Kindergarten readiness starts early, and simple caregiver-child interactions make a big difference!
LENA - Building brains through early talk
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Every interaction counts.
Rethinking School Readiness in Early Childhood Education: Webinar Highlights
What truly prepares a child for kindergarten? Early childhood educators discuss all things school readiness related in this webinar!
Connecting the Dots Between Early Childhood Education and Third Grade Reading
You probably know third grade reading ability is a big deal, but do you really know why? Let’s talk about it and how it’s connected to ECE!
From Skeptic to Advocate: A Veteran Teacher’s LENA Grow Journey
Read Teresa’s story from being unsure about the power of LENA Grow in her classroom to school board success!
Measuring LENA Grow’s Impact on Kindergarten Readiness
LENA Grow increases children’s kindergarten readiness assessment scores, according to data from school districts in South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Understanding Kindergarten Readiness as a Pathway to Lifelong Learning
Kindergarten readiness (sometimes called “school readiness”) means a lot of things to a lot of people … but what exactly is it?
Social-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: New Evidence of LENA Grow’s Effectiveness
New data analysis suggests LENA Grow accelerates social-emotional development, a strong sign of kindergarten readiness.
Challenging Behavior in Early Childhood Education: Webinar Highlights
Challenging behavior is among the most pressing issues facing early childhood educators today.
Understanding Challenging Behavior in Early Childhood Education: A Focus on Communication Skills
Discover how to identify and respond to challenging behaviors in early childhood education classrooms and explore how LENA can help!
Lolli and Pops: From the Navy Base to a Family Child Care Home
Royce Simons served in the navy. Then he worked in a state prison. One day, he turned to his wife, Tonya, and said, “When I retire, we’re going to stay home and do child care, right?”
Supporting multilingual learners: Webinar highlights
Highlights from a LENA webinar: New data analysis on how much interaction dual language learners experience with their teachers in child care settings amplifies a call to action.
Dual language learners experience less teacher-child interaction in child care and preschool: New data analysis
Early childhood education classrooms across the U.S. provide significantly fewer conversational turns for children who are dual language learners than for their monolingual peers.
Scaling a statewide early childhood quality initiative in Ohio
In a new case study, we explore the how/why/when/where of Ohio’s statewide implementation of the LENA Grow professional development program.
“Everyone has their niche, and my niche is little kids”: One teacher’s journey in cultivating her students’ voices
One veteran teacher’s LENA Grow journey: “It kind of goes back to my childhood. I struggled with learning. I never really had anyone who taught me that as long as I kept trying, I could.”
State leaders on sustaining and scaling quality initiatives in early childhood education: Five lessons learned
Lesson #1: States can fund quality initiatives without sacrificing their commitment to access. … What else did we learn from state leaders in Ohio and Tennessee about scalable early childhood initiatives?
Amplifying conversations, transforming early childhood
In 2023, we were thrilled to announce a generous $5 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Here’s what that means for LENA’s future, and for our continued role in reshaping early childhood education.
Early childhood mental health, dual-language learners, the science of reading, and more: A look back at our most popular content of 2023
LENA’s journey through 2023 has been marked by revealing insights and transformative discussions. Join us as we take a look back at some of the blog posts, webinars, and resources that gained the most attention over the year.
Learning to read (and write) starts earlier than you think!
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!
LENA’s role in “The Right to Read” documentary: A focus on preliteracy skills
A documentary film from director Jenny Mackenzie and executive producer LeVar Burton features two LENA Start coordinators and their families.
With language and social 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.
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?
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.
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.
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.