Webinars (7)

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What the Texas Rising Star QRIS can tell us about quality child care interactions

Recorded: Sep 15, 2021

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?

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The link between language and socioemotional development

Recorded: Jul 12, 2021

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.

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The Power of Conversational Turns

Recorded: Oct 25, 2018

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.

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Beyond the 30 Million Word Gap: A Conversation with Dr. Rachel Romeo

Recorded: Mar 29, 2018

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.

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Blog Posts (24)

Learning to read (and write) starts earlier than you think!

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Dr. Lucy Hart Paulson, co-author of LETRS for Early Childhood Educators, on how learning to talk and learning to read and write happen in parallel. Learning to read starts earlier than you think, and conversational turns are an important piece of the puzzle!

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Are we failing our youngest dual language learners?: New data insights on child care language environments

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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.

Articles (25)

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Do COVID Babies Talk Less

Sara NovakApr 25, 2022

A decline in socializing during COVID could mean less verbalizing for babies born during the pandemic.

Can science help poor kids earn more?

Economist FilmsDec 16, 2021

In a provocative video, Economist Films explores the role conversational turns may play in what they call "breaking the class ceiling."

Parenting: It takes a village

Walter IsaacsonAug 10, 2021

In this podcast episode, host Walter Isaacson and guests discuss parenting, how it's evolved from a group activity to something more singular, and how experts and technology are filling in the gaps for new parents.