One veteran teacher’s LENA Grow journey: “It kind of goes back to my childhood. I struggled with learning. I never really had anyone who taught me that as long as I kept trying, I could.”
LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) is a national nonprofit on a mission to transform children's futures through early talk technology and data-driven programs. LENA works with a wide range of partner organizations to boost early brain development and improve school readiness for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
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LENA Grow
offers evidence-based professional development for infant, toddler, and preschool teachers.
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LENA Start
builds school readiness and strengthens families with parent-group classes.
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LENA SP
offers reliable, detailed language environment data in research and clinical applications.
The Ohio Child Care Resource & Referral Association (OCCRRA) has adopted LENA Grow as a professional development and technical assistance program available in all 12 service delivery areas across the state. LENA and OCCRRA will work together to report on the state of early talk in Ohio, identify best practices for local implementation, and successfully scale our work together.
Teachers earn professional development hours that are required by child care licensing and through Step Up to Quality. LENA Grow 1 is approved for 4.5 hours, LENA Grow 2 is approved for 3.5 hours for teachers, and the LENA Grow Coach training is approved for 4.5 train-the-trainer hours in the Ohio Professional Registry.
LENA has crosswalks with Head Start, CLASS, The Pyramid Model, ZERO TO THREE, and more!
“OCCRRA chose LENA because of its intriguing established practice-based approach tracking conversational turns for each child. Ohio recognizes the critical need for early talk, for each child, which is supported throughout Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards, and targeted in the Language and Literacy Domain. LENA also aligns with Ohio’s Early Childhood Core Knowledge & Competencies and is a critical component in the Learning Environments & Experiences and Child Growth & Development Areas. ... LENA actively supports OCCRRA’s priority of educating early care and education professionals so young children reach their fullest abilities and are prepared to enter Kindergarten.”
Whether you're with a library, school district, CCR&R, state agency, university-community partnership, public health initiative, or any other organization dedicated to improving early childhood outcomes, we invite you to learn more about bringing LENA to your community.
Connect with
Luis Bernal,
Regional Partnerships Director, Ohio
LuisBernal@LENA.org
"One of our teachers actually said, ‘You know, I love this tool because it reminds me that I’m having meaningful interactions with these children and that it’s helping them to grow,’ which I just think is such a beautiful light bulb moment to see."
Read these and other stories about partner success stories and research findings in Ohio and beyond.
One veteran teacher’s LENA Grow journey: “It kind of goes back to my childhood. I struggled with learning. I never really had anyone who taught me that as long as I kept trying, I could.”
Dr. Lucy Hart Paulson, co-author of LETRS for Early Childhood Educators, on how learning to talk and learning to read and write happen in parallel. Learning to read starts earlier than you think, and conversational turns are an important piece of the puzzle!
Lesson #1: States can fund quality initiatives without sacrificing their commitment to access. … What else did we learn from state leaders in Ohio and Tennessee about scalable early childhood initiatives?
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 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 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.