LENA Home Q & A

The Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) System is the advanced audio recognition and analysis technology that underpins the foundation's four main products: LENA Pro, LENA Pro - Pilot, LENA Pro - Graduate Student Version, LENA Home, and LENA Language and Autism Screen (LLAS).

LENA Home is a kit that includes everything you need to monitor the quality of your child's at-home natural language environment. The system is an essential tool in helping to ensure that your child is exposed to an optimal language environment during the critical birth through four years period.

Research shows that children who are exposed to more words during this critical developmental period are better prepared for school and more likely to excel academically, immediately and in the long term. The highest achieving children, for instance, have typically been exposed to 25 million words from 0–4, while lower achieving children have usually only been exposed to 9.5 million words. The ultimate difference is that the former tend to have larger vocabularies than the latter, and research has shown that children who have larger vocabularies when they start school have a considerable advantage over those who do not.

In three easy steps. You dress your child in one of the two articles of LENA Clothing that come with LENA Home, and then slide the LENA Digital Language Processor (DLP) into the clothing's specially designed pocket. At the end of your recording day, you plug the DLP into your PC and let the sophisticated LENA Home software process the DLP data. Finally, you view the reports.

As the purpose of LENA is to provide you with an accurate representation of your child's everyday language environment, we recommend that you use LENA on days that are representative of your normal daily routine.

Parents, caregivers, and the child. By helping augment vocabulary growth and usage and encouraging parent-child interactions, LENA Home helps turn children into confident and advanced learners capable of excelling throughout their academic careers.

Even though you may think you talk to your child a lot, research has shown that parents tend to overestimate the amount of communication that actually takes place. With LENA Home, there's no wondering—you know. You know your child's language exposure, vocalizations, and parent-child interactions. And that provides you with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your child's language skills are developing at an optimal level.

Studies have shown that socio-economic status or race are not strong predicative indicators of IQ. What is? High amounts of talk and parent-child conversational turns have been shown to be more influential in developing higher IQs than either wealth or racial background.

Yes. We'll let you try out LENA Home for 30 days. If you are not satisfied with the system after that period, we'll provide you with a full refund.

Maintaining optimal levels of parenting becomes increasingly overwhelming as your family grows. Although your first-born child might have received the finest one-on-one time during his or her first four years, research shows that the youngest child frequently doesn't receive the same amount of attention. LENA Home can help you make sure that your youngest gets the attention he or she needs to thrive alongside his or her older siblings.

The elephant is a majestic creature and a great communicator. The large land mammal shares many traits with humans. For example, elephants gather to greet a newborn. Elephants can recognize the individual voices of hundreds of other of their kind. And elephant families possess an extensive vocal repertoire and a vast communication network.

During the first two weeks we recommend using LENA around two to three days. This will give you an opportunity to become comfortable with the system and help you establish a baseline measurement of your normal language environment. Once you've obtained a baseline, we recommend using LENA two to three times a month or as often as you choose to track your child's progress.

The DLP is not waterproof. Before your child takes a bath or engages in water play, make sure the DLP is placed far enough away as not to be splashed but close enough to capture your child vocalizations and adult words.

Undertake similar precautions during car rides. Before placing your child in a car seat, remove the DLP from the LENA Clothing and place it near the child.

When the DLP is placed directly below your child's voice, at chest level in the special pocket in the LENA Clothing, the software identifies your child as the “key child.” Due to distance from the key child, the software can detect and distinguish between “other children.” By picking up vocal markers found in adult speech, the software can detect "adult words" spoken to and near your child.

No. The software cannot give accurate data unless the DLP is in the pocket of the specially designed LENA Clothing. Identification of your child's voice is based on specific acoustic properties generated at that distance between your child's mouth and the DLP pocket.

Further, the LENA pocket material has been tested to ensure good acoustic quality to the microphone.

The LENA Home software can accommodate multiple children. However, you must purchase an additional DLP for each additional child in order to ensure that the data is kept separate. Additional DLPs are available for purchase at the LENA Shop.

Ideally, within a six-foot radius or "eye-contact" distance. If you are interacting with your child you are most likely within this range. Words spoken from across the room, say at a distance greater than 10 feet, will not typically register. But that's OK. The objective is to measure only words that are truly meaningful to your child, which enhance language development, not words spoken at a distance or to other adults. In addition, keep in mind that if you have a soft voice we recommend that you speak in a louder voice during the recording day to ensure an optimal recording.

Don't worry, you're not alone. Most parents overestimate the number of words that they speak to their children. Therefore, when you first start using LENA Home, it is quite common for your word counts to be lower than expected.

To improve your word counts, we recommend that you:

• Review your reports and determine which activities you were engaging in when you received the low word count. For example, consider whether the environment was noisy. If so, make sure to turn off sources of electronic noise, such as TV and radio, to help ensure the best language and audio environments in the future.
• Read books to your child and make notes on the reading times, and then compare those times with your hourly adult word counts. Reading is one of the best ways to increase adult word count and conversational turns.
• Download the LENA Activity Log and keep track of all of your activities during the recording day. You can compare the log with your child's reports to determine which activities contribute most to your child's language environment. Download Activity log here.

Electronic noise, such as TV and radio, significantly increase the amount of data that needs to be processed. Turning the TV and radio off while your child is in the room will decrease the processing time. More importantly, however, research has shown that children do not learn words from TV.

Recommendations for optimal processing:

• Operating System: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
• Memory: 512 MB or minimum requirement for operating system
• Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768
• Hard Disk Space: 10 GB of free space*
• Video Card: High-Color 32-bit 

We recommend a newer model PC or laptop (less than two years old). You can improve your audio file processing and performance with a faster processor and additional memory.

Depending on the audio environment (car rides, daycare, and a quiet nap all have differing audio qualities), each 12- to 16-hour audio file may take between 2 to 16 hours to process.

*Note: One 16-hour audio file = 500 MB

We currently do not support running LENA on a MAC.

Unfortunately, these are the minimum requirements for the LENA software to function properly. If you have already purchased your LENA System and need to return it, please contact Customer Service.

Please contact Customer Service.

To edit your child's name, age and/or gender, please follow these easy steps:

1. Open your LENA software and go to the "Settings" on the upper right hand corner.
2. In the “Child Information” box, click your child's name and then click "Edit."
3. Change any information you wish, and then click "OK."

No, not currently.

Unfortunately, the LENA software cannot be used on public computers. In addition to licensing restrictions on the LENA software, which restricts use to personal home computers, the data-processing time requires up to 16 hours, which could tie up your library's computing resources. There are also restrictions requiring administrative rights to install the software.

No. Because of audio encoding, you currently cannot listen to your recordings.

Please contact Technical Support.

Yes. However, not all PC/USB connections will charge the LENA properly. We recommend removing the DLP from your computer and charging it with the wall charger, which is provided with the LENA System purchase.

Please contact Technical Support.