supporting Points:

• Development starts in the prenatal period and moves rapidly from birth. Babies are active learners, processing sounds, grammar and word meanings, and taking in knowledge, skills and abilities. 
  • For example, when babies grow up in multilingual environments, they can understand more than one language.
• Prenatal through age three (PN-3) is a critical time for infants’ and toddlers’ developing brains and bodies. 
  • Children’s early experiences shape their rapidly growing brains in ways that affect their ability to learn, their behavior and their health throughout life.
  • Attention often focuses on the school years—especially the connection between third-grade reading and positive outcomes for life. Equal attention is needed in the PN-3 period, where brain development and school readiness take shape. Investment in PN-3 ensures that children start school ready to learn and aren’t left to catch up later. 
  • Language development starts before birth. Parents and caregivers need the tools to interact with their infants and toddlers in positive and responsive ways from the start.
• All parents and caregivers need support to care for their babies and toddlers. 
  • By caregivers, we mean people who are raising children—such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends—as well as daycare workers, home care providers, early learning teachers and anyone anywhere engagement happens. 

Message 2 

Parents and caregivers want the very best for their babies and toddlers. But not everyone has access to what they need because of policies and social practices (which affect families differently, often based on race or income). Policies and systems must be built for all families, from education and health care to economy and justice.

Supporting Points:

• All parents and caregivers need to know how to use resources available to them. But for many people, current systems and supports are inaccessible, inadequate or don’t fit their strengths and needs.
  • An example is the need for culturally and linguistically responsive practices designed in partnership with communities. This allows all parents and caregivers to be their children’s first and best teacher, and to honor their family’s language, culture and strengths. 
• Families have different ways of knowing, doing and believing. To serve all infants and toddlers, systems of care have to support the many ways of understanding and raising children, including welcoming, supporting and celebrating the strengths of many cultures and languages. 
• When people make decisions about their health—or the health of their children—laws and practices shape their options and opportunities. In some communities, policies create barriers to health. 
  • Laws and social practices—past and present—influence the physical, economic, cultural, and social environments of communities. They often have different and unjust outcomes in [communities of color and Indigenous communities, in both urban and rural areas*], including poorer health, lower incomes, higher medical costs and limited opportunities for social, economic and financial advancement.

*Name the specific communities relevant to your area or issue with the communities.

• Families live in economic insecurity because of the way systems fail them. They are often denied access to stable housing, nutritious food, clothing and books, along with high-quality child care, early education and health care. 
• This has a cascading, generations-long impact across our society.
  • One study found that children (PN-5) with access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) had later-in-life increases in personal and professional growth, economic self-sufficiency and neighborhood quality, as well as an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in the likelihood of incarceration. (Source)

• • For generations—and continuing today—maternal and infant death have been higher for people of color and Indigenous people. In large part, policies have historically denied prenatal care, early childhood supports, education, mortgages and health benefits.   
    • Black and Indigenous families experience higher infant mortality rates, low birth weights and preterm births than White families. This is due in part to limited access to prenatal care. (Source) 
    • Black families at the top income levels have worse infant and maternal health than White families at the lowest income levels. (Source) 

• Add your own proof points based on the specific issue or policy. Focus on a limited number of facts that clearly show systemic barriers. For example, if you’re advocating for nutrition supports, you might illustrate the impact of language barriers, inadequate funding, administrative burdens, etc.

Message 3

We know what works to create stability and opportunity for all babies and toddlers—in turn, building strong and resilient communities for all of us. 

Supporting Points:

What works:

• Nutrition and health care: Because a healthy baby starts with a healthy pregnancy, all families need access to nutritious, affordable food; culturally responsive pre- and postnatal care; regular well-child visits; screenings; and mental health care.
• Early learning: Families need access—from the birth of a child—to learning settings that best fit their needs. When policymakers think about early learning, they often focus on pre-K; the reality is that early learning must start earlier and be more comprehensive.  
• Caregiving infrastructure: Linking resources for families ensures a strong start for babies and toddlers, reduces the friction between work and care, and strengthens communities and the economy.
  • According to the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center:
    • Five essential state-level policies create an effective system of care: expanded access to health insurance, easier access to food benefits, paid family leave, state minimum wage and state-earned income tax credits. 
    • Additionally, several states use the following effective strategies: comprehensive screening and connection programs, child care subsidies, group prenatal care, evidence-based home visiting programs, Early Head Start and early intervention services.
    • For more information and updates on the number of states enacting these policies and strategies, see: Source.
• Economic stability: Programs like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); Medicaid; and SNAP have made solid progress toward helping families develop economic stability and meet basic needs.

