LENA Grow in Arkansas
Table of Contents
The Need for LENA Grow
The quantity of teacher-child interactions is among the greatest indicators of a high-quality early childhood education environment.
Unfortunately, language environments in early childhood education settings are neither as responsive nor as robust as they should be.
- Only 9% of children get the interaction they need to thrive.
- Even at centers that have achieved high quality ratings, many children experience very few conversational turns.
- 91% of classrooms fail to provide the level of interaction necessary for ideal brain and language development.
- Dual language learners often experience many fewer interactions than their monolingual peers.
- Children from low SES families experience fewer conversational turns on average.
- One in eight children experiences language isolation.*
Early childhood educators face unprecedented stressors. As such, focusing on teacher-child interactions becomes a challenge. Instead, it should be the beating heart of the profession.
*Based on analysis of 33,256 children’s LENA data. A child is considered to be in language isolation when they experience fewer than five conversational turns per hour throughout the day.
What LENA Grow Does
- Draws on LENA’s widely validated technology
- Delivers empowering, data-driven, personalized learning content and strategies
- Shows measurable benefits in just five weeks (sometimes sooner!)
- Increases teacher job satisfaction, confidence, and retention
- Increases TS GOLD®, DECA, LAP™ B-K, BRIGANCE, i-Ready®, and kindergarten readiness assessment scores
- Increases classroom quality assessment (CLASS®) scores
- Increases the quantity of teacher-child interactions in a classroom
- Boosts interactions significantly for children who start out experiencing the least
- Brings children out of language isolation
- Positively shapes the culture of the classroom and center
How LENA Grow Works
Reflective Feedback Cycle
The LENA Grow program uses data from LENA’s wearable device to help educators build more talk into daily classroom activities. Following best principles of adult learning, the LENA Grow feedback cycle provides educators with opportunities to:
- Objectively measure talk in their classroom each week
- Reflect on their own talk data and each child’s experience
- Set individualized goals and learn strategies to help achieve them
- Practice the strategies during their daily routines
1. A LENA Day. One day per week for five weeks, children wear the LENA device to measure their teachers’ interactive talk.
2. Coaching and feedback. Teachers reflect on their talk data with strengths-based guidance from an instructional coach.
3. Practice days. Teachers work towards measurable improvement on their next LENA Day.
Room Report
The Room Report is the heart of the program. It provides an overview of a classroom’s LENA Day and shows both overall data as well as how individual children compare:
Child Report
Teachers can see detailed reports about each individual child’s progress in the Child Report:
LENA Grow Program Impact Report
For leaders, the Program Impact Report delivers a bird’s-eye view of your entire LENA Grow implementation. You can zoom in on a single site’s results, or you can zoom out to see aggregate results and reach numbers across all participating sites. The report highlights LENA Grow’s impact both on teachers and children, especially those who started the program experiencing the least teacher-child interactions.
Data represents outcomes in Arkansas from 2022 to 2026.
Training
Your LENA Grow point person/program manager and coaches will complete approximately two hours of asynchronous, interactive training courses:
- Introduction to LENA Grow
- Planning for LENA Grow (not required for coaches)
- Coaching with LENA Grow
- How To Use LENA Technology
After that, they will also attend a Zoom training session called LENA Grow Live. Your designated Partner Success Manager will facilitate that session, which runs approximately three hours. In addition, the LENA Library, a comprehensive knowledge base covering all aspects of the program, is always available, as is personal support.
Program Effectiveness
More outcomes, as well as links to white papers and evaluations, are available at lena.org/effectiveness.
Kindergarten Readiness
Finding: Children in LENA Grow classrooms were approximately two times more likely to demonstrate readiness for kindergarten.
Assessments: Kindergarten Readiness Assessment
Evaluation Partner: Cherokee County School District, S.C.
Treatment Group: 121 children in LENA Grow classrooms
Control Group: 204 children in non-LENA Grow classrooms
Year of Evaluation: 2024
Literacy Skills
Finding: Children in LENA Grow classrooms saw significant increases in early literacy scores.
