It’s more important than ever to equip early childhood educators to address children’s unique needs and help get their language and social-emotional development on track. There’s strong new evidence to suggest that LENA Grow, a language-focused professional development program for early educators, is effective at doing just that.
LENA - Building brains through early talk
Webinars (9)
“Because of the data”: LENA Grow at Pasco County Schools
The Director of Early Childhood Programs and an instructional coach from Pasco County Schools, Fla., describe the why and the how of their LENA journey, touching on topics such as family engagement, CLASS scores, funding, and teacher job satisfaction.
Evaluating LENA Grow’s impact on early childhood education classrooms
Two independent program evaluations of LENA Grow show links between the professional development program and positive outcomes for early childhood educators and the children in their care.
ReadPlayTalk: How one school district in Texas is prioritizing birth-to-five
Mesquite Independent School District, serving around 40,000 students in the suburbs of Dallas, has developed a successful early literacy initiative powered by city-wide dedication to a unified vision: School readiness and early literacy are vital for long-term success, and they start at birth.
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.
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.
Every child ready by kindergarten: A case study in one school district’s vision of early childhood
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?
Building Classroom Quality Through Language
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.
Blog Posts (18)
How researchers have adapted to continue using LENA SP during the pandemic
Two teams share how they’ve adapted their data-collection process to continue their studies.
Bright Beginnings LENA Grow pilot shows significant change in the language environment of children experiencing homelessness
A pilot of the professional development program shows that teachers significantly increased the amount of interaction with the children in their classrooms.
New meta-analysis confirms that LENA’s automated measures significantly predict child language outcomes
Researchers found a correlation between three of LENA’s measures – adult word count, conversational turns, and child vocalizations — and children’s language and cognitive skills.
Children show elevated language skills one year after LENA Start
Children whose families participated in LENA Start are showing elevated language skills one year after the program, an analysis of longitudinal data shows.
LENA researchers’ work featured in new Netflix series
Research by Dr. Eric Walle and Dr. Anne Warlaumont on the relationship between child language development and movement is featured in a new Netflix documentary, Babies.
Early pilot results show teacher approval, improvements in child language skills in classrooms using LENA Grow
A pilot of LENA Grow in nine classrooms in Kansas found that teachers responded well to the program’s data-based coaching and children demonstrated better language skills after participating.
Q&A with Dr. Beate Peter: Researching early speech and language intervention for children with classic galactosemia
A new clinical trial will use LENA SP to evaluate the effectiveness of a speech-language intervention for infants with a known genetic risk factor for speech and language delays.
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.
Early Head Start programs use LENA Home to improve language and literacy outcomes
To help families and home visitors collaborate to improve language outcomes for children, many Early Head Start programs are using LENA technology in tandem with coaching during home visits.
From the archives: Conversations with adults boost child language development, study finds
UCLA professor Dr. Frederick Zimmerman explains his 2009 research which indicates conversational turns have unique power to boost child language development.
Research Roundup: New information on infant language acquisition
Read summaries of three newly-published studies exploring how young children develop and acquire language.
It’s never too late for interactive talk! Your questions on conversational turns research answered.
In 2018, researchers published three studies examining the long- and short-term effects of interactive talk. Here we’ve answered the top questions on the role of conversational turns in child development.
Research Roundup: How researchers are using LENA technology to make new discoveries
Read about how LENA technology is facilitating new research breakthroughs.
Mom credits pre-teen son’s success to increased interactive talk in early childhood
Christine Gardy, a mom who gained insights from LENA feedback while her son was just a baby, attributes much of his success 10 years later to increased interactive talk.
A parent perspective on LENA’s new longitudinal study
Parent Traci Martin shares strategies for unpacking new research with parents, teachers, and caregivers.
New research says how much you talk with babies is linked to their IQ in adolescence
10-year longitudinal study published in Pediatrics correlates interactive talk in early childhood with later cognitive outcomes.
