spotlight is far from over. jewel you yeah roberts agreed to produce and star in a movie about a pint-sized super hero. 25,000 people packed the streets of the city to cheer on miles scott. a 5-year-old recovering from leukemia. he was granted a wish to be a super hero. the movie will be a documentary called "bat kid begins" and will make its world premiere tomorrow in utah. 8 ball, corner pocket may be a call you will hear at the olympics. professional bill yesterdays organizations have found a spot in the tokyo olympics. they say their sports popularity has grown to an unprecedented level the last few years, and they would like to see it represented on a global stage like the

olympics. billiards will be up against squash, baseball and softball. billiards is terrific, but it doesn't seem athletic at all. >> i'm sure larry can find some highlights in there. >> the bank shot right now. he is calling the eight ball. >> here is a real sport. michael jordan never did it and neither did wilt or lebron or anybody, ever. klay thompson made nba history

♪ when you recognize something isn't right, make the call to the veterans crisis line at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. the warriors hosted the kings in what was your normal, average game until klay thompson exploded scoring 37 points in the third quarter alone. just in case anyone was wondering if klay should make the allstar team, i submit his resume. the steal and why not stop and pop a three? bang. and then klay answers another strike that toss fear. with authority. klay hit three after three after three. it was nine of nine for the

three's. a little luck there. it was a good idea they didn't trade him for kevin love. he sets an nba record with 37 tht third quarter. nobody else wanted to shoot the ball. he kept knocking 24e78 down. he scored 37 of the team's 41 in the quarter. a career high of 52 for the game. warriors roll. here is the star of the show. >> i was just really focused and i was in a great flow. i knew i was in for a big half. i had so many good looks and barely missed. even i'm shocked. >> how cool is this? michael thompson was playing and watching his son go off on a record setting performance. that's one proud papa. >> the man known as mr. cub ernie brainings has died. -- ernie banks has died. he started his career with the cubbies and known for his enthusiasm and personality and

oh yeah 512 home runs. ernie banks was 83 years old. serena williams taking on the 26th seed. serena dropped the first set and then took over. down the line forehand winner. williams served up a bagel in the final set. serena on to the round of 16. sister venus struggled. wins in a tie break and this cross court volley and like her sister venus dominates the third. down the line and venus advancing to the round of 16. one final note and steve kerr was upset because the warriors blew an 18-point lead. he said i won't call a single play. >> abc7 news continues on-line, twitter, facebook and all of your mobile devices. >> our ne

all right. that is our report on this friday night. we appreciate your time. i'm dan ashley. >> i'm ama-daetz. right now on jimmy kimmle, anne hathaway. >> enjoy the show and hope you have a great weekend.

welcome to "beyond the headlines", i'm cheryl jennings, each of the shows looks at early childhood development, the precious years between birth and five years old. we know nur tufring young minds is key to ensuring a healthy and happy childhood. our guest shows us how the future of our society depends on our ability to develop this next generation. joining me in the studio is dr. ross thompson a distinguished professor of psychology. >> thank you for coming. >> my pleasure. >> you're doing parent/child development in the first three years. tell us about that. >> we study parent/child relationships and our appreciation for the importance of what is going on in these every day encounters between a responsive adult and interested child.

our appreciation of that is really grown because of the work on early brain development because of the ways researchers and neuroscientists have focused on how explosive is the growth of the brain in the early years of life and how much the brain grows as a result of how it's stimulated by social interaction like these, adults who are singing and otherwise being responsive to what a child's interests are. >> it's interesting because so many new parents want to have the baby in a quiet room and don't say anything, don't take them around big crowds and i have other parents who take them out to baseball games. >> that's right. >> that's a lot of stimulation. >> it is possible. it is -- you can overstimulate a young child and overstimulate anybody. the fact is that the brain is like a magnet for stimulation. a good example of that, we know that 6-month-olds are figure tifly citizens of the world, they can make out language

sounds at all in of the languages because the brain is ready to learn a language but the brain doesn't know whether the birth landed them in beijing on london. it has to be ready to learn new language. all of that changes by 12 months when the child has lost that universal language learning ability. as a result of language they've been overhearing in those kinds of social interactions. as a result of the brain rewires itself to learn the language that the child or languages the child has overheard. and this is the beginning of the vocabulary that take place in the second year. all of that in the first 18 months of life. >> you say as society, we have a serious challenge. >> we do because there are two pieces of information that ought to concern us. one is that the achievement gap appears as soon as child enters the school house door. we are seeing quite a significant difference in language skills and mathematical

