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Webinars

“Because of the data”: LENA Grow at Pasco County Schools
The Director of Early Childhood Programs and an instructional coach from Pasco County Schools, Fla., describe the why and the how of their LENA journey, touching on topics such as family engagement, CLASS scores, funding, and teacher job satisfaction.
“Reading for Our Lives”: A conversation about early talk and early literacy with Maya Smart
In her book Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six, Maya Smart uses the analogy of a road trip to describe the “road to reading” for parents of young children. Early talk can jumpstart the journey.
A conversation with Black Family Development on culturally responsive programming through a racial equity lens
Black Family Development, based in Detroit, implements programming to improve outcomes for children and communities. Learn how they do this through a racial equity lens.
A New Approach to Data-driven Quality Improvement in Early Childhood Programs
Hosted by the BUILD Initiative and featuring Jodi Whiteman, LENA’s Director of Partnerships and Growth, this webinar examines how state leaders at looking at quality improvement initiatives in terms of cost and scalability, alignment with philosophy, impact and evaluation, and provider perspectives.
Beyond the 30 Million Word Gap: A Conversation with Dr. Rachel Romeo
Join LENA’s president and chief operating officer, Dr. Steve Hannon, as he hosts a conversation with Dr. Rachel Romeo, lead author on a study from Harvard and MIT that sheds light on the underlying neural mechanism that makes conversational turns so critical for brain development.
Building Classroom Quality Through Language
How can organizations support teachers in building classroom quality through interactive language? See where we stand and learn about the challenges and opportunities associated with increasing interactions.
Building culturally responsive, strengths-based programming across languages: Approaches from Denver and New Zealand
We talk with program implementers in both the United States and New Zealand who are building culturally and linguistically responsive programming. Learn how they’re succeeding.
Connecting Cradle to Career: Why Universities Need to Care About Early Childhood
Learn how Adelphi University and the University of the Pacific have taken on innovative roles in their communities’ cradle-to-career (C2C) pipelines.
Creating Inclusive and Equitable Classroom Experiences
What does equity look like in early childhood classrooms? Learn concrete strategies for supporting coaches, teachers, and administrators in fostering more equitable classroom environments.
Do COVID babies “talk” less? Research findings and potential implications
Babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic are vocalizing less and experiencing less interactive talk with adults than their pre-pandemic peers, suggesting they may be at greater risk of experiencing language delays.
Embracing equitable early learning for dual language learners
In this webinar, we’ll outline the mismatch between science and practice around multilingualism. How do we push aside myths about barriers and deficits to arrive at a place where one child’s multilingualism is considered an asset for all?
Evaluating LENA Grow’s impact on early childhood education classrooms
Two independent program evaluations of LENA Grow show links between the professional development program and positive outcomes for early childhood educators and the children in their care.
Every child ready by kindergarten: A case study in one school district’s vision of early childhood
New neuroscience research shows us that the first five years of a child’s life are the most critical period for brain development. What are school districts doing to give all children an equitable start?
Every interaction counts: Bringing back a thriving culture through early talk
Join ELC of Orange County and ELC of Sarasota County as they share their data and stories on how they’ve increased teacher confidence, competence, and CLASS scores while improving quality assessment outcomes despite the challenges of the past two years.
Family Resiliency and Early Language: Leveraging a Public Health Lens With Interactive-Talk Initiatives to Improve Child Outcomes
In this webinar, medical practitioners help us understand early language development through a public health lens. How does interactive talk build family resiliency?
Field notes: LENA Start implementers on building community partnerships
Forming partnerships is one of the most effective ways to supercharge your program’s reach and impact. In this webinar, hear from a panel of representatives from LENA Start sites on how they’ve identified and engaged key partners.
Funding a Head Start Model that Will Change the Course of Children’s Lives: Strategies for a Winning Head Start Application
In September 2020, the Office of Head Start released over $1 billion in Head Start funding competitions. How do you develop a vision and strategy for writing a compelling Head Start application?
Head Start Funding Opportunities
How can we leverage funding opportunities to integrate a trauma-informed approach to accelerating language and literacy skills?
Implementing a new community program: What we’ve learned in the first five years of LENA Start
Learn more about LENA Start, an evidence-based community program designed to engage families and help them learn how to increase conversation with their children during the first few years of life.
Inside Early Talk: Our point of greatest leverage for improving children’s futures
We find ourselves in the unprecedented position to understand the early language environments of very young children and answer questions we’ve been hearing from the early childhood education field for years.
Integrating Innovative Professional Development for EHS/HS classrooms into Statewide Systems
Mississippi is piloting a systems-level approach to supporting Early Head Start/Head Start providers in order to meet their school readiness goals. Learn how they’re rolling out job-embedded professional development designed to increase the quality of caregiver-child engagement.
Integrating LENA Home into Early Head Start Programs
Learn how Early Head Start programs can integrate LENA into their supports for families. LENA Home, which embraces a trauma-informed approach, helps home visitors individualize their coaching and meet families where they are.
Integrating Professional Development for Family Child Care Providers into Statewide Systems
Family child care providers face unique challenges. Colorado is trying to combat these challenges with job-embedded professional development. Learn more about the initiative and its early results.
Kindergarten readiness and conversational turns: Study results point to a boost from LENA Start
A study out of South Carolina has found a correlation between increased conversational turns and higher scores on the state’s Kindergarten Readiness Assessment.
Learning Together: Increasing staff and family commitment to early literacy at Phoenix Public Library
Libraries, early literacy, and LENA go hand-in-hand. In this webinar, Phoenix Public Library talks about its LENA Start implementation, including funding sources, community partnerships, staff development, parent reactions, and effectiveness.
LENA for Libraries
Learn more about how libraries can incorporate LENA programs into their offerings for patrons. How have our current library partners achieved positive results?
Libraries as innovators in early childhood education
Learn how two library systems have reconceptualized early learning in their communities and how they’ve incorporated LENA Start into their visions as early learning innovators.
Measurable Talk = Immeasurable Benefits: Improving Teacher-child Interactions in Early Childhood Education
Learn how LENA technology supports positive outcomes for social-emotional, language, and cognitive development, delivering equity-minded insights into how children experience interactions on an individual level. Hosted by Smart Start.
Mitigating the Academic and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Child Care
COVID-19 recommendations have changed the way child care providers are able to interact with children and support their early academic and social development. How can we continue to adapt while creating a positive learning environment?
Providence Talks Replication: Celebrating and Looking Ahead
In 2019, five U.S. cities were selected to receive a three-year grant to replicate the widely celebrated Providence Talks early literacy program. As the grant period draws to a close, we’re sharing their stories of what worked.
Providence Talks Replication: Early Childhood Innovation at the Municipal Level
Providence Talks was one of the first early language initiatives implemented at the municipal level, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Learn how the program is being replicated in five more cities.
ReadPlayTalk: How one school district in Texas is prioritizing birth-to-five
Mesquite Independent School District, serving around 40,000 students in the suburbs of Dallas, has developed a successful early literacy initiative powered by city-wide dedication to a unified vision: School readiness and early literacy are vital for long-term success, and they start at birth.
Recruiting families for community programs
At the heart of every successful family recruitment strategy is effective relationship-building — with the families themselves, with the community organizations that may refer them, and with local media outlets. Join us to learn how a school district in Texas and a library system in Colorado have built buzz around their LENA programs and how they’ve translated that buzz into successful program implementations.
