LENA Foundation

The LENA Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was created in 2009 through a donation of assets of Infoture Inc. by Terrance "Terry" and Judith "Judi" Paul, who were also majority owners of Renaissance Learning Inc. (RLI).

As the founder of Renaissance Learning, Terry Paul became familiar with the achievement gap caused by differences in home language environments. In 1998 he read Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Lives of Young American Children by Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd Risley, Ph.D. Based on data gathered through an intensive longitudinal study, Meaningful Differences revealed that the number of adult words spoken to children from birth to three predicted almost all of the variance in the children's language ability and IQ at age three.[6][7]

Terry realized that with the help of advanced speech recognition technology he could streamline the data acquisition process and provide parents with a tool that was easy to use and could thoroughly chart a child's natural language environment. He called it LENA (for “language environment analysis”).

In 2004 Terry started Infoture, Inc. and hired a team of scientists, engineers, and scientific advisors to conduct the research and development work for the LENA System. Infoture launched a pilot version of the LENA System in February 2006. In February 2009 the Pauls donated the assets from Infoture and a gift of $2 million to create the LENA Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization.[8] In January 2018, the organization changed its name to LENA and adopted the tagline "Building brains through early talk."[9]

LENA's organizational goals are based on science that shows that the more talk and conversational engagements a child experiences in the first four years of life, the better off he or she will be in academics and society. This is based on research from Harvard University showing that interactive talk between children and caregivers is one of the most important factors affecting early brain development.[10][11] New research from MIT published in February 2018 confirmed that conversational turns are responsible for activation in Broca's area in children.[12] LENA has several programs designed to encourage interactive talk between children and caregivers, including programs aimed at parents, childcare providers and home visitors.[13]

A growing body of research shows that early childhood contains "critical periods" for tasks such as language acquisition, meaning that the first three years are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for development.[14] Early childhood development drives success in school and life, fostering cognitive skills like attentiveness, self-regulation, motivation, and sociability.[15][16] Interactive talk—and more specifically, conversational turns—have been proved to be a key factor in stimulating brain growth during these important years, according to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.[17][18][11] Additionally, longitudinal research from LENA has found that the amount of conversation children experience between the ages of 18 and 24 months is related to their IQ, verbal comprehension, and language skills during adolescence.[19] Investing early in children can lead to huge social and economic gains. Research has shown investments in young children can lead to reductions in criminal activity later in life, 13 percent returns on investment annually, and positive effects that last for several generations.[20][21][22]

LENA stands for "Language ENvironment Analysis". LENA technology provides more than 25 different metrics on the natural language environment of children, including estimates and percentile scores for adult words spoken to the child, conversational turns, and child vocalizations. The system also generates an automatic expressive language developmental age and percentile score based on a child's voiceprint.[8]

LENA Device (Digital Language Processor)

A parent or teacher places a LENA device in his or her children's LENA vest and records an entire day of the child's sound environment.[24] The device is then connected to a computer with special software that processes the recording into data metrics including the child's exposure to verbal stimulation, the number of child utterances, and other information. As pediatricians do with a child's height and weight, the system also generates percentile scores comparing the child's vocalizations with those of other children the same age.[25]

• Parents estimate that they talk more with their children than they actually do.
• Most language training comes from mothers, with mothers providing 75 percent of the total talk in a child's environment.
• Mothers talk approximately 9 percent more to their daughters than to their sons.
• Parents talk more to their firstborn child than to their other children.
• Most adult talk in a child's environment occurs in the late afternoon or early evening.
• Children of talkative parents are also talkative.
• The more television a child watches, the lower his or her language ability scores tend to be.
• Parents of children with autism tend to talk less the more severe their child's symptoms. Conversely, the stronger their child's language abilities, the more parents talk.[37]

• LENA
• PNAS study on automated vocal analysis