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LENA in Texas


Making every interaction count and transforming children's futures

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.

Since 2017, LENA has served 7,700 children and 570 early childhood educators in Texas, and LENA technology has recorded over 15.2 million conversational turns. Put your community on the map!



7,700
children


570
teachers


15.2 million
CTs

LENA Grow offers evidence-based professional development for infant, toddler, and preschool teachers.
LENA Start builds school readiness and strengthens families with parent-group classes.
LENA SP offers reliable, detailed language environment data in research and clinical applications.




The LENA Grow professional development program for early childhood educators aligns to Category 2 Teacher-Child Interactions on the Texas Rising Star Classroom Assessment Record Form (CARF).
 
LENA Grow PD hours count toward required annual professional development for Texas child care licensing, so long as the coach who delivered the program satisfies the Texas Child Care Trainer Requirements.
 

LENA also has crosswalks with Head Start, CLASS, The Pyramid Model, ZERO TO THREE, and more!

Explore our national crosswalks and partnerships!

 





“Because the LENA Grow reports provided instant results that teachers could see, they gained more of an understanding of some of the CLASS dimensions and indicators. So teachers gained a better understanding of what a high-quality, interactive classroom looks like.”
Lisa Austin
Fort Worth ISD

Interested in bringing LENA to your community?

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.

 Staff Member

Connect with Jodi Whiteman,
Director, Partnerships & Growth
JodiWhiteman@lena.org


Blog Posts

Read these and other stories about partner success stories and research findings in Texas and beyond.


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“Everyone has their niche, and my niche is little kids”: One teacher’s journey in cultivating her students’ voices

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.”


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Learning to read (and write) starts earlier than you think!

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!

Read more ...


TCH

Texas Children's Hospital becomes first healthcare organization to launch LENA Start

LENA and Texas Children’s Hospital are pleased to announce the launch of upWORDS, a program for families in the Houston area beginning this summer.

Read more ...



On-Demand Webinars


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Supporting teachers in building a responsive caregiving environment

Rhonda Rakow, Director of Provider Services of ChildCareGroup, shares more about her work with LENA Grow in Dallas, Texas. This webinar explores what quality means now, and offer strategies improve teacher-child relationships and reduce provider stress at the same time.

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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.”

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What the Texas Rising Star QRIS can tell us about quality child care interactions

In Texas, the most recent review of the early childhood QRIS called for a greater emphasis to be placed on caregiver-child interactions. How is Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas using LENA Grow to help child care providers increase quality adult-child interactions?

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