Say hello to the new LENA Grow: Making every interaction count in early childhood education
Hear the individual stories of how LENA Grow has made a difference at every level of the early childhood education system, and learn about the big picture of LENA’s vision for LENA Grow as it reaches more and more communities.
Setbacks and Solutions: Helping early educators navigate language and social-emotional delays
It’s more important than ever to equip early childhood educators to address children’s unique needs and help get their language and social-emotional development on track. There’s strong new evidence to suggest that LENA Grow, a language-focused professional development program for early educators, is effective at doing just that.
Staff retention and stress reduction: Bringing positivity (back) into the classroom with LENA Grow
What can we do in the here and now to keep our best educators in infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms? For one, we can rediscover just how wonderful classrooms can be.
Structuring effective community partnerships to grow impact (work smarter, not harder)
A discussion with leadership from community-wide programs about key elements for building successful partnerships.
Support from the Start: The Power of Responsive Interactions in Supporting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
What are the most effective, accessible, achievable ways to nurture infant and early childhood mental health/social and emotional well-being in young children? As anyone who has ever cared for a young child or talked to a stressed-out early educator or struggling parent well knows, this is a question that deserves all the attention it can get.
Supporting early childhood educators now: strategies for building a voice and a community
Being an early childhood educator has always been challenging, but it seems to be getting harder. This webinar focuses on practical strategies to support educators by giving them a voice and building a community.
Supporting teachers in building a responsive caregiving environment
There’s a wide variability of interactions across child care settings. What makes an interaction a quality interaction, and how do we reduce teacher stress while supporting their drive for quality interactions?
Supporting young children and families during COVID: Launching new programs and adapting to virtual family engagement
We hear from an organization that has recently launched a new LENA Start program and another that has shifted their existing program from in-person to virtual. What are their go-to strategies for effective family engagement in a virtual context?
The link between language and socioemotional development
Many previous studies have drawn connections between the quantity of back-and-forth interactions in early childhood and later linguistic and cognitive skills. Importantly, newly published research conducted in Chile has taken a novel direction, determining that infants’ language environments predict their socioemotional skills one year later.
The Power of Conversational Turns
Three studies published in 2018 show the relationship between conversational turns and brain development. Join us for a discussion with the lead researchers, Drs. Jill Gilkerson and Rachel Romeo, moderated by Shannon Rudisill of the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative.
The return of in-classroom QRIS assessments: Building confidence among early childhood educators
There’s been no shortage of recent news about early childhood education. Join us for a discussion about a prominent challenge facing early education professionals that keeps a much lower profile: the return of in-classroom QRIS assessments.
Virtual Family Engagement: Ingredients for Success
How have our partners adapted to the pandemic’s challenges? Learn about practical strategies that worked for them, and get your creative, problem-solving juices flowing as you design your family engagement strategy for 2021.
What the Texas Rising Star QRIS can tell us about quality child care interactions
In Texas, the most recent review of the early childhood QRIS called for a greater emphasis to be placed on caregiver-child interactions. How is Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas using LENA Grow to help child care providers increase quality adult-child interactions?

FAQs

Has LENA received media coverage?
LENA has been covered in everything from research papers from Harvard-MIT to the Netflix series “Babies.” Visit our news page to read more about our news coverage in national and local media.
How do you know LENA technology works?
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 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. Download the technical reports to read more details.
How does increasing early talk support closing equity gaps between students?
LENA partner sites across the country are implementing the technology as part of programs focused on closing opportunity gaps by boosting early language. Aggregated results show that relative to where they started, children whose parents or teachers participated in LENA programs are experiencing more brain-building interactions, particularly those who started the programs experiencing the least amount of talk. Children whose parents participate in the LENA Start program are gaining nearly two months of developmental skill every month. Longer-term, a longitudinal evaluation from Huntsville City Schools in Alabama looked at the school readiness of 4-year-olds whose families had participated in LENA Start an average of 2.5 years prior, finding that the children demonstrated considerably higher early literacy scores than a matched ... Read More
How does LENA align to my center or my school’s current evaluations?
LENA’s programming will support the unique goals of your center or your school. Whether it’s through the lens of teacher professional development or increasing CLASS scores, we have found that our programming aligns seamlessly with your vision and priorities. Learn more about how different programs have seen results in their CLASS assessment scores using LENA.
How does LENA protect privacy and maintain data security?
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. In LENA Grow, LENA Start, 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 ... Read More
How does LENA’s “talk pedometer” technology work?
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. 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 how much they talk 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.
I am a partner site, and I have an implementation question. Who do I contact for help?
We are happy to help with any technical problems you have. Please contact our support staff by emailing support@lena.org, calling 303.441.9072, or by completing the form on our contact page.
Is the LENA device safe for toddler and infants?
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.
What does LENA stand for?
“LENA” stands for Language ENvironment Analysis.
What is a conversational turn?
A conversational turn is a simple back and forth alternation between a child and an adult. LENA technology counts that a turn has occurred when an adult speaks and a child follows, or vice versa, with no more than five seconds in between. Conversational turns are LENA’s proxy for quality “serve and return” interactions. Learn more here.
What languages can LENA technology be used with?
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, Korean, and Swedish. Researchers are working on validation studies in several other languages, including Hebrew, Norwegian, Danish, Vietnamese, and Brazilian Portuguese. For other languages, the word count may be less 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. This is not a comprehensive list, so please reach out to info@lena.org if you have questions about a ... Read More
When was LENA founded?
LENA is a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that was founded in 2004 by the late Terry Paul and his wife Judi, entrepreneurs who pioneered reading, math, and testing products used in 70,000 schools in the United States and more than 50 countries worldwide. Since then, LENA has become the industry standard for measuring early talk, used by communities all over the world in programs for families and teachers. In keeping with Terry and Judi’s original vision to level the playing field for children experiencing inequities, LENA’s programs utilize the technology to couple actional feedback with coaching to help adults increase the quality and quantity of talk with children. The unique measurement tool has also fueled research breakthroughs in neuroscience and ... Read More
Which communities are currently using LENA?
Organizations all over the world use LENA programs and tools to understand and enrich the language environments of children in their communities. Trusted community institutions like schools districts, libraries, hospitals, early learning coalitions, and Head Start programs are building early literacy skills, stronger families, and school readiness through collaborative partnerships with LENA. Explore our interactive map to learn more.
Which research studies have used LENA technology?
For a complete listing of research studies that have used LENA technology, download the bibliographies of journal publications and LENA user research presentations. To see examples of how researchers have used LENA technology to advance the different areas of study, visit our research page to browse by subject area. Find out about the latest studies on language and brain development and read Q&As with expert researchers on the research section of the LENA blog.
Why is “early talk” so important for children’s development?
Early talk is one of the most important factors shaping children’s brain development during the first few years of life. To understand why early talk matters, it’s helpful to understand what science tells us about child development during the earliest years: Brains are built from the ground up. Unlike other organs, the human brain is unfinished at birth, and must be built through interactions with adults. Research shows that back-and-forth interactions with adult caregivers are one of the most powerful tools to create a firm foundation of healthy brain architecture for children. During the first years of life, infant and toddler brains are forming more than 1 million neural connections every second, the Harvard Center on the Developing Child reports. ... Read More

Articles

Posts

“1, 2, 3 Talk with Me”: One mother’s story of completing Virtual LENA Start
Working from home while caring for a baby is an all-too-familiar juggling act these days. A mom in Phoenix tells her story of how LENA Start helped.
