HAMMOND | Learning does not begin in kindergarten but at birth, an international literacy consultant said Saturday.

Quality Quinn, owner of Texas-based educational consulting firm Quality Quinn Inc., was the keynote speaker Saturday at the fifth annual Education Summit at Purdue University Calumet.

Quinn is also an author and champion of a new bilingual initiative between Mexico and the United States, Project Early Word, through her nonprofit organization.

Project Early Word is about teaching everyday words, every day. Quinn encouraged parents and educators to tell children a story every day, use eye contact, teach the alphabet and find a library.

Essentially, the difference between children from low-income families, middle class and the wealthy is vocabulary, she said.

Children from low-income families are likely to hear 10 million words before they go to kindergarten, Quinn said. That's double for children from middle income families and triple for children from wealthy households.

Unfortunately, she said children from low-income homes hear about 800 words over and over again.

Using humor and walking up and down the aisle talking personally to the audience, Quinn passionately said learning language is enormously important.

Children learn early to identify letters such as the "M" in the McDonald's arch or "M" for mama, and nobody should assume that because a child doesn't talk, he's not learning.

"The days of opening the head and pouring information in are over," Quinn said, noting that Indiana gives one of the most stringent tests (ISTEP-Plus) around which focuses on reading and writing.

She said the five essential components for reading are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

Quinn said she agrees with remarks being made by veteran actor and entertainer Bill Cosby who has been traveling the country talking about literacy.

She also enjoys jokes by comedian Chris Rock who clearly understands how to switch from formal, standard language to casual dialect when he is entertaining.

Quinn made a presentation to all Hammond teachers and administrators Friday during a half day in-service workshop. Parents and residents joined teachers Saturday.

Iris Comer, who teaches kindergarten at Lafayette Elementary School, said education is being restructured in Hammond and constant assessment is under way as well as continued professional development. She said consequently there has been improvement in student test scores.

Hammond Superintendent Walter Watkins said Hammond is putting a "focus on literacy" throughout the district.