skills between kids from most advantaged and least advantaged homes. that's one concern. the other concern is equally significant. children's experience in school only widens that gap. it doesn't narrow it. school does not become the great equalizer of opportunity. it takes the gap already there and it simply increases it. to close the achievement gap, we've got to start earlier, we already know by age 3 the number of words the children have who come from most advantaged homes are more than twice as large and vocabulary as children coming from the most disadvantaged homes. children coming from advantaged family are hearing more language so their brain has more to work with in developing a vocabulary. now the research is showing that that gap can appear as early as 18 months. >> when you're working with disadvantage the family, how do you -- i work with programs where they encourage us to come

and read to these kids in day care. but that's one thing. how do you get the families to get on board with that? >> that's true. because some parents are not convinced that this kind of interaction really makes a difference in the life of a child. part of the challenge is to take this research and to communicate it in a way that would really make sense to families and parents, whatever their background and own experiences have been. i think that part of the challenge is that it's easy to underestimate how much the brain and mind are exploding in growth in the early years of life. it's partly because infants and toddlers are so tuned into the moment that they look really distractible and it's hard to see the wheels turning. what the research is showing us is that the quality of stimulation, the amount of child directed speech that occurs in the first few years of life really makes all the difference in the world. for the development of thinking skills and some indication it has to do -- contributes to the

growth of number understanding for these children. it provides all of the seeds that children need. and part of our challenge is to find ways of communicating that, especially parents who might not otherwise do it. >> i have to ask you about the screens, the ipad and ipod, all of these devices that we now have, i see little ones with these things and touching them and phones too, is that helping or hurting? >> it can do either. i was on an airplane trip last month where i was sitting next to an adorable 13-month-old for her child and she was captivated and i could see two reasons why, there was exciting stuff going on in the screen and the parents were interacting with the child. they were talking about what was on the screen. inviting the child to tryout different things. they were using their voices to help the child understand a connection between the child's own actions and response of the screen. and that is consistent with what the research is showing us. that these screens can be

helpful especially if they occur in the context of response of social interaction that goes on between and child and parent. in some respects it's the same lesson years ago with respect to tv. watching a screen alone is not nearly as helpful as doing so interactively with a partner. >> we have about 15 seconds left. what do you want parents to take away from what you're telling us today? >> what a child needs more than anything is an adult who is responsive, tuned in, focused and interacting with them. and in doing so, they are providing the foundation for the child's later health j development. >> thanks for being here. when we come back, we're going to hear about a fantastic resource for parents to help children in critical early years resource for parents to help children in critical early years but at this moment, she's fighting a brain tumor. announcer: please take a moment and join st. jude

in finding cures and saving children. visit stjude.org. welcome back, we're talking about critical importance of early childhood development. in the studio with me is diane levin, the chief deputy director of first five california celebrating its 15th anniversary. >> yes. >> that is phenomenal. >> for folks who don't know what it is, please explain. >> first five california first came to be in 1998 when the passage of the ballot initiative called proposition 10. the whole focus was to find an additional funding stream to

focus on children and their families in the earliest years, 0 to 5 but without taking money from other programs or from education. prop 10 created a 50 cent per pack tobacco tax and other tobacco products are taxed as well to create what began as about a $700 million a year funding stream for the purpose of supporting and providing resources for education and outreach to parents and young children. and so since that time -- and we also prop 10 is also mandated to focus on smoking cessation. the good news is that we have succeeded in, you know, smoking cessation, but the bad news is -- not bad news but the revenues from prop 10 have declined so it began as a $700 million a year proposition and down to just under 500 million. >> do more with less. >> fewer people are smoking but you're absolutely right. we have to do more with less. >> we have a great campaign going on right now.