“A soft landing spot, a happy place”: Celebrating early childhood educators
Just as the early childhood education profession is unique, so is each teacher’s story. This week, Teacher Appreciation Week, we're telling just a few of them.
“An eye-opening experience”: Survey shows overwhelming positivity for LENA Grow among teachers and coaches
According to survey data, 99% of teachers would recommend LENA Grow to other teachers, and 93% of coaches say the program has had a positive impact on their relationships with teachers.
“I probably think about the program every day”: When professional development is more than just a program
"One of my students, he came in and told me, ‘Auntie, I’d like to read to you.’” A preschool teacher and a family child care provider in Hawaii tell their stories. What keeps them excited and motivated?
“Mae Mae’s House”: One teacher’s story behind an evaluation of LENA Grow in Milwaukee
In this video, a long-time preschool teacher in Milwaukee reflects on LENA Grow and what motivates her dedication to the profession.
10 Tips for Family Engagement
We’ve pulled together 10 strategies for connecting with families in your local community.
2017: Year in Review
This past year, we've seen the number of parents and caregivers focused on improving interactive talk increasing every day, and many have been putting into practice what they've learned through LENA-based solutions.
5 “Wows” and 5 “Worries” from LENA Conference 2017
Ten key insights from presentations and discussions at the 2017 LENA Early Language Conference.
5 steps to successful LENA Grow recruitment
How to talk with teachers, family child care providers, and center directors about participating in LENA Grow.
5 ways to make data a part of your program success story (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the data)
We’ve all heard the saying, “No data, no dollars,” but in the field of early childhood services, collecting objective and reliable data can be uniquely challenging. Learn about how to use your data to share the real story of the great work your program is doing.
7 Ways Forward on the Paths to Opportunity
As we ponder learnings from the 2017 LENA Early Language Conference, the question emerges: where do we go from here? The discussions and presentations suggested seven ways forward.
A Message to Early Childhood Educators — We see you!
We see you washing paint off little fingers for the tenth time today. We see you using silly voices to make shared reading fun. And we see you putting your heart into your work.
A parent perspective on LENA’s new longitudinal study
Parent Traci Martin shares strategies for unpacking new research with parents, teachers, and caregivers.
A renewed emphasis on adult-child interactions in Texas
A recent change to the Texas Rising Star QRIS assigns more weight to the importance of adult-child interactions in early childhood programs.
A teacher, a coach, and an administrator on LENA Grow’s impact: Webinar highlights
Highlights from a webinar where we hear directly from a teacher, coach, and administrator using LENA Grow.
Announcing new enhancements to LENA Grow: Easy, inclusive, equitable
LENA Grow is designed to make every interaction count in early childhood education. The new enhancements make it easy, inclusive, and equitable.
Are we failing our youngest dual language learners?: New data insights on child care language environments
Toddler and preschool classrooms across the U.S. provide significantly fewer conversational turns for dual language learners than for their monolingual, English-speaking peers. “[P]romoting language development for children who use heritage languages is among the most important things we can do,” said Dr. Jill Gilkerson, Chief Research and Evaluation Officer at LENA.
Atlanta Speech School uses LENA for families of hard of hearing children
Staff from the Atlanta Speech School share how they use LENA feedback in coaching sessions with families to help increase their awareness and understanding of the audio environment in their home.
Australia’s LiLO study: Analysis of home language environments from birth to school
Researchers with the LiLO study have set out to measure children’s home language environments every six months from birth to school entrance.
Being culturally responsive to families during LENA Start classes and beyond
Pedro Mendez, birth to three program administrator at Denver Public Library, explains how his team prioritizes and responds to the needs of families in a culturally appropriate way.
Bridging research and practice in early childhood education: SproutFive’s independent evaluation of LENA Grow
True to their commitment to bridging research and practice, SproutFive embarked on an independent evaluation of LENA Grow soon after implementing the program.
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.
Case Study: How Sound Start Babies uses LENA SP to support parents
Read about how a nonprofit in New Jersey uses LENA SP to provide targeted feedback and coaching to parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Case Study: Teen parent program adopts LENA Start to grow connections between clients, children
A home-visiting program for teen parents in Boulder County expanded their services to include parent-group classes, to the benefit of clients and their children.
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.
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.
Celebrating AAPI Heritage: Building community and connecting to culture in Hawaiʻi
In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we're highlighting two LENA Start programs in Hawaiʻi that are doing amazing work around cultural responsiveness.
Changing the conversation: How we’re thinking about building impact in early childhood
By year’s end, LENA technology will have measured 20 million conversational turns on 90,000 LENA Days. But that’s only part of the story, and it’s where we go from there that we’re focusing on now.
Children show elevated language skills one year after LENA Start
Children whose families participated in LENA Start are showing elevated language skills one year after the program, an analysis of longitudinal data shows.
Clarke uses LENA technology to bridge home and school environments
Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, a listening and spoken language program for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, has recently incorporated LENA technology as a “standard of care” for all children enrolled in their early intervention program.
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.
Classroom interaction and teacher experience: Relationships between conversational turn rates and years of experience in child care
While more experienced teachers foster more interactive talk in their classrooms, participating in LENA Grow helps less experienced teachers catch up.
Coaching for impact in Sarasota County: Increased TS GOLD^® and CLASS^® scores
An organization in Florida saw some amazing results in their very first LENA Grow classrooms. They want those results to have a positive impact on the whole community.
Colorado Home Intervention Program (CHIP) uses LENA SP to simplify program logistics statewide
The Colorado Home Intervention Program uses data from LENA SP to monitor language development in children who are deaf or hard of hearing and coach their parents to create a rich language environments.
COVID-era infants vocalize less and experience fewer conversational turns, says LENA research team
COVID-era babies may be at greater risk of experiencing language delays.
Developmental Snapshot analysis shows that LENA Start’s benefits endure for two years
For children who began LENA Start at risk for language delays, the results are especially encouraging.
Dual language learners in early childhood education: Webinar highlights
"You have it already in your heart. Get rid of your fear. Go for it. Try." Highlights from LENA's webinar about dual language learners in early childhood education.
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!
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.
Early Head Start programs use LENA Home to improve language and literacy outcomes
To help families and home visitors collaborate to improve language outcomes for children, many Early Head Start programs are using LENA technology in tandem with coaching during home visits.
Early learning classrooms in Fort Worth ISD using LENA Grow increase CLASS scores
Classrooms that used LENA Grow, an experiential professional development program for early childhood teachers, increased scores in key CLASS domains compared to classrooms that did not use the program, a pre-post evaluation shows.
Early literacy and early talk: Webinar highlights featuring author Maya Smart
In a recent webinar, author Maya Payne Smart shared her vision for our "collective power to raise our readers well."
Early pilot results show teacher approval, improvements in child language skills in classrooms using LENA Grow
A pilot of LENA Grow in nine classrooms in Kansas found that teachers responded well to the program’s data-based coaching and children demonstrated better language skills after participating.
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.
Engaging resilience: How responsive caregiving lays the foundation for children to thrive
It is imperative for children beginning at a young age have the opportunity for secure, engaging relationships.
Equitable and inclusive classroom experiences: Your questions answered!
We’re answering questions submitted during our webinar about how to create equitable and inclusive classroom experiences for children with Dr. Iheoma Iruka of HighScope, Ellen Roche of Trust for Learning, and Lauren Cooper from LENA.
Evidence-based professional development for early childhood educators: Webinar highlights
Two independent program evaluations of LENA Grow have established the program as evidence-based professional development. See the highlights from the webinar here.
