LENA for Libraries
Interested in learning more about bringing LENA to your community?
Libraries across the country are partnering with LENA to help parents boost infants' and toddlers' brain development.
Libraries around the country — large and small, urban and rural alike — have found LENA Start parent-group classes to be a valuable tool for engaging families of infants and toddlers. LENA Start is an evidence-based community program designed to help families learn how to increase conversation with their children during the first few years of life. The program can be delivered virtually, in person, or through a combination of in-person and virtual sessions. The three-month program can help with:
Supporting healthy early literacy practices like talking, reading, and singing
Providing caregivers with unique, actionable data on how their actions are impacting their children’s development
Enticing new families in the door and into connection with library resources
Creating a safe space for families from vulnerable populations to connect, organize, and unite
Encouraging native language reclamation and a celebration of bilingualism in families who speak minoritized languages (LENA works in every language!)
Quickly launching a turnkey virtual family engagement program that can easily be incorporated into existing systems of outreach
"I just trust the library. I grew up with a library card as a small child, and my mom did library work early in her life. I was taught that if you don't know something, you can go to the library and there are people there who can help you find it. When the library said, ‘Hey, we have a program that’s helpful for children, even infants to 33 months of age,’ I said, ‘Oh wow!’"
— Yolanda Fennick, a LENA Start parent at Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado
What implementers are saying about LENA Start in libraries:
“We want every child in Wisconsin to be able to read and be literate. We emphasize early literacy skills by educating parents on five practices — talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. LENA fits in with our mission, because it emphasizes talk and parent education, which are some of our goals in the children’s department.”
“What I love about having the LENA Start class at the library is that we create a habit of going to the library in these families. When we talk to families in focus groups, they say that they used to come to the library maybe once a month or less. After LENA Start, they’re starting to come every week. I know a lot of them stay connected after the class — they make friendships and support groups.”
“By expanding LENA Start through our Talk Read Sing program to local community organizations that provide services to high-need communities, we are able to strengthen our reach for providing families with early literacy engagement for their babies. The Talk Read Sing collaboration perfectly fits our mission to create opportunities for growth and enrichment in the communities we serve.”
“LENA has a very nice plug-and-play curriculum, where you can add information that's specific to your community but you're still on message during the program. ... It has a great impact, seeing the families sharing with one another. There was also over time a subtle impact that I noticed to our staff.”
“This is not your grandmother’s library. We’re asking how the library changes and adapts as less things are in print, and more things are available digitally so that it remains a valuable resource in the community in Wisconsin. We see LENA as being a really valuable piece in terms of using technology to help us meet those goals.”
“One of the greatest things we are learning about working with LENA Start at the Denver Public Library has been about how deep and authentic our community connections have been while working with Colorado families.”
Want to learn more?
Check out our webinars, blog posts, and videos about how libraries across the country are partnering with LENA.
Webinars
Libraries as innovators in early childhood education
Learning together: Increasing staff and family commitment to early literacy at Phoenix Public Library
Blog Posts
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Videos
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