i want to talk about brain search for very young children. how is first five california talking about this? >> as you just heard from mark thompson, it's a very complex issue but very important. so the purpose of our campaign which is called talk, read, sing is to take this -- the notion of the importance of early brain development and push it out to the public and those families who have young children or who are caregivers of young children and emphasize how important it is to interact with kids and stimulate the brain so that it grows and develops in the earliest years. and in the long run actually works to prevent the achievement gap. if we can get kids to develop their vocabularies and start out in school, not behind their peers, they have a much better chance to succeed in school and in life. but so the campaign really talks about -- we have two psas. 30 seconds long, you can only

talk so much about brain development in 30 seconds. we cut to the chase and talk about the importance of that early engagement and language stimulation in the earliest of years from the day a child is born. >> i know we can't show the psas because there are lights involved, but you have everybody interacting with the children. >> absolutely. and in every day activities, you don't -- it isn't just sitting down and reading a book to a child which is wonderful. from day one it's wonderful. if you read 30 minutes a day with a child, not all at one time, ten minutes here and ten minutes there but really consistency every day as well as using engagement opportunities to talk to your child about colors and shapes and what they are doing and what you're doing. how is your day, explaining your day to your child. they are hearing your voice and may not be able to understand what you're saying but their listening voluntary kcabulary i

expanding. by the time they are 3 we hope they have at least 1,000 words. >> what can we find on the website? it's a lot of resource. >> the it is. the purpose of the ad is to drive parents to the website. once you get to the website, there's an activity center and learning center where you can see examples of the kinds of activities that are very simple and free that you can engage in with children of all ages from infants to young toddlers to kids who are ready for preschool. and it's just a -- it's just a great resource for ideas when you're looking for things to do. then when you're there, you realize how simple it really is. >> we were talking about ross thompson about screens, multiple screen, one of your tsas is on texting, and not interacting with the child. >> the purpose of that ad is not to tap the evils of texting or watching television. those are not evil things in themselves, what's noticeable is here's a child standing up in a

play pen looking at his mom and her back is to him and she's texting and got the tv on. it's a missed opportunity for that language engagement. it's more about that and less it's not a commentary about texting. >> what kind of feedback are you getting about this campaign? >> the greatest thing -- it's one of the most fun, wonderful things i've ever worked on in my career. the feedback has been so overwhelmingly positive. parents are excited about it. it does a lot of things, reinforces what many of them believe they are doing already but a lot through social media are sharing their ideas about -- here's another idea of how i do this at home and it worked well with my kids. he's in third grade now and at the head of his class. >> i want to ask before we run out of time. you have kits for new parents. >> yes, every mother in the state of california should go home from the hospital with a kit for new parents. it's one of our flagship first five california, you go home

because babies don't come with an instruction manual. >> they don't. >> so the kit has children's books but also has information and resources for parents on what to do for immunizations and vaccinations for your baby. what to do when your baby is sick. really fun activities to do with your baby. it's just -- it's something that has been so successful. people can't get enough of them. they call in and say, i've heard about your kit, how do i get them? >> very successful. >> and you are a mom and now a new grand mom. >> i am. >> did you raise your kids this way? >> i did. all of my graduate work is in literacy and language development. my boys were read to and sung to and talked to -- i don't know how much they loved it but i loved it. and they are wonderful adults today and my oldest son has a 1-year-old daughter, brooklyn, and she has -- she's surrounded by loving adults who talk with her and read with her and sing to her. she is a kick.

she is babling and engaged and happy. i know she'll be brilliant. >> i love your passion for this. thank you so much for being here. >> my pleasure, thank you so much. >> we have to take another break. when we come back, we're going to learn how early childhood development ultimately affects welcome back, i'm cheryl jennings, research has shown that exercising a baby's brain in the first year of life has a dramatic impact on their development. the bay area council took note of that during the annual outlook conference because well he h educated children will have an

effect on california's economy. this report was filed in may. >> reporter: they say by the time a child enters kindergarten his or her brain is largely developed. why are business leaders gathered in san jose talking about it. >> early investment in children is a no brainer, simply a no brainer. the business community gets that. >> reporter: james is with the center for the next generation and addressed the bay area council on the importance of an early education. california has the highest population of young children in the nation. groups like first five california have invested millions in early education. the organization says babies and toddlers need to get the right amount of growth support, especially those in underserved communities. >> very small vocabularies and with much lower success levels they end up not being able to read and dropping out of school. >> reporter: the bay area council has joined first five california in a campaign called