Assessment: Teaching Strategies GOLD®
Evaluation Partner: SproutFive, a child development center in Ohio
Treatment Group: 40 children in LENA Grow classrooms
Control Group: 40 children in non-LENA Grow classrooms
Year of Evaluation: 2022
Emotional Intelligence
Finding: LENA Grow children showed accelerated gains in social skills and emotional development.
Assessment: Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA)
Evaluation Partners:
- Educare and AppleTree, networks of child development centers based in Washington, D.C.
Sample: 103 children in LENA Grow classrooms
Year of Evaluation: 2022
Classroom Quality (Infant and Toddler)
Finding: LENA Grow classrooms saw significant increases in the Responsive Caregiving and Engaged Support for Learning domains of CLASS®.
Assessment: CLASS®
Evaluation Partner: Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County, Florida
Sample: 8 infant classrooms and 5 toddler classrooms
Year of Evaluation: 2017
Classroom Quality (Preschool)
Finding: LENA Grow preschool classrooms saw significant increases in all three CLASS® domains, especially Instructional Support.
Assessment: CLASS®
Evaluation Partner: Fort Worth Independent School District, Texas
Treatment Group: 4 LENA Grow classrooms
Control Group: 7 non-LENA Grow classrooms
Year of Evaluation: 2019
Teacher Job Satisfaction
Finding: Teachers who participated in LENA Grow reported feeling significantly more valued as early childhood professionals.
Assessment: Teacher Perception Survey
Evaluation Partner: AppleTree Institute, a research institute and child care network in Washington, D.C.
Treatment Group: 17 LENA Grow teachers
Control Group: 10 non-LENA Grow teachers
Year of Evaluation: 2023
Teacher Job Confidence
Finding: Teachers who participated in LENA Grow reported feeling significantly more confident that their expertise and experience “have put [them] on the cutting edge of the workforce.”
Assessment: Teacher Perception Survey
Evaluation Partner: SproutFive, a child development center in Ohio
Treatment Group: 9 LENA Grow teachers
Control Group: 11 non-LENA Grow teachers
Year of Evaluation: 2022
Sole Source Letter
January 1, 2026
To Whom It May Concern:
As of this date, the LENA System™ is the only validated tool for automatically measuring adult word counts, conversational turn counts (a proxy for serve and return interaction), child vocalization counts, and other metrics associated with the child’s natural language environment. It is used in a wide variety of research studies around the world and has been integrated into programs focused on improving interactive talk between parents/caregivers/teachers and children. More information on the core technology is provided here: https://www.lena.org/technology/.
The patented and proprietary LENA System comprises: the specially-designed recording device; acoustically-designed clothing to properly hold the recorder; LENA software that offloads, uploads, and/or processes the audio data; and LENA Online™, the cloud-based data and reporting system. Information on LENA’s patents can be found here: https://www.lena.org/patents/. The LENA System has been integrated into the proprietary LENA Start® (https://www.lena.org/lena-start/) and LENA Grow® (https://www.lena.org/lena-grow/) adult learning (professional development) programs delivering objective feedback on the natural language environment and coaching tips to parents/caregivers and teachers. This feedback has unique advantages: comprising a sequence of full day of objective data versus short-duration snippets and is specific to each child (because the child wears their device). LENA SP™ (https://www.lena.org/lena-sp/) is a proprietary configuration of LENA Online designed to meet the needs of researchers and other language professionals.
The LENA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Colorado and is the sole source provider of the LENA System, LENA Start, LENA Grow, and LENA SP. LENA Foundation sells and distributes all LENA products as reflected on the then internally-published price list. All products are sold at the same price level under the Foundation’s standard or other comparable terms and conditions to all educational institutions, not-for-profit, and for-profit organizations. Volume discounts are offered to all customers.
Sincerely,
Stephen M. Hannon, President and CEO