LENA - Building brains through early talk
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Upcoming Webinars
Libraries as innovators in early childhood education
June 21, 2022 2:00 pm EDT
A decommissioned helicopter, a “Questionarium,” a Rainbow Jungle. These are just a few of the interactive, multimodal, play-based spaces that the youngest patrons of the Calgary Public Library and Bay County Library System, Mich., can enjoy. Learn how these library systems have reconceptualized early learning in their communities and how they've incorporated LENA Start into their visions as early learning innovators.
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.
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.
A study out of South Carolina has found a correlation between increased conversational turns and higher scores on the state’s Kindergarten Readiness Assessment.
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.
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.
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.
A discussion with leadership from community-wide programs about key elements for building successful partnerships.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Learn more about how libraries can incorporate LENA programs into their offerings for patrons. How have our current library partners achieved positive results?
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?
Learn about how we partner with Head Start programs to promote language and literacy skill development in both center- and home-based programs.
How can we leverage funding opportunities to integrate a trauma-informed approach to accelerating language and literacy skills?
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.
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.
Learn how Adelphi University and the University of the Pacific have taken on innovative roles in their communities’ cradle-to-career (C2C) pipelines.
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?
Learn more about LENA Start — its effectiveness, its ease of implementation, and more. LENA Start is a parent group model designed to support increased early language development and interaction.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Find out how LENA Grow is helping teachers increase interactive conversations in early childhood classrooms, and learn about the impacts we’ve seen with the program so far.
In this webinar, medical practitioners help us understand early language development through a public health lens. How does interactive talk build family resiliency?
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.
What does equity look like in early childhood classrooms? Learn concrete strategies for supporting coaches, teachers, and administrators in fostering more equitable classroom environments.
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.
With LENA Start, families can use “talk pedometer” technology to measure and improve their child’s language environment. How does LENA Start work with groups of teenage parents specifically? What are the unique challenges and opportunities that come with serving this age range?
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.
Learn more about LENA SP, a tool for researchers, clinicians, language professionals, and others who need detailed, scientifically reliable speech-language measurements of children 2 months to 48 months old.
Learn about LENA Home, an add-on to existing home visiting programs that combines a flexible, research-based curriculum with evidence-based feedback from LENA’s “talk pedometer” technology. How is LENA helping parents and home visitors collaborate to improve children’s language environments?
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.
How do we support teachers in making strong connections between data and action? Join us as we talk through the insights embedded in LENA metrics and strategies for using them to foster a strengths-based dialogue with teachers that builds enthusiasm for classroom talk.
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.
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.
