SLP Discovers New LENA Language Assessment - an Innovative Way to Optimize Treatment and Boost Workday Productivity
Over the past 15 years, working in pediatric hospitals, schools, and homes, I have acquainted myself thoroughly with the time-consuming administrative tasks required of an SLP. For example, there are the insurance company constraints, the need to maintain funding sources, and the challenge of juggling multiple clients in an overbooked calendar.
Traditional evaluations have always been an important and necessary part of developing my treatment plan, but I often wished that I had a way of capturing a child’s natural home language environment. Too often, gathering essential information on children’s early language skills not only requires dedicating valuable treatment sessions to administering lengthy assessments, but also staying late at the office to score and analyze the data and write reports. Caught up in a whirlwind of tasks, I often had less time for what I needed to do - teach kids to talk.
I recently tried the new LENA Language Assessment from the LENA Foundation (formerly Infoture, Inc.). It was quick and easy. The foundation sent my client’s parents a packet with everything they needed and instructions on how to record their child’s vocalizations in one 12-hour period. After recording their child’s natural language environment, the parents dropped the assessment equipment in a prepaid envelope and mailed it to the foundation. Within three days, the foundation processed the data and sent me six reports, two assessments, and an audio sample from the child’s recording.
“The new LENA Language Assessment is the only evaluation tool that I am aware of that gathers 12 hours of data and provides rapid feedback on language development.”
When I opened up the LENA Language Assessment results packet, the first thing I saw was a cover sheet summarizing the recording session data; it was accompanied by color-coded graphs that provided easy-to-read data on adult words spoken, child vocalizations, conversational turns, and even how much TV or other electronic sounds were present throughout the recording day. Just by reading the summary, I was able to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the language environment in the child’s home and preschool environments in less than a half hour of my typically hectic day. The recordings and reports provided unique data on two of my clients - the kind of data that I had previously been unable to acquire in a typical hour of therapy.
One three-year-old child's vocalizations were exceptionally high (in the 81st percentile) while his conversational turns were average (in the 52nd percentile). Adult words over the course of 12 hours were in the 40th percentile. Because the child had exhibited signs of periodic echolalia during our sessions, I suspected that the high incidence of vocalizations occurring outside the realm of turn taking indicated a high degree of non-interactive echolalia throughout the day. While reviewing the report with the child’s family, we were able to freely discuss echolalia and how to address it outside the therapy setting.
The second client was a 2½-year-old toddler with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Like other children with CAS that I had treated, he had not been as verbal during my home visits as I had hoped, frequently relying on his mother’s presence to cue him to talk. He had scored in the 37th percentile for vocalizations. I regretted that I had not used the LENA Language Assessment during his initial evaluation six months ago, when his mother reported limited vocalizations from her child. I can only deduce that the initial baseline scores for vocalizations would have been much lower. The comparison scores would have been ideal to demonstrate progress to an insurance company or other funding source.
Like many SLPs, I have filled an entire shelf with my favorite assessment tools, each of which has its own purpose and demands on my time. Some are for initial evaluations. Some are for periodic rechecks. Some are for final evaluations that I often use to support recommendations for discharging a client. Now I have a new favorite.
Innovative and practical, the new LENA Language Assessment is the only evaluation tool that I am aware of that gathers 12 hours of data and provides rapid feedback on language development; yet it takes very little time away from my treatment sessions and workday. I can use the assessment to provide feedback immediately on how parents can improve their child's language development. At last, an efficient, reliable, and effective means to report a child’s progress without taking time away from precious therapy sessions - the LENA Language Assessment. I am suggesting to all of my colleagues that they give it a go.