First paper published linking conversational turns with brain structure
The first research showing a relationship between conversational turns and brain structure has ben published in JNeurosci. The paper investigates how back and forth interaction between children and their adult caregivers relate to white matter connectivity in the brain.
New research sheds light on the importance of conversational turns
New research by a team at Harvard and MIT used LENA technology and brain imaging to measure the relationship between children’s language experience and their brain activity. The study found that conversational turns predicted variance in verbal scores, while the sheer number of adult words did not.
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Articles (72)
Screen time can affect children’s language development, study suggests
Scientists call it 'technoference' when technology interferes with interactions between a parent and a child.
More Screen Time Means Less Parent-Child Talk, Study Finds
According to new research, “technoference” is real. Toddlers who are exposed to more screen time have fewer conversations with their parents or caregivers by an array of measures.
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.
Kids with chattier parents are more talkative, may have bigger vocabulary
New research from Harvard developmental psychologist Elika Bergelson offers a broader global perspective on language development than ever before seen. It emphasizes the importance of fostering interactive and communicative environments for children, and also probes the long-assumed connection between early talk and socioeconomic status.
Study finds parents don’t talk to infants, toddlers enough
A new research study shows having conversations with infants and toddlers will eventually help their reading skills.
New language development program available for Tennessee early child care educators
The Tennessee Child Care Resource and Referral Network recently incorporated the LENA Grow interactive language development program into their training for infant, toddler and preschooler educators.
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.
Parents in Delaware Can Improve Their Child’s Literacy Through This Device
"It's a great tool that parents can use that helps them be able to have better conversations for a lack of better terms with their children," said Monica Mandujano, the Spanish coordinator for Lena Start in Delaware.
Mesquite ISD offering free classes for parents of young kids to help promote verbal development
Outside Dallas, Texas, Mesquite Independent School District is gearing up for LENA Start through its Read, Play, Talk initiative.
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.
Bay County Libraries Begin Early Childhood Language Development Program
In Michigan, the Bay County Library System is launching its first LENA Start program.
Language program for parents and babies offered by Birmingham Talks
After launching its first LENA Start program in the fall of 2020, Birmingham Talks is recruiting families for its next program cycle.
Deploying the Power of Talk for Toddlers Reaps Academic and Social Rewards As They Become Adolescents
Conversation with children is a free, powerful, proven tool to boost children’s IQ, language development, and vocabulary into adolescence.
Roberts: Parent Coaching Can Relieve Stress, Bolster Babies’ Language Skills and Create a Deeper Sense of Community
Carly Roberts, a senior program officer at the Overdeck Family Foundation, explains why it is crucial to coach and support parents to benefit children.
Read Aloud Delaware Launches New Partnership to Close Literacy and Talk Gap in Children
Read Aloud Delaware is partnering with a national nonprofit, LENA, to close the talk and literacy gap in children.
The More You Talk to Your Babies, the Smarter They’ll Be as Teens, New Study Finds
Conversations with babies are vital to early growth and development, a 10-year study suggests.
‘Word pedometer’ aims to improve language development for children in Southwest Colorado
LENA Grow and LENA Home encourage teachers and parents to converse more with infants and toddlers in Southwest Colorado.
This Powerful Activity Can Change Your Child’s Brain
Back-and-forth conversations have a significant impact on language development and are important for social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Video: Beyond babble, back-and-forth conversations are critical for baby brains
A video spotlight showcases how early childhood teachers use LENA Grow.
High-tech device tracks communication with toddlers
At Step Up Suncoast, a nonprofit based in Manatee County, LENA Grow is used with teachers of 2-year-olds enrolled in Early Head Start.
