IN THIS ISSUE:

My wife, Judi, and I started Renaissance Learning, Inc., an educational technology company. Together, we developed the Accelerated Reader (AR) reading management system used daily by 65,000 schools in the US. While developing the AR system, I was able to apply my passion for research and data collection. My research in reading showed that intense intervention can help students in the bottom percentile reach approximately the middle percentile. However, it is extremely difficult to completely close the gap between the low achieving students and the high achieving students once they get to school.

Eight years ago, I came across the breakthrough Hart and Risley study, Meaningful Differences, which led to the idea that became LENA. I realized that the first four years were critical, and that it’s all about talk, the “social dance” between parent and child.

My experience developing technology-based programs contributed to the idea that it might be possible to make a device, a language environment analysis system, to provide parents, researchers, and therapists with a way to see a child’s natural language environment – the daily words a child hears and communicative turns they engage in. And by seeing a child’s language environment and development, intervention therapies could be applied and measured during those critical first three years.

As we developed LENA and began to compile what is now the world’s largest database of parent-child speech (over 55,000 hours of recordings!), we were able to identify patterns in the data.

There are a lot more questions to be answered, but I think you’ll find that the technical report, The Power of Talk, contains some incredibly exciting findings. The report is a compilation of data that is just the tip of the iceberg of the research and analysis that can be done using LENA. And hopefully, as we continue to work with more and more researchers, we will make great strides in early language development and find cures and interventions to help all children with language delays.

Browse through our current papers and presentations

This report describes the development of LENA Foundation’s Automatic Vocalization Assessment (AVA^TM) software. AVA software is designed to provide both parents and professionals with automatically generated information about the expressive language development of children ages 2 months to 48 months. Expressive language estimates are produced based on 12- to 16-hour audio recordings collected in the natural home environment using the LENA language environment analysis system. AVA expressive language estimates demonstrate statistical reliability and validity comparable to standard expressive language assessments commonly administered by speech language pathologists.
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Talk to Me, Baby! Supporting Language Development in the First 3 Years
By Betty Bardige and M. Kori Bardige
In their first few years, almost all children learn at least one language, though not equally well. Differences in the quantity, quality, sources, and variety of language inputs and conversation opportunities have a long-lasting effect. This article provides an overview of early language development and explains how talking with babies promotes rich language acquisition. The authors offer strategies for supporting language at each stage of development and for recognizing and responding to signs of potential disruption or delay.
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