Exploring the Use of the LENA Pro System to Provide Feedback to Parents of Children with Autism
A growing body of
research now indicates that programs designed to aid parents in everyday communicative interactions with their child who has autism
can be effective in supporting child development. Despite this emerging evidence, researchers and intervention service providers
have limited information to guide the clinical delivery and presentation of these programs.
At the University of
Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, we are examining the early language learning environments of toddlers with autism in the context of a
parent-training program, Hanen More Than Words (MTW). MTW is a manualized program designed to train parents to use general language
facilitation techniques (e.g., modeling language, following a child's lead, expanding a child's utterances) and/or more
specific goal-directed strategies (e.g., building a single-word vocabulary, expanding the use of single words to two-word phrases)
with their child in daily, naturalistic contexts to facilitate the child's communication and language. The program comprises
eight group family sessions led by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and three in-home video feedback sessions to support the
family in implementing the strategies learned in the program. This feedback is qualitative in nature and targets only specific short
routines in the family's day.
We plan to use the
LENA Pro system to collect data in the home setting and to understand the effect of the MTW program on parent-child interactions
and child language development. We are interested in using the LENA data to determine whether families who receive feedback on their
child interactions and child progress throughout the program will be more inclined to use the skills taught in the MTW program than
those families who do not receive feedback.
In our study, one
group of families will receive MTW "treatment as usual" (described above) and another group of families, with the assistance of the
LENA Pro software, will receive numeric feedback on the amount of adult words used, the times during the day when conversational
turns occur, and the amount of child vocalizations used in the language environment. We will collect language environment data on
both groups and examine whether families who receive feedback over the course of the parent program show greater changes in their
communicative interactions with their children than families who do not receive this kind of information and feedback.
We are excited about
the opportunities for data collection in the child's natural home environment that the LENA Pro technology presents. We are
also interested in seeing if LENA can be used as an effective and efficient means of providing additional support and information
to parents and help them engage in communicative interactions with their toddlers who have autism.
Stephanie Patterson is leading this study as part of her Master's program in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta; Dr. Veronica Smith is her thesis supervisor.
The follow-up to the inaugural conference held in Crete last fall, the 2nd Workshop of Child, Computer and Interaction will
host researchers and practitioners working in multimodal child-machine interaction and focusing on speech interactive interfaces.
LENA Foundation scientists will be attending the event, which is scheduled for November 5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
LENA presentations include "Automatic Childhood Autism Detection by Vocalization Decomposition with Phone-like Units" and
two posters on assessing stressful and neutral speech in the natural environment.
"My son has hearing loss and two severe communication disorders that affect his verbal production. As my husband and I grew up in multicultural and multi-language households, we knew the importance of raising our son bilingually regardless of the diagnosis. For his two languages, we chose a visual language, American Sign Language (ASL), and a verbal language, English. In LENA, we found a partner capable of easily and accurately collecting data, documenting our journey, informing therapy decisions, and helping prove that bilingualism is a better therapeutic approach than monolingualism. With LENA, we have numbers to back our decision. With LENA, we have an extra voice."
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Liz Guerrini, mother of a five-year-old son with hearing loss, CAS, and dysarthia
The Big Easy's Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, site of this year's ASHA Convention. Attendees may visit LENA Foundation at booth 513.
2009 ASHA Convention
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Date: November 19-21
At this year's ASHA LENA Foundation will present:
ASD Screening: Automatic Analysis of Child Vocalizations in Natural Environments
Authors: Judy Montgomery, D. Kimbrough Oller, Jill Gilkerson, Jenifer Shubin, Jeffrey A. Richards, Dongxin Xu, Sharmistha Gray, and Umit Yapanel
Day/Time/Location: November 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Ballroom C
Infants Around More Talk Become Toddlers with Better Language Skills
Authors: Judy Montgomery, Jill Gilkerson, Jeffrey A. Richards, and Dongxin Xu
Day/Time/Location: November 19 from 11:00 a.m. to Noon in Room 275-277
More Meaningful Differences: LENA System Automatically Assesses Natural Language Environment
Authors: Jill Gilkerson, Kimberly Coulter, and Jeffrey A. Richards
Day/Time/Location: November 21 from 11:00 a.m. to Noon in Room 253
Thanks!
This eNewsletter exists to connect the community of parents,
professionals, and researchers who are interested in child development and language acquisition.
LENA Foundation is the creator of the LENA™ System. The system will help you to collect and assess the natural language environment of children. For more information, visit www.lenafoundation.org or www.lenababy.com.
To purchase the LENA System, call 866-503-9918.
LENA Foundation 5525 Central Avenue, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301-2820
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