The theme of NBC’s Education Nation Summit this year was “What It Takes,” and the consensus among many of the speakers was that it takes parents deeply involved in their child’s learning.

This starts long before children enter school. Dana Suskind, a University of Chicago pediatric surgeon who is leading the Thirty Million Word Project, spoke about the critical role that parents play in building vocabulary and cognitive skills simply by talking to their children. “Children do develop intelligence, and a critical factor is how much their parents talk with them,” she said.

Suskind cited research showing that children from low-income families hear on average 30 million fewer words than more affluent peers by age 3. And she stressed that the kind of interaction counts, with directive language mattering less than the back and forth of conversation. She recommended three Ts for parents: Tune In, Talk More, Take Turns. “We can change the lifetime trajectory of kids born into poverty by changing what they hear from birth to age 3,” she said.

Dr. Philip Fisher, a University of Oregon psychology professor and fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, followed up on that theme the next day. He described cutting-edge research that showed how positive interactions between children and caregivers can improve brain development. His videos showed the “serve and return” of a healthy interaction between a mother and her daughter. The lack of such interaction, he said, can contribute to toxic stress.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, said the best way to eliminate toxic stress for children is to help their parents find jobs and stable housing. “To improve schools, we need to end child poverty in America,” she said. “Schools are a reflection of our society.”

In another panel, her son Jonah Edelman described how his organization, Stand for Children, promotes “active parenting,” giving adults the data and the support they need to help their children develop cognitive and social-emotional skills . He argued for a shift in paradigms, so that parent engagement is not measured just by how often parents come to school but by what they do with their children at home.

To help parents navigate the system, Education Nation released a parent toolkit that outlines what students should be learning at every grade, tips for parent-teacher conferences and information about developmental stages. New sections will be added at social-emotional development and health factors.

“Every parent loves their child,” Jonah Edelman said. “What they need help with is how to help their child.”