Evaluating the LENA Start Program to Support Language Development and School Readiness in Young Children

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate how maternal expectations about language development influence their childs language skills and to assess how much mothers believe they can impact their childs language growth. The study focuses on children aged 16 to 30 months within the Alief Independent School District, serving as a model that other school districts might replicate to improve childrens readiness for school. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a control group receiving usual care or a treatment group participating in the LENA Start Program. The LENA Start Program involves ten weekly one-hour sessions where parents learn and discuss ways to enhance their childs language environment. Sessions can be attended in person or online. Parents use the LENA recording device to capture their childs language environment, with recordings analyzed to provide feedback on language exposure and development. Parents will attend two meetings before and after the program for baseline and endline data collection, completing surveys and language development assessments. The study uses multiple tools including the Language Development Snapshot, StimQ, and MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories, alongside 16-hour LENA recordings. Researchers monitor program fidelity and measure outcomes such as the quality of the language environment and parental beliefs, with participation lasting about one year.

Can the Language Environment Analysis Start Program Improve Children's Readiness for School? LENA Program Evaluation