Expanding PD hours for early childhood educators participating in LENA Grow
We’re committed to maximizing LENA Grow’s impact on early educators’ careers. Expanding LENA Grow’s approval for professional development hours is an important part of that equation.
Family child care provider used LENA Grow to connect with parents, children
For Pamela Robinson, a family child care provider in Georgia, using LENA Grow was an opportunity to show parents all the brain-building interaction that happens during the day in her home as she watches children.
First Book Partnership Brings High-quality Books at Lower Cost
LENA is teaming up with First Book, a nonprofit working exclusively with programs and schools serving children in need to ensure they have access to top-quality books. Through First Book's LENA Marketplace, partners can browse a curated collection of bilingual and wordless books.
First paper published linking conversational turns with brain structure
The first research showing a relationship between conversational turns and brain structure has ben published in JNeurosci. The paper investigates how back and forth interaction between children and their adult caregivers relate to white matter connectivity in the brain.
Five best practices for parent recruitment and retention (virtually or in person)
Explore key learnings on how community programs can recruit and retain families.
Five cities will replicate Providence Talks, offering LENA programs for parents and teachers citywide
Five cities have been selected to replicate Providence Talks — one of the first early language initiatives implemented at the municipal level — with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Five things to know about LENA and privacy
At LENA, we take data security and privacy seriously. We meet the highest industry standards for data protection.
For early childhood education, Women’s History Month must be more than a “Hallmark holiday”
The American Rescue Plan Act acknowledges an “acute, immediate child care crisis.” Women in early childhood education deserve dignity and prosperity.
Fostering family engagement and early literacy at Pasco County Schools: Webinar highlights
One of the largest school districts in the U.S. brought LENA Grow to its Early Head Start and Head Start classrooms. Watch these webinar highlights to hear their story.
Four strategies one nonprofit uses to boost literacy citywide
Calgary Reads, a nonprofit in Alberta, Canada, uses LENA Start as a core component of their citywide strategy to boost early literacy in Calgary.
Frameworks for understanding effective family engagement
Working with families and communities is at the heart of what we do at LENA. This post provides an overview of well-established definitions of family engagement that inform our programs.
From the archives: Conversations with adults boost child language development, study finds
UCLA professor Dr. Frederick Zimmerman explains his 2009 research which indicates conversational turns have unique power to boost child language development.
Georgia Department of Public Health uses community partnerships and Project LAUNCH funding to scale parent programming county-wide
The team at the West Central Health District drew on a range of existing community partners to find space to run classes, recruit parents, and scale impact.
Harnessing the power of toddler talk for long-term child outcomes
Megan Carolan, Director of Policy Research at the Institute for Child Success, shares how families, schools, and communities can all play a role in driving child language development.
Highlights from a Qualitative Evaluation of LENA Grow in Hartford: Nine Takeaways
Researchers from the University of Hartford highlight nine key insights from Hartford's qualitative evaluation of the LENA Grow program in Hartford, Conn.
Honoring Pioneers in Improving Early Language Development
Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Terry Paul “Making a Difference” awards! These awards are given at our biennial conference, to recognize outstanding contributions to fostering talk with children birth to three.
How coaches can help teachers take a deep dive into LENA data
Explore ideas and strategies to support teachers get the most out of their LENA reports and drive changes in interactive talk in the classroom.
How Early Head Start/Head Start grantees use LENA Grow to meet performance standards during federal review
“The federal review team was impressed that LENA Grow was something we were doing for our teachers in the classroom,” said Jon-Vincent Jamir, PACT’s Head Start Area Manager and LENA Grow coach.
How LENA Grow teaches a coach to be a better coach
Seven ways LENA Grow has helped me help teachers take active charge of their own learning.
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.
How to build staff buy-in in early learning environments
For early childhood education leaders, getting staff buy-in is an essential part of launching a program like LENA Grow or LENA Start.
How to harness the untapped potential of family child care providers
We sat down with Jessica Sager, CEO of All Our Kin, to learn how boosting support for family child care providers can help solve America’s child care crisis.
How to have a conversation with a baby even before they can talk (and how LENA measures it)
LENA technology measures how much adults talk to infants. What does that mean, and how do you do it effectively?
How to make video calls more engaging for infants and toddlers
Explore tips and strategies for making video calls more interactive for young children.
Implementing statewide PD for ECE teachers in Mississippi: Questions from the webinar
We had the privilege of hosting a webinar featuring our partners in Mississippi to learn how they implemented LENA Grow at a statewide level. Here, we answer common questions that arose during the webinar.
Improving early childhood through locally focused philanthropic partnerships
When it comes to accelerating the growth of LENA programs, place-based philanthropic support is critical.
Infant and parent brainwaves synchronize during playtime
Parents’ brainwaves track and respond to changes in their infant’s brain activity when they play together.
Infant and toddler CLASS assessment: Your questions answered!
Teachstone’s senior research advisor discusses the state of early childhood classrooms, challenges and opportunities for growth, and answers common questions about CLASS.
Initial longitudinal evaluation results: Huntsville children whose parents participated in LENA Start have stronger literacy skills two years later
Promising new data show that children whose families participated in LENA Start, a parent-group program focused on increasing early talk, demonstrated considerably higher early literacy scores and were far more likely to be at an advanced literacy level entering pre-K.
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.
Introducing LENA Home 2.0 – Easier to deliver and more accessible!
The May 2018 release of LENA Home, which adds an early language focus to home visiting initiatives, includes easier access to key metrics, a fully revised coaching guide, and a refreshed online library of print and video resources.
It’s never too late for interactive talk! Your questions on conversational turns research answered.
In 2018, researchers published three studies examining the long- and short-term effects of interactive talk. Here we’ve answered the top questions on the role of conversational turns in child development.
It’s Time to Shine a Light on Language Isolation in Infant and Toddler Classrooms
New grant opportunities are making it possible to adopt data-informed strategies for ensuring that we can look forward to a time when every child’s day is filled with wonderful, nourishing conversation.
Just call us LENA
We're excited to announce that we're simplifying our name to LENA. This change reflects who we are and the work we’re doing to support parents, educators, and researchers in improving the language environments of children worldwide.
Justice starts at birth
In response to recent events, we have made a point to step back and deeply reflect in order to be both authentic and to highlight commitments on which we can and will act.
Kindergarten readiness, parent education, and conversational turns: A statistically significant correlation in a rural South Carolina school district
A study out of Cherokee County, S.C., has found a correlation between parent participation in LENA programs and higher scores on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment.
Lakeshore^® partnership offers materials to help early educators increase quality interactions in the classroom
Developed in partnership with Lakeshore®, four kits are available to provide age-appropriate materials that align with the topics teachers explore during LENA Grow’s five-week coaching sequences and beyond.
Launch Fund Grant Recipients 2020 – Welcome to our new partners!
In the month of June, we made awards to 12 communities to launch LENA programs. We are pleased to introduce you to our newest LENA partners!
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!
LENA Grow coach shares best practice
A peer coach shares how she incentivizes teachers during the LENA Grow program.
LENA Grow goes statewide in Tennessee
“The TN CCR&R sees the LENA Grow program as an important piece of the puzzle in proper language and socio-emotional development for children in Tennessee,” said Heather Hicks, Director of the TN CCR&R.
LENA Grow may help keep early educators in the profession, new evidence suggests
There’s strong evidence to suggest that LENA Grow, the evidence-based professional development program that helps early childhood educators create equitable language environments, has a beneficial impact on teacher retention.