Talk pedometers may boost your baby’s brain development
A growing body of research about early childhood education and cognitive development suggests that chatting with children, particularly from birth to age 3, is crucial. That thinking is at the heart of the program that Virginia Beach is now expanding with a nearly $450,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Talk pedometers may boost your baby’s brain development
A growing body of research about early childhood education and cognitive development suggests that chatting with children, particularly from birth to age 3, is crucial. That thinking is at the heart of the program that Virginia Beach is now expanding with a nearly $450,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Talk pedometers may boost your baby’s brain development
A growing body of research about early childhood education and cognitive development suggests that chatting with children, particularly from birth to age 3, is crucial. That thinking is at the heart of the program that Virginia Beach is now expanding with a nearly $450,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Why the way we talk to children really matters
There could be a simple way to help young children’s brains improve for the better, with long-lasting benefits.
Early speech exposure could boost language skills for kids with autism
The more words autistic children hear as infants — and the more verbal interactions they have with their caregivers — the better their language skills at age 2, a new study suggests.
Randomized Trial of LENA Home in A Home Visiting Program
A new study will evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of adding the LENA Home program to the standard Every Child Succeeds (ECS) home visiting curriculum.
Measuring the tides of talk
Using LENA technology, researchers have discovered new insights into children’s home language environments.
Study aims to prevent children’s speech and language disorders before they start
Speech and language researchers at Arizona State University's College of Health Solutions, together with collaborators at Washington State University, have received a National Institutes of Health grant of almost $1 million to use LENA technology in a study that will try to prevent speech and language problems before they happen.
Speak to Me, Baby
Advice columnist Mr. Dad shares tips to help your child develop verbal skills.
Want to Boost Your Baby’s Intelligence? Talk to Them – A Lot
New research finds parents who frequently talk to toddlers not only help improve their child’s vocabulary, but they also give nonverbal abilities like reasoning and numerical understanding a boost.
LENA programs offer path to close the early childhood word gap
Retired elementary school teacher Day McLaughlin shares research and personal anecdotes to emphasize how closing the early talk gap can benefit children, schools, and society.
Baby talk linked to later adolescent IQ
The findings of a recent long-term study by LENA researchers confirms two-way interaction between adults and infants correlates with increased IQ, verbal comprehension, vocabulary and other language skills 10 years later.
Can a bit of technology called LENA help young brains develop language?
Bright Beginnings, a school that serves families experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C. uses LENA technology to help adults increase interactive talk with children and improve their brain development.
This growing program is addressing Detroit’s literacy crisis — just don’t say it’s filling a ‘word gap’
A small program that started in Detroit last year with an innovative plan to improve infants’ language skills has proved promising and is preparing to expand to serve more than 150 families.
Talking To Your Baby Might Make Them Smarter, New Study Finds, Especially When They Can Respond
A team of researchers led by Jill Gilkerson, director of child language research at the LENA Foundation, looked at the effect talking to your baby might have on their later success.
Speaking with toddlers could boost IQ scores and language skills later in life
Having conversations with toddlers has been linked to higher IQ scores and better language skills by the time they reach school, a new study suggests.
Boulder non-profit LENA publishes research on importance of early talk with infants, toddlers
A 10-year study by LENA shows that the amount of talk with adults that babies experience in the first three years of life is related to their verbal abilities and IQ in adolescence.
Talking with your toddler could boost IQ scores and language skills later: Study
Early conversation with toddlers is linked to better language skills and higher IQ scores later in life, according to a new study.
Importance of language development in low-income, high-risk children
Study shows that conversational turns with teachers are positively related to language skills in children who are high-risk.
Back And Forth Conversation With Children Important For Children’s Brain Development
Using LENA technology, scientists at MIT discovered a relationship between conversational turns and children’s language development.
Here’s an intervention to keep our youngest learners from falling behind
Verbal engagement can influence child development more strongly than parental income or education, study shows
Wearable Tech Helps Early Learners Improve Language Contact
Child care centers in Virginia are using LENA programs to improve cognitive, emotional, and social development for young children.
Talking with—Not Just to—Kids Powers How They Learn Language
Researchers at MIT use LENA technology to study brain activity and the importance of conversational turns to language development.
