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What Is LENA Start?
Helping Families Strengthen Language at Home
LENA Start is a free, seven-week home based program for kinship, foster and biological families* of children from birth to age 5 to build strong early language skills through meaningful conversations. Eligibility to participate will be based on federal income requirements.
The program includes weekly group sessions via Zoom where families learn together, share ideas, and practice new strategies in a warm, welcoming space. Each week, families receive a personalized report that shows how much their child is talking and interacting, plus friendly one-on-one coaching on how to increase that talk during everyday routines like mealtime, bath time, and play.
LENA Start is especially helpful for families looking to support children with language delays, build school readiness, or connect more deeply with their little ones
Interested in LENA Start? Contact Starting Point’s Literacy and Language Program Manager to start the conversation!
About LENA
At Starting Point, we know that everyday interactions—simple conversations, playful exchanges, and lots of back-and-forth—are the building blocks of learning. That’s where LENA comes in.
LENA (short for Language ENvironment Analysis) is a research-based tool that helps families and educators talk more with young children. Why? Because talk builds brains. The more children hear and engage in meaningful conversation, the stronger their language, learning, and social-emotional development.
LENA uses a small, wearable device—often called a “talk pedometer”—to help families and early educators understand how much back-and-forth conversation is happening throughout the day. It’s a safe, child-friendly tool that quietly tracks adult word word, child response word count, and meaningful interactions, without saving or sharing any audio. The insights from this data help caregivers observe their progress and build stronger communication habits over time.
At Starting Point, we use this innovative technology in two ways: LENA Start, a program for families with children from birth to age 5, and LENA Grow, a professional development tool for early childhood educators. Both programs are free for participants and designed to make every conversation count.
About the Talk Pedometer
A Safe, Private Way to Understand How Children Learn Through Conversation
The LENA device is designed to be simple, safe, and parent-approved. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and fits into a specially designed shirt or vest worn by the child. Just like a fitness tracker counts your steps, this device counts words and interactions—not names, voices, or conversations.
Here’s what it does do:
- Records a day of sound in the child’s environment
- Measures how many adult words the child hears
- Counts how often the child responds or vocalizes
- Tracks how many back-and-forth exchanges—called “conversational turns”—happen throughout the day
Here’s what it doesn't do:
- No one listens to the recordings—they’re processed into data, not stored as audio
- It doesn’t identify anyone or recognize voices
- The data is securely uploaded then wiped from the device
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Why It Matters
- Children who complete LENA Start experience up to 2 months of developmental gains for every 1 month in the program, and those gains last beyond age 3.¹
- Conversational turns—the back-and-forth exchanges between a child and adult—are the single most powerful factor for building brain architecture in the early years.²
- After LENA Start, parents increased daily reading time with their child by 63%, on average.¹
- Educators who completed LENA Grow saw significant improvements in classroom quality and language scores, with children showing higher kindergarten readiness.³
- Over 90% of parents and teachers say they feel more confident and connected after completing LENA programs.¹ ⁴
- Starting Point is proud to be part of a statewide LENA Grow initiative that reached over 240 classrooms in just one year.⁵
Sources
- LENA Start Impact Summary, 2022.
- Harvard Center on the Developing Child: Serve and Return.
- LENA Grow Outcomes in Ohio, 2023.
- Parent and Educator Feedback Surveys, LENA.org.
- Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association (OCCRRA), 2023 Annual Report.