LENA Grow updates are coming…So who’s behind the curtain?!
These 12 LENA Grow advisors are helping to implement big improvements to the program.
LENA Grow: Lessons from our learning site
We launched a learning site to gain hands-on experience implementing our professional development program for early childhood teachers. Read what we learned about establishing trust, engaging staff, and what’s next.
LENA Launches Local “Learning Site” for LENA Grow
We’re excited to announce the first LENA Grow site in Colorado in partnership with the Aspen Center for Child Development, and this time LENA staff will be playing an active role in the coaching!
LENA Programming Aligns with Head Start’s Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework
Learn more about how LENA’s programs support key aspects of Head Start’s updated Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework.
LENA researchers’ work featured in new Netflix series
Research by Dr. Eric Walle and Dr. Anne Warlaumont on the relationship between child language development and movement is featured in a new Netflix documentary, Babies.
LENA Start coordinator and graduate featured in reading documentary
A new documentary film from director Jenny Mackenzie and executive producer LeVar Burton features a LENA Start coordinator and her family.
LENA Start partners with school-readiness texting program to add continued support for parents after graduation
Parents who graduate from LENA Start will be enrolled in Ready4K, an evidence-based program which sends texts to parents with suggestions on how to increase interaction with children.
LENA Start Reflections & Funding Announcement
LENA has the opportunity to offer matching funds through the generosity of philanthropists who are interested in expanding the reach of LENA Start. Applications are now open for 2019 LENA Start Matching Funds!
Let’s appreciate early childhood educators — truly, loudly, enthusiastically, and materially
Gather up those flashes of a well-timed hug, a generous smile, or an enthusiastic morning hello, and take more time to appreciate our early childhood teachers.
Let’s NOT stop talking about talk.
At LENA, we believe that adult caregivers have the power to make a difference in a child’s life. Helping parents – and early childhood teachers – use that power to boost vocabulary and literacy is a good thing.
Libraries serve as community catalysts to build pre-literacy skills
Public libraries around the country are using LENA Start to build children’s early literacy skills, connect families with community, and increase library engagement.
Making a difference: We reached our goal to impact 10,000 children in 2019!
Because of our work, more than 10,000 children experienced 14 million brain-building conversational turns this year.
Masked up and ready for conversational turns: Helpful hints to maximize interactions in early childhood classrooms
For early childhood teachers, wearing a mask and nurturing quality interactions may be at odds with each other.
Matching funds support launch of new LENA Start sites nationwide
Over the last two years, LENA Start has quickly expanded into 35 communities across the United States and Canada. Read about our newest community partners launching LENA Start this fall through our ongoing matching funds opportunity.
Meet Miss Vera
Vera Dunson was skeptical at first. After all, she’s in her 70s, and she knows how to take great care of the kids in her classroom — what difference was having them wear a little device once a week going to make? But the results surprised her.
Meet the new LENA Grow, redesigned for even greater impact!
The new LENA Grow is refreshed, streamlined, and ready to bring an early language focus to your professional development initiative for early childhood teachers.
Mom credits pre-teen son’s success to increased interactive talk in early childhood
Christine Gardy, a mom who gained insights from LENA feedback while her son was just a baby, attributes much of his success 10 years later to increased interactive talk.
Mom uses LENA technology to advocate for more robust school support for daughter who is hard of hearing
Lisa Eberlein used LENA technology to investigate the language environment her daughter experienced at school. She used the data to demonstrate the need for her daughter to have an FM system in the classroom.
New data analysis: One in five children in child care spends most of the day in language isolation
According to LENA’s recent analysis of day-long audio recordings from 15,820 children, approximately one in five children spent most of the day in language isolation.
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.
New meta-analysis confirms that LENA’s automated measures significantly predict child language outcomes
Researchers found a correlation between three of LENA’s measures – adult word count, conversational turns, and child vocalizations — and children’s language and cognitive skills.
New report from Escambia County on LENA Grow Shows CLASS^® Gains
Data from the first year of partnership with the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County (ELCEC) shows that classrooms using LENA Grow, our professional development program for early childhood educators, showed gains on CLASS® assessment scores.
New research links early vocabulary skills to teacher-child interaction in preschool classrooms
“For all of us who care about the millions of children who spend most of their waking hours in child care, this is a call to action,” said Dr. Jill Gilkerson, Chief Research and Evaluation Officer at LENA.
New research says how much you talk with babies is linked to their IQ in adolescence
10-year longitudinal study published in Pediatrics correlates interactive talk in early childhood with later cognitive outcomes.
New research sheds light on the importance of conversational turns
New research by a team at Harvard and MIT used LENA technology and brain imaging to measure the relationship between children’s language experience and their brain activity. The study found that conversational turns predicted variance in verbal scores, while the sheer number of adult words did not.
New research strengthens link between adult-child conversation and brain structure, reading skills
A new study exploring associations between family socioeconomic background, children’s brain structure, and children’s reading skills indicates that children who experience more conversational turns may have increased brain growth, and in turn, better reading skills.
New study links conversational turns with increases in children’s verbal and nonverbal abilities using brain imaging and LENA technology
A study from MIT and Harvard uses LENA technology to investigate how children’s brains changed following an early language intervention.
Now is the time to support child care providers in building positive interactions
It’s time we acknowledge that early childhood teachers are brain architects.
Parent Profile: Kristen Rhodes finds community, concrete feedback in LENA Start program
A mom who graduated from LENA Start shares how the program helped her to connect with her daughter and her community.
Parent Profile: Lily Ellison Shares how LENA Start Changed her Approach to Reading
“The thing I found the most interesting in the classes was the difference between reading to and reading with a child,” Lily explained. “Roseanna had heard the entire Harry Potter series, but we didn’t read it together, so the same parts of her brain weren’t lighting up.”
Parent Recruitment 101: A Q&A with Jennifer Calderon
A Recruitment Specialist shares her strategies for recruiting parents and families to participate in early childhood intervention programs.
Parent recruitment for LENA Start and LENA Home: Recognizing and responding to barriers
A recent Community Conversation among our partners inspired these new ideas about recruiting families for programs like Start and Home.
Parents as Teachers Affiliates Add an Early-talk Focus
LENA and multiple affiliates of Parents as Teachers, a MIECHV-approved home visiting organization, are working together to promote optimal early development for children by supporting and training parents and caregivers.
Parents gain confidence, skills, and awareness through LENA Start classes
A young couple from Texas share how LENA Start classes helped them gain confidence in their parenting skills after the birth of the first daughter.
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.
Postpartum depression and early talk: My experience
What can you do to ensure you’re supporting parents experiencing perinatal mood or anxiety disorders?
Preliminary findings suggest LENA Grow accelerates language development
Children participating in LENA Grow gained nearly 1.5 months’ worth of language skill acquisition in just one month’s time, achieving developmental milestones at an accelerated rate.
Providence Talks Replication: A renewed commitment to quality child care in Virginia Beach
"Investing in our youngest citizens at birth and continuing to do so throughout their school years makes smart economic sense," says Virginia Beach GrowSmart coordinator Barbara Lito.
Providence Talks Replication: Building city-wide impact one family at a time in Hartford
Entering its fourth year, Hartford Talks is focusing on families. Here are two families' LENA stories.
Providence Talks Replication: From participant to program director in Detroit
Victoria Washington went from LENA Start participant to Director of Brilliant Detroit's 313Speaks program.
