Early childhood teachers in Memphis, Tennessee are using a new professional development program: LENA Grow. The 10-week training course teaches educators how to increase the number of conversations they have with their students.

Conversations during the first few years of life have been shown to be related to children’s outcomes in adolescence. This program provides feedback-based coaching for early childhood teachers, measuring how much conversation they have with infants and toddlers.

“LENA Grow allows teachers to use talking tips and conversation starters to begin those conversations and to realize the importance of having those engaging conversations,” TaWanda Payton, instructional coach, explained.