talk, read and sing. billboards like this one will go up in june in bay area cities and appear on buses. >> we're telling that to moms all across the bay area, talk to your kid, give them words, give them numbers, just talk to them. other groups including the hillary rodham clinton are involved in the campaign. those behind the campaign says if we invest in children early, we can close the achievement gap before it ever starts. in san jose, lee an melendez, n. >> matt regan is the vice president of policy at bay area council. explain to people a little bit about what the council does. >> thank you, cheryl. >> the bay area council is an organization comprised the bay area's leading business figures, ceos from the largest employers and we work on issues of public policy. our objective is to maintain the bay area as the best place in the world to live and work.

we work on issues like transportation, health care and the environment. >> i wouldn't expect that childhood development as a priority but this is a great opportunity, right? >> it doesn't seem like a natural fit for a business organization to be focusing so much attention on, but we've studied a lot of research and actually commissioned a research report of our own several years ago that shows that investing in early education is perhaps the best dollar that the state of california make an investment in. the returns on those investments are high as 17 to 1. >> wow. >> depending on the demographic of the child that you make the investment in. the highest risk children, you're looking at returns that high because these kids as they grow older, they end up in remedial education, grade repetition, which is very expensive to the k-12 system. then beyond to become susceptible to much higher rates

of welfare dependency, unemployment and drug use and incarcerati incarceration. >> it makes good business sense to get to them early. >> i love this campaign. this is the talk, read, sing.org. easy as that. we have little onesies here and t-shirts. explain to the folks at home what we're looking at here. >> we through funding from our principle funder two years ago embarked upon an effort to try and close the word gap among primarily low income families, as professor thompson explained, children with more unfortunate backgrounds enter kind garten are entering with a 2,000 word vocabulary. a very big differential and makes it difficult for those children to begin to learn and keep up with their peers. so our objective is to close

that work gap before it happens, focusing on the first three years of life where the centers of the brain are developed language and literacy are most active, 80 prosecuti 080% of brt takes place in the first three years of life. it's important to talk, read and sing to their children and by the time they reach kindergarten will be able to succeed in school and beyond in life. >> your campaign is very aggressive, not only have the kit you can get but also the outdoor signage that will be everybody where. why is this signage so important? >> we're launching in oakland with a pilot program. you'll see these bill boards and bus shelters going up in oakland in the next month or so. we're partnering with a national organization called too small to fail and they have a number of

national collaborative partners, bill and hillary clinton foundation who you mentioned in the piece. american academy of pediatrics, sesame street, whole slew of the best and brightest in early education. this campaign hopefully will succeed in oakland. we'll take the best pieces of it, including the clothing line and the outdoor signage, which by the way designed by silverstein, they are the folks behind the got milk commercials and best and brightest in the advertising world. we've combined the talents of wonderful organizations to create this and hopefully we can scale it nationally with our national partners and but oakland is where the pilot is going to run, for again, launching shortly. >> i know people are going to want -- they say, how can they get the good stuff? you have a website? >> yes, it's talking is teaching.org. people can go on to that website and find out where the materials are available. we will be working with

community partners in oakland, clinics and hospitals and libraries and be distributing the materials to family who most need them in oakland. but it will be available to everyone. you will be able to purchase these. >> so there is a fee for them, then? >> yes, for folks who like to purchase, we'll settle the money back into the program so that we can then supply them free of cost to families in needs. >> what i like about it, it kind of walks you through what you need to do with your child. >> yes, the purpose of the materials is to turn the world into a learning experience. what we discovered in our research and focus groups is that a lot parents talking and reading and singing to children, not only that, when you explain to them, they find it difficult to tie those activities to the daily routine. they are very busy people. what we've discovered was that if you tie the request of

talking reading and singing to an existing daily activity, there's a much greater propensity for those parents then talk read and sing, we supply the materials around bath time and getting dregsed with prompts on the front to give ideas for stories and to talk to their children and babies about. >> it's absolutely brilliant. thank you so much. i can't wait until this becomes available for everybody. thank you for being here and for what you're doing. >> sure. >> for more information about today's program, go to our website, abc7 news.com/community. we're on facebook, please follow me on twitter. i'm cheryl jennings, have a great week. we'll see you next time.

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