Providence Talks Replication: Sustaining growth and “working toward yes” in Birmingham
Having nearly quadrupled their reach in just three years' time, Birmingham Talks is focused on a bright future.
Providence Talks replication: Your questions answered!
We’re answering questions submitted during last week’s webinar about early childhood innovation at the municipal level.
Putting a bow on 2018 and looking forward to 2019
2018 has been an incredible year for LENA with new research, strong partnerships, and 10 million conversational turns! We're thoroughly excited about the road ahead and all that 2019 will bring as we work toward our vision of all children entering school prepared for success.
Q & A with Dr. Dana Suskind
Dr. Dana Suskind shares about the origins of her book, how she uses LENA technology, and why we all need to "spread the words."
Q & A with Elizabeth Szymanski: Supporting family child care providers with business services
Elizabeth Szymanski shares about how family child care providers could help end America’s child care crisis, the resources and support they need to thrive, and how MyVillage eliminates common challenges.
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.
Q & A: How autism researchers are using LENA technology for early detection and intervention
University researchers who are using LENA technology share their perspectives on current and future autism research.
Q&A with Charlie Wolfson: Investing in children’s futures by investing in early talk
Arrow Impact is a private foundation supporting "initiatives that create pathways to economic prosperity for communities that have been marginalized and under-resourced."
Q&A with Dr. Beate Peter: Researching early speech and language intervention for children with classic galactosemia
A new clinical trial will use LENA SP to evaluate the effectiveness of a speech-language intervention for infants with a known genetic risk factor for speech and language delays.
Q&A with Dr. Fred Zimmerman
Dr. Zimmerman explains his latest research into how environments and external factors affect population health and child development.
Q&A with Dr. Jim Duggan: Why school districts should prioritize early childhood
Your questions on school readiness answered by the assistant superintendent of Bourbonnais 53 school district in Illinois.
Q&A with Dr. Loretta Rudd: How University of Memphis is broadening their collective impact approach to scale early childhood programming
Through a collective impact model, the University of Memphis is implementing LENA programs to build stronger families, increase teachers’ skills, and support students’ learning in their local community.
Q&A with Dr. Reem Khamis-Dakwar: Empowering families to reclaim minority languages with LENA Start
In New York City, LENA Start classes empowered Spanish- and Arabic-speaking families to value their native languages and maintain them across generations.
Q&A with economist Flávio Cunha
An economics professor explains his research on human capital formation, with a particular focus on understanding the forces that explain the large differences in the quality and quantity of investments that children receive from their parents and family.
Q&A with Elliot Haspel, author of “Crawling Behind: America’s Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It”
We were delighted to welcome author Elliot Haspel to our staff book club discussion.
Q&A with Emma Quigan: How COMET Auckland is using LENA with indigenous families in New Zealand
In New Zealand, LENA is a tool to empower whānau (families) to connect to culture and each other.
Q&A with Kai-ama Hamer: A discussion of family engagement and parent recruitment
Family engagement specialist Kai-ama Hamer shares strategies for involving parents in community and school-based programs.
Q&A with Katherine Bryan: Funding evidence-based programs to improve outcomes for children
Katherine Bryan is a Program Officer at the Urban Child Institute in Memphis. Here, she shares about why the institute invested in LENA programs and how early investments have the potential to move the needle on kindergarten readiness.
QRIS and interaction: Do quality rating systems reflect individual experience?
Data analysis suggests that approximately 1 in 4 children experiences very little adult-child interaction, even within classrooms at centers that have achieved the highest QRIS rating possible.
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.
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.
Reflections on 2021: Data that motivate, stories that inspire
Last year around this time, we wrote that “2020 wasn’t the year we planned for.” Has 2021 been any different? Has it been any more normal? Well, yes and no.
Reflective feedback in parenting interventions: Coming back to the “Why”
Programs like LENA Start and LENA Home can help parents reflect on their hopes and dreams and follow through on their goals.
Research Roundup: Babies are real conversational partners
Want to stay up-to-date on happenings in the realm of early childhood education? Our new blog series is designed to keep you in the loop on the latest early childhood education news, research, and updates. Check it out!
Research Roundup: Brain Waves, Intelligence, and Voter Attitudes
Did you know your brain waves sync with your baby’s? Read the study and see other exciting new findings in this month’s research roundup.
Research Roundup: How adult friendship, socioeconomic status, and screen time may affect developing brains
Read the latest studies exploring how everything from a child’s socioeconomic status to the hours they spend looking at a screen are related to their brain development.
Research Roundup: How parents can shape children’s early brain development through reading
Three new studies highlight how reading supports brain growth and cognitive function.
Research Roundup: How researchers are using LENA technology to make new discoveries
Read about how LENA technology is facilitating new research breakthroughs.
Research Roundup: How researchers are using LENA technology to understand child development
Learn how different scientists are using LENA technology to better understand how children learn and develop and in what type of environment they thrive.
Research Roundup: How social influences shape a child’s development
Read new research that sheds light on how children’s peers, caregivers, and social environments may affect their development.
Research Roundup: How to reduce the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Explore research-based strategies for helping children overcome adversity.
Research Roundup: Learning during the first few years of life
Three new studies provide insight into how children learn during the first months and years of life.
Research Roundup: Long-term impacts of early childhood education
Read about new studies examining the long-term impacts of early childhood education on individuals and society as a whole.
Research Roundup: Maternal depression and paternal parentese in the context of COVID
In the context of COVID, two studies put mothers, fathers, and the language environments they nurture in stark relief.
Research Roundup: New information on infant language acquisition
Read summaries of three newly-published studies exploring how young children develop and acquire language.
Research Roundup: NICU interventions enhance interactive talk with premature babies
Two recent publications from researchers at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island highlight the promise of interventions aimed at increasing preterm infants’ exposure to adult interaction in the NICU.
Research Roundup: Supporting young children and caregivers during crisis
As normal caregiving routines are disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, three research studies provide insight into how to support children and caregivers.
Research Roundup: The Latest Findings on Reading
We all know we should read with kids. But why? See the latest research on how reading affects child development.
Research shows links between LENA Grow participation and social-emotional growth
Analyses reveal strong evidence that LENA Grow may give children’s social-emotional development a boost.
Resources to help support your family and community during COVID-19
Amidst mounting pressures, we believe the core truths of LENA still apply: early talk is key, and caregivers are the secret sauce.
Results from parent survey confirm LENA Start is building stronger families
We analyzed data from 1,700 program participants and found that families report spending more time with children, talking more, and feeling more confident in their parenting abilities.
Rural school districts: Challenges, opportunities, and LENA
Every rural school district has its defining features and challenges, but they all share a common opportunity: boosting early talk and getting a jump start on school readiness.
School districts use LENA programs to improve kindergarten readiness, child outcomes
School districts around the country are increasingly investing in the early years to give children an equitable start long before kindergarten.
School readiness team at Huntsville City Schools uses LENA Start to increase children’s kindergarten readiness
To help prepare children to succeed in kindergarten, one school district in northern Alabama launched an early language intervention to boost cognitive development in children ages 0-3.
Sequatchie Valley Head Start uses LENA Grow to meet performance standards for professional development
Sequatchie Valley Head Start uses LENA Grow to meet federal coaching requirements and work with teachers geographically separated over five counties.
Simple, timely resources to build resilience in child care through talk
As child care programs navigate disruption this fall, a focus on maintaining positive interactions can help reduce stress and build responsive relationships.
Some of our favorite books for the 0-5 year olds in your life!
