A growing body of research – much of it done using LENA technology – shows that enriched talk environments improve all aspects of a child’s development. Of course, other elements are often needed, but talk is the foundation. Intervention programs using LENA have witnessed rapid growth in interactive language, along with related improvements in child behavior, self-control, engagement, social capital, parent satisfaction, and teacher skill. Learn more about our programs.

LENA technology is the industry standard for measuring talk with children, which is a critical factor in early brain development. LENA uses a small wearable device — often referred to as a “talk pedometer” — combined with cloud-based software to deliver detailed feedback that helps adults make proven, sustainable increases in interactive talk with children. Discover the technology.

Research shows that there’s significant variability in how much adults talk with children and tells us that those who talk the least tend to overestimate the most. Adult talk levels vary significantly during the course of the day and from week to week. That’s where LENA comes in — our language-measurement technology is an objective tool to help parents and teachers understand, measure, and increase conversations with children.

LENA technology has been proven in use worldwide for close to a decade by researchers, clinicians, and interventionists. Its language statistics were validated in a large-scale study that established norms for words, turns, and child vocalizations. Every aspect of LENA technology has been extensively tested and calibrated in use through thousands of recordings in multiple languages and widely documented in published research. Download the technical reports to read more details.

In LENA Start, LENA Grow, and LENA Home, audio recordings are automatically deleted immediately after processing into data (number of words and turns, etc.). The device has no playback capability, and the software doesn’t recognize the meanings of words, so no one can ever tell what was said. LENA SP and LENA Pro are the only two versions of LENA that allow the option to retain audio. Each group provides its parents with its own consent form, and parents have the option to participate or not.

LENA takes data security and privacy very seriously. We have built and implemented a multitude of technologies and processes to protect your data – and we stand behind them. We are proud to be Type II SOC 2 compliant, which means that every year an outside group audits LENA to confirm that we have appropriate data and privacy protections in place and are using them correctly. Learn more about Type II SOC 2 compliance and privacy policy.

LENA devices are completely safe. They meet U.S. and international safety standards for electronics and toys. Unlike cell phones, they do not transmit. They use the same kind of low-power processors as hearing aids. Discover the technology.

Caregivers can use LENA technology in any language to see changes over time. LENA has primarily been used in English and Spanish, and studies have been published to validate adult word counts in English, Spanish, European French, the Shanghai dialect of Mandarin Chinese, and Swedish. Researchers are working on validation studies in several other languages, including Hebrew, Korean, Norwegian, Danish, and Brazilian Portuguese. For other languages, the word count may not be 100 percent accurate, but we would expect that the error rate would be consistent, so users can still confidently measure change over time and see times of high talk and turns.