Thousands more pre-school children in Birmingham will soon be equipped with “Fitbits for words” devices that track their language development and help them learn more words before they reach kindergarten.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $1 million from the city for the Birmingham Talks program. The early childhood education program offers services to parents of pre-school children to help them increase their vocabulary. It includes tiny “talk pedometers,” word-tracking devices worn in a vest, that monitor the number of words children speak and hear.

The device is worn one day a week for three months to monitor a child’s word exposure and progress. Other elements of the program include a literacy curriculum and personalize coaching aimed at increasing word exposure and increasing literacy through adult conversation, interaction and reading to children.

The city’s commitment goes along with more than $3 million in privately raised funds to support the Birmingham Talk budget, which was established three years ago with a three-year, $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropy. That funded the city’s pilot version of the program.

Birmingham was chosen as one of five U.S. cities to replicate Providence Talks, a citywide early childhood program to increase interactive conversation with children to foster early brain development.

Ruth Ann Moss, executive director of Birmingham Talks, said that 92 percent of children who participate start off hearing less than the 21,000 words a day researchers estimate are needed for optimal brain development.

“Our deepest belief at Birmingham Talks is that children in Birmingham deserve the very best from the very beginning,” Moss said.

Birmingham aims to play a leading role in advancing child literacy and be one of the best cities in the country to raise a child under five, she said. “To make our city that place, we need to invest in our children,” Moss said.

Children who take part in the program are three times more likely to read proficiently, she said.

By 2025, the program should reach about 25 percent of pre-school children in the city, she said.

The city funding will cover about a fourth of the costs for the program. Other supporters include the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, the Altec/Styslinger Foundation and the Community foundation of Greater Birmingham.

“This is an investment in children and families and it’s also an investment in the future prosperity of our city,” said Galvin Billups, executive director of the city’s Department of Youth Services.

“It continues the investment in our children so that when they actually get to school, at minimum they will be at grade level,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said.