An assortment of the LENA Team's favorite books, in honor of National Reading Month.
Sounding the alarm about young children’s language development: A look back at our most viewed content of 2022
A look back at some of the blog posts and webinars that attracted the most eyes and ears in 2022.
St. Vrain Valley Schools launches new initiative to amplify early talk
Community organizations in Longmont, Colo. are partnering to bring LENA Start to local families to help increase children’s school readiness.
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.
State of Georgia Adopts LENA Grow
The first of six new LENA Grow™ implementations nationwide, the program will serve 800 children in 16 centers across the state during the first year!
Study finds causal link between conversational turns and socioemotional development in babies
Updated with new data insights! Researchers in Santiago, Chile, have used LENA technology to show important connections between conversational turns and social-emotional development in very young children.
Study finds that families who participate in LENA Start increased adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations
Families who participated in LENA Start provided increasingly rich home language environments for their children, expanding how much they talked to and with them over the duration of the three-month class, compared to families who did not attend, a new study has found.
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.
Survey results suggest LENA Grow improves educators’ professional outlook
Does LENA Grow help early childhood educators increase self-efficacy and job satisfaction as professionals who play a critical role in children’s lives?
Survey results: How COVID-19 is impacting child care providers
Our team surveyed hundreds of people working with young children – including teachers, family child care providers, and center directors — to better understand how they have and will continue to adapt to protect the wellbeing of their children and staff during the coronavirus outbreak.
Talking with infants, structuring community partnerships, and more: A look back at our most popular content of 2021
A look back at some of the blog posts, webinars, reports, and resources that attracted the most eyes and ears in 2021.
Teachers and coaches share their experiences with LENA Grow
We’ve interviewed LENA Grow participants nationwide for an inside look at what it’s like to complete the professional development program for early childhood teachers.
Teachers, children benefit from LENA Grow Pilot with Teaching Strategies
During the four-month pilot, LENA technology was used to measure talk and provide objective feedback to early childhood educators in two early childhood classrooms in central Virginia. In one classroom, an impressive 87.5 percent of children experienced an increase in either adult words or conversational turns.
Texas Children’s Hospital Becomes First Healthcare Organization to Launch LENA Start
In the summer of 2016, Texas Children’s Hospital launched LENA Start to support healthy developmental outcomes for children at a population-wide level.
The positive impact of LENA Grow certification
LENA’s research team completed an analysis of the impact that certification has on teachers who participate in LENA Grow.
The power of conversational turns in early childhood education: Head Start is doing it right!
There’s a lot that goes into creating high-quality early childhood education. One simple yet powerful ingredient is a focus on fostering teacher-child interactions and creating robust language environments. Head Start and Early Head Start One show tremendous promise in that regard.
The Power of Responsive Interactions in Supporting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Webinar highlights
What roles do conversational turns and responsive relationships play in infant and early childhood mental health?
Thoughts on 15 years and the staying power of LENA
Reflecting on the past 15 years, Judi and I are struck once again by how much the team at LENA has achieved drawing from Terry’s first insights and ideas.
Three moms share stories of their LENA Start experience
Survey results tell us that families’ enthusiasm for LENA Start has held steady more than a year into the pandemic. Three personal family stories show us why.
Tips for organizing early education classrooms to increase conversational turns
Your room’s arrangement, materials, and how you present them all affect learning, for both the children and you. How can you create a space that lets you focus on strong relationships with the children you care for?
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.
To improve quality outcomes, Early Head Start program looks to LENA Grow for timely feedback
Learn how one of the most successful Early Head Start programs in the country used LENA Grow to improve quality classroom practices.
Turning children’s books into conversation starters
Here are some tips for turning read-aloud time into interactive conversation time for the young children in your life.
Two moms establish new parenting habits through LENA Start classes
Best friends Kathryn Royse and Samantha Stover enrolled in LENA Start classes in Houston together and began looking for ways to increase conversation at home.
Understanding how to support early brain development: Four themes that emerged in 2019
This year, we explored many different aspects of early brain development through special webinars, blog posts, and conversations with experts. Here, we’ve highlighted four themes that emerged during 2019.
Universities use LENA to put early childhood research into action
Universities that use LENA are putting research into action, producing valuable data, and creating hands-on learning opportunities for students and faculty.
Urban library expands reach and impact through community partnerships
San Mateo County Libraries has built successful partnerships to boost the reach and impact of their programs. Learn about how they are delivering LENA Start through partnerships with San Mateo County Housing Authority, Ravenswood Family Health Center, and The Primary School.
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.
Virginia Beach family increases two-generation, bilingual engagement with children through LENA Start
Taking LENA Start classes helped the Ochoa family learn to connect with their children in new ways.
Virtual LENA Start classes help parents and teachers to connect and collaborate
At Best Memories Academy in Orlando, parents and teachers are partnering together virtually to create rich early childhood language environments for children.
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.
Webinar follow-up and reflections: Do COVID babies “talk” less?
Highlights and topics that emerged from our webinar on caregiver-child interactions during COVID with Dr. Sean Deoni and Dr. Jill Gilkerson.
What’s new in LENA Start 3.0
We’re excited to share that we’ve released a new version of our group program for parents and families.
Why I joined LENA after 25 years in the public school system
Laura Camp, one of LENA’s most recent hires, joined the team after 25 years in public education. Read about why she left to join the movement to close the talk gap.
Why Pride is important to me
A LENA staff member shares his story of growing up gay in an unwelcoming school environment, and how he wants things to keep getting better.
Wisconsin health care company offers parenting classes as employee benefit
In a state where 77 percent of employers report having trouble finding employees, North Central Health Care is looking for an answer in an unexpected place: early childhood.
With language and social-emotional delays on the rise, here’s one part of the solution
New data analysis shows that LENA Grow may help boost language and social-emotional Teaching Strategies GOLD® scores.
With technology uptake, individual circumstance is everything
A study out of Australia has applied a unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model to LENA, underlining the importance of paying attention to parents’ individual circumstances.
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.

