The American Rescue Plan Act acknowledges an “acute, immediate child care crisis.” Women in early childhood education deserve dignity and prosperity.
LENA - Building brains through early talk
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Every interaction counts.
Reflections of a former family child care provider
There’s no shortage of resources out there for family child care providers, but extra time in the day is not one of them.
Engaging families in LENA Grow
Family engagement is one of the most important parts of any child care professional’s job. We’ve created a Family Engagement Toolkit to help our LENA Grow partners.
Early brain development in infants and toddlers: Six simple strategies
Early brain development depends so much on having back-and-forth conversations, even for infants and toddlers. Here are six tips to help you talk more!
Inside Early Talk: Our point of greatest leverage for improving children’s futures
LENA has collected and analyzed its most expansive data set to date through the 10,000 children annually impacted by our programs for families and early childhood teachers.
Reflections honoring Black History Month
Two of our partners share their thoughts on the importance of Black History Month and how they integrate their personal beliefs into their professional work.
Parents on virtual LENA Start classes: “Now I know 10 families when I drop my kids off at school.”
The virtual format offered families a powerful opportunity to connect when they otherwise couldn’t during the pandemic.
New data reveals virtual LENA Start classes offer same benefits to families as in-person classes
The virtual participants showed similar gains to pre-pandemic, in-person groups, with lower-talk families increasing conversational turns with their children by 12 percentile points and adult words by 35 percentile points.
Launch Fund Grant Recipients 2020 Pt 2. – Welcome to our new partners!
Through our philanthropic partnerships, LENA awarded more than $525,000 in launch grants in 2020. We’d love to introduce you to our newest partners!
Five best practices for parent recruitment and retention (virtually or in person)
Explore key learnings on how community programs can recruit and retain families.
Year in review: Looking back at progress in the midst of a pandemic
2020 wasn’t the year we planned for. Yet, we’ve adapted, and the pivots have had impressive outcomes.
How researchers have adapted to continue using LENA SP during the pandemic
Two teams share how they’ve adapted their data-collection process to continue their studies.
Q & A: How a philanthropic investment in LENA advanced the early childhood portfolio of the Overdeck Family Foundation
We sat down with Carly Roberts, Program Officer, Early Impact at Overdeck Family Foundation, to learn more about why the foundation invested in LENA and what’s surprised them along the way.
Celebrate Good Times, Come On: Virtual Ways to Acknowledge Your Families, Teachers, and Teams
It can be easy to plug away at tasks and deadlines without taking time to pause and acknowledge accomplishments. Celebrating the small and big wins within your program is crucial to the health of your community.
How to make video calls more engaging for infants and toddlers
Explore tips and strategies for making video calls more interactive for young children.
Virginia Beach adapts to virtual programming to boost child outcomes, reduce caregiver stress
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the team in Virginia Beach knew that they couldn’t afford to wait to transition to virtual programming for families and teachers.
Virtual retention: Strategies for keeping families engaged in a community program
There are intentional methods you can integrate within your virtual communication to cultivate a space that welcomes vulnerability, trust, and collaborative participation.
Case study: Why three organizations pivoted to offer virtual LENA Start classes
When the pandemic hit, community organizations found their regular programming for families abruptly cut off. Learn why three pivoted to virtual.
State of Colorado helps FCC providers build confidence, self-esteem, and relationships with children with LENA Grow
The professional development program has been built into Colorado’s statewide initiative to improve quality in infant and toddler care.
Early Head Start centers in Tennessee use LENA programs to improve early literacy
Porter-Leath uses LENA programs to boost early literacy and connect teachers and families.
Study from University of Minnesota finds LENA Start fits well into community infrastructure
A new study on LENA Start from the University of Minnesota discovered that the program can be successfully implemented in community-based settings and that families enjoy participating.
CLASS Scores Increase After Using LENA Grow at The Primary School
Early childhood teachers at The Primary School in East Palo Alto, Calif., used LENA Grow professional development to better understand and improve interactions in their classrooms.
To improve quality in child care, Dallas nonprofit looks to LENA Grow with virtual coaching sessions
Coaches have created a new system to ensure teachers are still receiving crucial PD on how to support early brain development.
Bright Beginnings LENA Grow pilot shows significant change in the language environment of children experiencing homelessness
A pilot of the professional development program shows that teachers significantly increased the amount of interaction with the children in their classrooms.