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LENA in the news

Looking to feature LENA in a story? Here’s what you need to know:

  • LENA is nonprofit organization with an international presence serving school districts, research institutions, departments of education, Head Start programs, and more.
  • The LENA System™ powers data-driven insights across early childhood education and language development research.
  • LENA programs and LENA research have been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Hechinger Report, Forbes, and more. 

Recent LENA Coverage

LENA Press Releases

LENA at a Glance

Who is LENA?
LENA is a national nonprofit based in Louisville, Colo. LENA’s mission is to transform children’s futures through early talk technology and data-driven programs.

Using the LENA System™, LENA takes two paths to improving outcomes for children from birth to five: 

  • LENA Grow® is an evidence-based professional development program for early childhood educators.
  • LENA SP™ is a tool for researchers and clinicians to obtain reliable, detailed language environment data.
 

LENA’s programs are designed with built-in data that proves efficacy. More details about program effectiveness are available at lena.org/effectiveness.

 
LENA works with a wide variety of partner organizations around the world, including school districts, state agencies, public health initiatives, child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs), libraries, Head Start organizations, and university-community partnerships.
 
LENA technology is the industry standard for measuring talk with children: how many vocalizations they make, how many adult words they hear, and how many conversational turns they experience. LENA uses a small wearable device to deliver detailed feedback about how children experience language.
Researchers, clinicians, and interventionists have proved LENA technology’s accuracy in a wide variety of applications. Its language statistics were validated in a large-scale study that established norms for adult words, conversational 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.
In short: any language. Studies have been published to validate adult word counts in English, Spanish, European French, the Shanghai dialect of Mandarin Chinese, Italian, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Danish, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Swedish. A peer-reviewed paper published in 2023, “Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents,” also included data from children exposed to dozens more languages, including Papiamento, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Sahaptin, Slovenian, Solomon-Islands Pidgin, Thai, Turkish, and Yoruba.
Conversational turns are simple back-and-forth alternations between a child and an adult. LENA technology counts a turn when an adult speaks and a child follows, or vice versa, with no more than five seconds in between. Using LENA technology, researchers have linked conversational turns to brain structure, brain function, reading skills, IQ scores, social-emotional development, language development, executive functioning, and vocabulary skills, making conversational turns one of the strongest predictors of child outcomes.
 

As a nonprofit social enterprise, LENA is committed to being good financial stewards while equipping ourselves to innovate and further our mission. We take dual pathways to funding:

  • Generating revenue through the sale of our products and services, like LENA Grow.
  • Securing generous funding from philanthropic organizations that share our vision for improving child outcomes.
LENA has received philanthropic funding from Yield Giving, Valhalla Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc., W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Daniels Fund, the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund, Voqal, Zoma Foundation, and more.
 

LENA Leadership

Dr. Jill Gilkerson

Chief Research and Evaluation Officer
Dr. Gilkerson has been with LENA since January 2005 and was a co-developer of the original LENA system and norms. She holds a PhD in linguistics from UCLA and has spearheaded most of LENA’s key studies and data science insights.

Dr. Steve Hannon

President and CEO

Dr. Steve Hannon is a hybrid technical and business executive with a PhD in electrical engineering from MIT. Steve’s work in the early childhood sector began more than a decade ago with his unusual pivot from a distinguished career in the aerospace industry. He now leads the LENA team’s mission to put early language research into action at scale, leveraging LENA’s unique talk pedometer technology. 

Katharine Correll

Vice President of Impact

Katharine Correll joined LENA in July of 2019 and brings her expertise in partnership development and community organizing. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law.

Rocy Gomez O'Keefe

Vice President of Growth

Rocy Gomez O’Keefe guides LENA’s growth team since April 2023 with expertise in business development and marketing. She holds degree in Spanish and Corporate Communications from Rutgers University.

Need more information about LENA?

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303-441-9085 | info@lena.org

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LENA  is a national nonprofit on a mission to  transform children’s futures  through  early talk technology  and  data-driven programs. 

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