• • Women participating in WIC give birth to healthier babies more likely to survive. (Source)
  • Medicaid is the single-largest provider of perinatal care. It finances almost half of all births nationwide and more than 60% of births among Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander mothers. Continuous health care coverage supports healthy pregnancy, birth, postpartum recovery and early child development.
    • Lack of insurance coverage leads to higher mortality rates during pregnancy. States that have expanded Medicaid coverage, even for adults, see declines in infant mortality. Children whose parents have Medicaid are 30% more likely to have well-child visits and other important care.
  • In rural areas, Medicaid covered health care for about 1 in 4 children and adults in 2015 (24%, or 52 million people). (Source) Medicaid access makes people more likely to get preventive health care and have a better financial situation; in one study, people were 40% less likely to need money or skip payment on other bills because of medical expenses. (Source)
  • Caregivers and children who participate in SNAP have better birth outcomes, less childhood food insecurity (by up to 36%), more health care use and improved long-term child health. (Source)

• Insert your own data on policies and practices you are advancing, for example:
• Nutrition security builds a strong start in life. Nutrition programs need a focus on nutrition for pregnant people and babies. This includes:
• Strong support for breastfeeding in workplaces and child care settings, and improved benefits and eligibility for federal programs, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).  
• More and better nutrition training and education for obstetrician-gynecologists, family physicians, pediatricians and other health care team members who engage with families during pregnancy and the early years.
• Better access to registered dietitians, lactation consultants and peer support models for parenting support.
• The cost of not acting: Countries that fail to invest in the well-being of women and children in the first 1,000 days (pregnancy through the baby’s second birthday) lose billions of dollars to lower economic productivity and higher health costs. (Source)

Message 4 

We live up to our country’s promise when we commit to all of our youngest generation. NCIT educates and advocates for policies that support all babies and toddlers to have what they need to grow into socially, emotionally and physically healthy children—and then into engaged adults active in our communities and economies. Join us.

Supporting Points:

• Insert your specific policy ask, if relevant.
• We have a responsibility to make policies more effective. 
  • For all families, both availability and access are vital. Even for people who are eligible, it can be very difficult to access support. More simple application processes, better phone and technology access, and community outreach and support are proven ways to increase access. (Source)
  • Policies and systems are most effective when co-designed with families and service providers. This ensures that programs meet families’ strengths and needs, and that they center on families’ own stories about themselves and their children. We urge policymakers and program designers to work with their local communities to identify what supports are missing and where, and write it into the policy.
  • Policies and programs are most effective when they prioritize action where it will create the greatest impact. Together with the (insert specific) communities, we can define where that is, starting with communities where structural racism limits options and leads to worse health outcomes, and design solutions that work.

How to Talk about Equity and Systems

Talking about Equity

NCIT prioritizes equity and racial justice as vital pathways to equitable opportunity for all families, babies and toddlers. We also recognize the importance of making space for all coalition members and continually broadening our coalition, meeting people where they are and helping them move toward an equity commitment. In messaging, this can mean modulating language for comprehension and broad entry points, while working toward greater understanding of and commitment to equity. 

The messages in this section weave in both descriptions of inequities and direct language naming those inequities. Depending on who you are talking with, their openness to conversation about structural racism and your sense of safety—based on your own lived experience, past conversations with the person, your fluency and practice in direct conversations, and other considerations—you may choose to modify your language. The guides below can support and facilitate conversation, with the ultimate goal of advancing dialogue that prioritizes equity and racial justice. 

For more information and support in having conversations about equity and structural racism, please see the Voices for Healthy Kids 2021 Racial Equity in Public Policy Message Guide. The guide walks through key messages and tips for advocates to advance the conversation on racial equity, link racial inequity and structural racism to policy, and garner support for specific racial equity language in policy.

For information specifically aimed at building relationships with conservative decision-makers on PN-3 issues, please see the Voices for Healthy Kids Guide to Finding Commonalities and Solutions with Decision-Makers. This guide was created to support mutual understanding and connection so that trust and relationship are built over time and critical, productive conversations about PN-3 issues with an equity lens can occur. We hope to release additional versions of the guides aimed at working with progressive decision-makers, decision-makers representing rural areas and other leaders. Talking About Systems

Continually illuminating the way conditions—built on purpose, not naturally occurring—fail families, babies and toddlers helps people think about policy- and system-level solutions. Here are some tips from Frameworks on talking about systems:

• Build systems into your stories—name and describe them, then explain how they work to cause a problem. 
• ALWAYS emphasize that systems are built by people—they are the product of decisions made by human actors.
• Be careful NOT to give the system agency—systems don’t do things—people, working through systems, do.
• Show how, by changing systems, PEOPLE can create different outcomes and solve problems.

The NCIT PN-3 Toolkit: Activate the Messages

The toolkit is intended to make it easy for you to convey the values, priorities and invitation embedded in our narrative and messaging—that, as a society, we must prioritize and support babies and toddlers.

Use these plug-and-play tools at any time to advance the narrative and make an ongoing case for PN-3. You can also customize them and use them to support your advocacy for a specific issue. Don't worry about being repetitive—repetition is key to amplifying the narrative, making the case and engaging a wider coalition of support.

What’s included:

• Social media posts
• Op-ed
• Letters to the editor
• Powerpoint presentation
• Fact sheet

Download the toolkit