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.
LENA - Building brains through early talk
Webinars (9)
Do COVID babies “talk” less? Research findings and potential implications
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.
Staff retention and stress reduction: Bringing positivity (back) into the classroom with LENA Grow
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.
Supporting early childhood educators now: strategies for building a voice and a community
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.
The link between language and socioemotional development
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.
Inside Early Talk: Our point of greatest leverage for improving children’s futures
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.
Virtual Family Engagement: Ingredients for Success
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.
Supporting young children and families during COVID: Launching new programs and adapting to virtual family engagement
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?
Mitigating the Academic and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Child Care
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?
Blog Posts (7)
To improve quality in child care, Dallas nonprofit looks to LENA Grow with virtual coaching sessions
Coaches have created a new system to ensure teachers are still receiving crucial PD on how to support early brain development.
Simple, timely resources to build resilience in child care through talk
As child care programs navigate disruption this fall, a focus on maintaining positive interactions can help reduce stress and build responsive relationships.
Virtual LENA Start classes help parents and teachers to connect and collaborate
At Best Memories Academy in Orlando, parents and teachers are partnering together virtually to create rich early childhood language environments for children.
Survey results: How COVID-19 is impacting child care providers
Our team surveyed hundreds of people working with young children – including teachers, family child care providers, and center directors — to better understand how they have and will continue to adapt to protect the wellbeing of their children and staff during the coronavirus outbreak.
Now is the time to support child care providers in building positive interactions
It’s time we acknowledge that early childhood teachers are brain architects.
Resources to help support your family and community during COVID-19
Amidst mounting pressures, we believe the core truths of LENA still apply: early talk is key, and caregivers are the secret sauce.
Research Roundup: Supporting young children and caregivers during crisis
As normal caregiving routines are disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, three research studies provide insight into how to support children and caregivers.
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Articles (11)
What’s behind a spike in childhood speech development delays across the U.S.
PBS Wisconsin's Zac Schultz reports on what's behind the delays and whether schools have the resources to help teachers, students and caregivers.
The pandemic’s indirect effects on small children could last a lifetime
An international and all-encompassing look at the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on young children, including the perspective of Dr. Jill Gilkerson, LENA's Chief Research and Evaluation Officer.
Pandemic has made babies and toddlers miss talking and reading milestones
Multiple studies show that infants are talking less because parents haven't been able to engage them in language developing conversations due to COVID.
Covid-Era Babies Are ‘Talking’ Less, Signaling Future Reading Challenges
We know the pandemic has had a serious negative impact on the academic achievement of school-age children. But recent evidence shows we also need to worry about Covid-era babies and toddlers.
Do COVID Babies Talk Less
A decline in socializing during COVID could mean less verbalizing for babies born during the pandemic.
New Research: Babies Born During COVID Talk Less with Caregivers, Slower to Develop Critical Language Skills
Infants born during the pandemic produced significantly fewer vocalizations and had less verbal back-and-forth with their caretakers compared to those born before COVID.
Pandemic Kids Need Early Language Support. Here’s How Teachers Can Help
To avoid widespread school readiness gaps, experts say teachers and parents need to give children born since the pandemic an immediate language infusion.
Babies Are Saying Less Since the Pandemic: Why That’s Concerning
Amid the stress and disruption of the pandemic, parents and caregivers have had less time and energy to engage their babies and toddlers in conversation—and the lack of talk already shows in their language skills.
Parenting: It takes a village
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.
Supporting Kindergarten Readiness and Early School Success in a Pandemic Year
While we're still learning about the pandemic's effects on children, it's clear that some learning setbacks have occurred. Overdeck Family Foundation writes about how parents and teachers, with help from organizations like LENA, have stepped up.
A Look Back on 2020: Supporting Impact in a Year of Challenge and Innovation
The Overdeck Family Foundation reflects on the last year of investments, recognizing the adaptations and challenges that grantees such as LENA have surmounted.