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The ‘word gap’ and 1 city’s plan to close it
Rhode Island’s Providence Talks is partnering with LENA to provide parents with resources to understand how they can improve their young child’s literacy.
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How to end the word gap? Cities invest big in baby talk.
Cities like Providence, Rhode Island, are investing in early childhood talk programs like LENA to decrease the talk gap between children.
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Talking with babies helps them bridge word gap
As talk is found to be increasingly important to the development of childhood linguistic and cognitive development, more communities are using programs like LENA to improve communication behaviors in families.
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Baby vest measures talk between parent and child
CBC Radio interviews Jill Gilkerson from LENA, explaining the importance of interactive talk between children and their caregivers.
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Tech Can Make Your Conversations with Kids Way More Effective
Kate Gammon tells the story of LENA Start from a parent's perspective.
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Does “Early Education” Come Way Too Late?
In our quest to reform ECE, we may be overlooking the learning that takes place at home.
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Techie Tools Teach Parents to Talk to Toddlers
Smartphones and other devices help parents teach and reach their little ones.
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The Vocabulary Gap
Key to Vocabulary Gap Is Quality of Conversation, Not Dearth of Words.
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The Talking Cure
Margaret Talbot takes a deep dive into the Providence Talks program and its use of LENA technology to measure talk.
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Providence Talks Graduation
An Al Jazeera piece highlights the Providence Talks program and shows families on graduation day.
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Bridging the Word Gap
A radio piece on Latino USA highlights LENA technology, its use in the Thirty Million Words initiative, and the importance of speaking to young children in your native language.
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Using Digital Recording Devices to Encourage Talk with Children
An article in New America Ed Central featured LENA's technology and commentary from LENA's co-founder and chairman, Terry Paul.
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Coaching parents on toddler talk to address low-income word gap
This PBS Newshour piece examines strategies being used to increase conversation in the homes of families who are part of the Providence Talks program, as well as the program's use of the LENA System.
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Get them early, the key to educational success
A Euronews Learning World article and video examine various approaches to increasing early childhood learning around the world. LENA's language analysis technology is featured in the second segment as an important tool in Dr. Dana Suskind's 30 Million Words project.
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Voice as biomarker: Using vocalizations to screen for autism
A Contemporary Pediatrics article highlights the work of D. Kimbrough Oller, PhD and other researchers who are using child vocalizations as a measure to screen for autism spectrum disorder.
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Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word
A New York Times article and video on new programs that focus on the home environment of very young children and how the use of LENA's Digital Language Processor (DLP) technology can benefit these initiatives.
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Efforts To Close the Achievement Gap In Kids Start At Home
National Public Radio ran a story on the efforts to close the word and achievement gap in Providence, Rhode Island, using LENA with home visitation.
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In the Beginning was the Word
The Economist reported on the growing scientific evidence on the importance of parent talk and its implications for policy. LENA is noted as a tool to help close the gap.
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City of Providence Launches “Providence Talks”
Providence, Rhode Island won Grand Prize in the 2012-2013 Bloomberg Philanthropies' “Mayors Challenge” competition with a proposal to use the LENA System for recording and reporting children's language environment as part of a pioneering initiative to improve language development in children ages 0-3. The “Providence Talks” program, which took first place in the competition against 20 finalists selected from 305 applicants, rolls out this spring with a pilot of 75 families, and is expected to grow to 2,000 families by 2015. The LENA donated its full participation in Providence Talks, including all equipment, software and staff time.
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Public Policies, Made to Fit People
Richard H. Thaler, an economist from the University of Chicago, notes that research findings in social and behavioral science can be used to improve public policy. One example is the word gap between poor and affluent families. He discusses the programs of Dr. Dana Suskind and Providence Talks, both aimed at minimizing the word gap, including their use of LENA as a tool to provide feedback to parents.
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How to Raise Verbal Children
Lexicon Valley, a Slate podcast about language hosted by Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo, discussed the importance of talking to your kids. Betty Hart and Todd Risley's research, "Providence Talks,"" and LENA were all part of the discussion.
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UCLA Study: Give Young Children a Chance to Converse
The more you converse with your baby the more you help his language development, according to the study of 275 families with children age 2 months to three years.