LENA - Building brains through early talk
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Upcoming Webinars
Multilingualism and heritage languages in early childhood education: Amplifying a call to action
May 1, 2024 1:00 pm ET
In this webinar, LENA’s researchers will expand on their findings about inequities in child care and preschool settings with a new dataset. These findings will act as a springboard to a solutions-based discussion, inviting perspectives from experts on supporting multi-language learners in early childhood.
It’s no easy task for early childhood leaders to strategically disburse funds from PDG B-5, CCDBG, CLSD, and ARPA grants into the hands of LEAs and CCR&Rs. In fact, the alphabet soup of early childhood education funding streams can be a bit hard to digest, so to speak. In this webinar, state leaders will tell the stories of how and why they invested in initiatives for statewide implementation, as well as their visions for further expansion and impact.
What role may a child’s earliest interactions play in laying the foundation for learning to read? In this webinar, we take an expert deep dive into how conversational turns from ages birth to five fit into the ongoing discussions around the “science of reading.”
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.
What are the most effective, accessible, achievable ways to nurture infant and early childhood mental health/social and emotional well-being in young children? As anyone who has ever cared for a young child or talked to a stressed-out early educator or struggling parent well knows, this is a question that deserves all the attention it can get.
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.
Learn how LENA technology supports positive outcomes for social-emotional, language, and cognitive development, delivering equity-minded insights into how children experience interactions on an individual level. Hosted by Smart Start.
In this webinar, we’ll outline the mismatch between science and practice around multilingualism. How do we push aside myths about barriers and deficits to arrive at a place where one child’s multilingualism is considered an asset for all?
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.
Hosted by the BUILD Initiative and featuring Jodi Whiteman, LENA’s Director of Partnerships and Growth, this webinar examines how state leaders at looking at quality improvement initiatives in terms of cost and scalability, alignment with philosophy, impact and evaluation, and provider perspectives.
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.
In 2019, five U.S. cities were selected to receive a three-year grant to replicate the widely celebrated Providence Talks early literacy program. As the grant period draws to a close, we’re sharing their stories of what worked.
In her book Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six, Maya Smart uses the analogy of a road trip to describe the “road to reading” for parents of young children. Early talk can jumpstart the journey.
Hear the individual stories of how LENA Grow has made a difference at every level of the early childhood education system, and learn about the big picture of LENA’s vision for LENA Grow as it reaches more and more communities.
Learn how two 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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