Back-and-forth exchanges boost children’s brain response to language
Researchers at MIT used LENA technology to find that the amount of conversational turns is more strongly related to positive language development than the number of adult words spoken to a child.
A high-tech approach to boost language skills starts with infants in Detroit
Detroit organizations are investing in LENA in order to improve school readiness within the community.
LENA HOME – Developing children’s language
Home-Start UK is using LENA Home to improve early childhood language development, and hoping to expand the program in the years to come.
Central Iowa literacy program for babies expands this fall
Small Talk Story Country is a growing outreach project partnering with LENA to give caregivers measurable results about how they communicate with their children.
The ‘word gap’ and 1 city’s plan to close it
Rhode Island’s Providence Talks is partnering with LENA to provide parents with resources to understand how they can improve their young child’s literacy.
How to end the word gap? Cities invest big in baby talk.
Cities like Providence, Rhode Island, are investing in early childhood talk programs like LENA to decrease the talk gap between children.
Talking with babies helps them bridge word gap
As talk is found to be increasingly important to the development of childhood linguistic and cognitive development, more communities are using programs like LENA to improve communication behaviors in families.
Baby vest measures talk between parent and child
CBC Radio interviews Jill Gilkerson from LENA, explaining the importance of interactive talk between children and their caregivers.
Tech Can Make Your Conversations with Kids Way More Effective
Kate Gammon tells the story of LENA Start from a parent's perspective.
Techie Tools Teach Parents to Talk to Toddlers
Smartphones and other devices help parents teach and reach their little ones.
The Vocabulary Gap
Key to Vocabulary Gap Is Quality of Conversation, Not Dearth of Words.
The Talking Cure
Margaret Talbot takes a deep dive into the Providence Talks program and its use of LENA technology to measure talk.
Bridging the Word Gap
A radio piece on Latino USA highlights LENA technology, its use in the Thirty Million Words initiative, and the importance of speaking to young children in your native language.
Using Digital Recording Devices to Encourage Talk with Children
An article in New America Ed Central featured LENA's technology and commentary from LENA's co-founder and chairman, Terry Paul.
Coaching parents on toddler talk to address low-income word gap
This PBS Newshour piece examines strategies being used to increase conversation in the homes of families who are part of the Providence Talks program, as well as the program's use of the LENA System.
Get them early, the key to educational success
A Euronews Learning World article and video examine various approaches to increasing early childhood learning around the world. LENA's language analysis technology is featured in the second segment as an important tool in Dr. Dana Suskind's 30 Million Words project.
Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word
A New York Times article and video on new programs that focus on the home environment of very young children and how the use of LENA's Digital Language Processor (DLP) technology can benefit these initiatives.
In the Beginning was the Word
The Economist reported on the growing scientific evidence on the importance of parent talk and its implications for policy. LENA is noted as a tool to help close the gap.
How to Raise Verbal Children
Lexicon Valley, a Slate podcast about language hosted by Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo, discussed the importance of talking to your kids. Betty Hart and Todd Risley's research, "Providence Talks,"" and LENA were all part of the discussion.
UCLA Study: Give Young Children a Chance to Converse
The more you converse with your baby the more you help his language development, according to the study of 275 families with children age 2 months to three years.
Not just ‘baby talk’: Parentese helps parents, babies make ‘conversation’ and boosts language development
Researchers at the University of Washington coached parents on how to boost child language development and used LENA technology to measure significant results.
New “Babies” Series on Netflix Features UC Merced Professor’s Research on Development
A professor who uses LENA technology to study the relationship between children’s motor development and language development is featured in Netflix’s new series, Babies.
‘Nothing short of remarkable’: Study finds parents’ chats with their toddlers pay off 10 years later
A 10-year study by LENA researchers confirms that the amount of talk with adults that babies experience in the first three years of life is related to their verbal abilities and IQ in adolescence.