Staff & Advisors

Betty R. Vohr, MD
Betty R. Vohr, MD PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, ALPERT MEDICAL SCHOOL; BROWN UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR, NEONATAL FOLLOW-UP CLINIC; WOMEN AND INFANTS HOSPITAL Dr. Betty Vohr’s research focuses on prospective studies examining the impact of interventions on the comprehensive neurodevelopmental, cognitive, motor, growth, functional, educational, and behavioral outcomes of high-risk infants, especially very low birth weight infants and infants with permanent hearing loss. Dr. Vohr has been Medical Director of the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program since 1990, and Coordinator for the NICHD Neonatal Research Network Follow-up Studies since 1997. Dr. Vohr has used LENA technology since 2008 to investigate the language environment of premature infants in the NICU and children with congenital hearing loss. Investigations with colleague Dr. Melinda Caskey have demonstrated ... Read More
Carole Brite
Carole Brite Chief Financial Officer, LENA Carole joined LENA in August 2021 as the Chief Financial Officer and is honored to use her experience to help advance LENA’s mission of transforming children’s futures through early talk technology and data-driven programs. Carole has over 25 years of leadership experience first as an audit partner for RSM and then with several mission driven nonprofit organizations. She has served as the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the COO of Financial Health Network, and the CAO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Denver. Carole earned a BS in Accounting from Indiana University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Charles R. Greenwood, PhD
Charles R. Greenwood, PhD PROFESSOR OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, SENIOR SCIENTIST AT THE INSTITUTE FOR LIFE SPAN STUDIES, DIRECTOR OF JUNIPER GARDENS CHILDREN’S PROJECT; UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Dr. Charles Greenwood’s research is focused on evidence-based interventions. He has received KU’s highest award for research (the Irvin Youngberg Research Achievement Award in Applied Science) and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He directs Kansas City’s Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, which earned the Research Award of the Council for Exceptional Children for contributions to evidence-based practice, measurement, and for the training of researchers. Dr. Greenwood is also Co-Director of the Bio-Behavioral Measurement Core in the Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator of a Research ... Read More
Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, PhD
Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, PhD Research Professor, Professor Emerita; University of Colorado-Boulder Dr. Christine Yoshinaga-Itano’s research focuses in the areas of language, speech, and social-emotional development of deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and children. She is both a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing and an audiologist. She has concentrated on the impact of early-identification and early intervention on the developmental outcomes of children with significant hearing loss. Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano was the first to demonstrate that when infants with hearing loss are identified in the first few months of life and provided with appropriate intervention services, that 80% are able to maintain age-appropriate language development and intelligible speech in the first five years of life. She also studies the development of ... Read More
D. Kimbrough Oller, PhD
D. Kimbrough Oller, PhD Professor and Plough Chair of Excellence; University of Memphis Dr. D. Kimbrough Oller’s research focuses on vocal development and acquisition of spoken language. In over 200 articles and books, his work addresses infant vocalizations, early speech production, multilingualism, and evolution of language. In addition to his position at the University of Memphis, Dr. Oller is an External Faculty Member of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria. In 2013 he was awarded the Honors of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, its highest honor. His bilingualism research includes Language and Literacy in Bilingual Children. His research in evolution and development of language includes The Emergence of the Speech Capacity, The Evolution of ... Read More
Jill Gilkerson, PhD
Jill Gilkerson, PhD CHIEF RESEARCH AND EVALUATION OFFICER Dr. Jill Gilkerson is the Chief Research and Evaluation Officer at LENA and leads all research and analysis activities. Since joining the team in 2005, Jill has been instrumental to just about every major initiative involving LENA. She manages a team of researchers responsible for collecting and analyzing the spontaneous speech data used for software development, the LENA normative scales, and a wide range of academic research studies. Jill is a recognized expert in the relationship between parent talk and child language development, and her research has focused on the relationship between early language environment and demographic variables such as birth order, gender, and TV exposure. Jill led LENA’s efforts through the ... Read More
John H.L. Hansen, PhD
John H.L. Hansen, PhD ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AT THE JONSSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE, PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR OF SPEECH AND HEARING SCIENCES; UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS – DALLAS Dr. John H. L. Hansen’s research focuses in the field of speech processing and hearing science. He holds the University Distinguished Chair in Telecommunications Engineering, and is a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Fellow of ISCA (International Speech Communications Association), and received the Acoustical Society of America’s 25th Year Award. He has graduated 66 PhD/MS thesis candidates in speech and language processing (as well as in speech and hearing science) and is an author/co-author of 495 journal and conference papers and 11 textbooks. ... Read More
Judith K. Montgomery, PhD, CCC-SLP
Judith K. Montgomery, PhD, CCC-SLP Professor and Director of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program; Chapman University Dr. Judith Montgomery’s research focuses on the effects of hearing loss on adults and children; child language and vocabulary development; and response to intervention models for speech language pathologists in schools. She worked for 23 years as an SLP, elementary principal, and then Director of Special Education in school districts in southern California. A Board Certified Specialist in Child Language, she is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Communication Disorders Quarterly. She received the Annie and John Glenn Award for Outstanding Leadership in School-Based Speech Language Services and has received honors from California Speech Hearing Association and the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). She ... Read More
Keith J. Topping, PhD
Keith J. Topping, PhD Director of the Centre for Paired Learning; University of Dundee, Scotland, UK Dr. Keith Topping’s research interests are in the development and evaluation of methods for non-professionals (such as parents or peers) to tutor others one-to-one in fundamental skills (such as language, reading, or math) and higher order learning across many different subjects, contexts, and ages. He also has interests in electronic literacy and computer-aided assessment and in behavior management and social competence in schools. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He has extensive experience working with teachers, children, and parents in numerous school districts, as well as with government and non-governmental organizations, ... Read More
Sahar Bou-Ghazale, PhD
Sahar Bou-Ghazale, PhD Head of Technology Innovation, LENA Dr. Sahar Bou-Ghazale is the Head of Technology Innovation at LENA and specializes in technology product roadmap development and leading new technology development. With over 20 years of experience in the areas of digital speech and audio processing for voice recognition and voice communication, Sahar has provided leadership and technical expertise from product inception to high volume production to cross-functional and remote teams. Sahar has worked and consulted for a large number of companies including Fortune 500 and start-ups, and has worked alongside world-class audio labs to pass products through stringent audio certification requirements; those products were deployed and shipped in millions of units. Sahar is passionate about applying her expertise to ... Read More
Soyeong Pae, PhD
Soyeong Pae, PhD Professor and Program Director of Speech Language Pathology & Audiology; Hallym University, S. Korea Dr. Soyeong Pae focuses her research on language acquisition across life span, development of culturally and linguistically fair Korean assessment tools of language and communication, evidence-based language/reading intervention in monolingual and multicultural contexts in consideration with low social economic status and language environment, and clinical markers for language/reading difficulties from dyslexia to language learning difficulties in transparent orthography. Dr. Pae is former president of the Korean Academy of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology and chief supervisor for language facilitators in Korea for children with multicultural backgrounds. She is an associate editor of Communication Sciences & Disorders.
Stephen M. Hannon, PhD
Stephen M. Hannon, PhD President and CEO, LENA Dr. Stephen M. Hannon is the President and Chief Executive Officer of LENA, a national nonprofit focused on increasing adult-child talk to improve child outcomes. Steve is privileged to lead a talented team in the shaping and scaling of the organization’s caregiver-directed initiatives that integrate LENA’s “talk pedometer” technology. Steve leverages a wealth of technical and leadership skills honed over a 25-year career spanning multiple industries. He has been instrumental in transitioning LENA from an organization known solely for its research on early language to one known for putting research into action and positively impacting children and families around the world. An expert in optical remote sensing and statistical signal processing, he ... Read More
Steven F. Warren, PhD
Steven F. Warren, PhD University Distinguished Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing: Science and Disorders, Investigator with the Institute of Life Span Studies; University of Kansas Dr. Steven Warren’s research has focused on communication and language development in children with developmental delays and disabilities. Much of this work has focused on the effects of different types of communication and language interventions as well as the way that children with specific disorders (e.g., Down syndrome) respond to different approaches. Over the past 15 years he and his colleagues have conducted several randomized clinical trials on the effects of these interventions on children’s language development. For the past 10 years Dr. Warren has been investigating the impact of parenting on the development of children with ... Read More
Vince Swartout
Vince Swartout Chief Information & Operations Officer, LENA After graduating Western Michigan University with a BS in Mathematics, Vince began developing web solutions for a myriad of companies and eventually led the creation of large-scale SaaS solutions. He played strategic and tactical roles building a nationwide data processing company, and helped the Dolan Company through its IPO. Along the way he developed proprietary process improvement and workflow modelling methods, became well versed in audit and information security, and saw first-hand how important it is to connect good people and good “IT.” Vince moved to Colorado and joined LENA in 2013. At LENA he is back to his real passions – creating solutions and managing teams that help LENA scale and ... Read More

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