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LENA Foundation
Office: 866.749.5142
miamoe@lenafoundation.org


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Articles

Talk Early, Talk Often to Boost Toddler Language Skills

University of Kansas researchers Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd R. Risley, Ph.D., toiled for years with old-fashioned tape recorders and manual transcription methods to gather the data they needed to show a correlation between the amount of language a child is exposed to before age three and increased IQ and academic success in later years. These technological constraints limited their data gathering ability to an in-house observer recording one hour of language per month from children 10 months of age or older.
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Advancement Made in Automatic Autism Screen Increases Accuracy to 91%, Scheduled for Release This Month

LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. LAS—the first automatic and totally objective autism screen—is now as accurate or more accurate than other autism screens currently available to parents and clinicians.
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LENA Foundation Announces Development of Automatic Autism Screen

The LENA Foundation announced today that its researchers have developed an automatic autism screen based on detectable acoustic patterns in the recorded vocalizations of children with autism.
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Five Studies at International SRCD Meeting in Denver Use Technology from Boulder Foundation

The not-for-profit LENA Foundation is putting forth a strong presence at the 2009 Biennial Meeting of the Society of Research in Child Development (SRCD). At the event, April 1–4 in Denver, Colorado, four talks and one poster will be presented based on findings obtained with LENA System technology.
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LENA Foundation Revives Popular Online Assessment Tool

The LENA Developmental Snapshot is back by popular demand, once again offering parents a quick and easy way to find out their child’s developmental age online.
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LENA Foundation Announces New Technology to Measure Effectiveness of Autism Therapy

The non-proft LENA™ Foundation, which develops technology for the improved treatment of autism and other language disorders, has released two case studies showing how the breakthrough LENA system is being used to improve autism treatment.
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LENA Foundation Established with Multimillion Dollar Gift

Terry and Judi Paul have established the not-for-profit LENA Foundation through a gift of $2 million and a donation of the assets of Infoture, Inc. Owned by the Pauls, Infoture developed the breakthrough LENA System in a $30 million research and development effort completed over the past five years.
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Infoture division LENA LABS announces new LENA Language Assessment

A division of Infoture, Inc., LENA LABS has launched a new service: the LENATM Language Assessment. Designed with the unique needs of speech language professionals in mind, the new option is an inexpensive entry point to LENA Pro technology, which retails for $6,699. For an introductory offer of only $150 (good through January 31, 2009), the pay-per-use service provides six reports, two assessments, and an audio sample – highly advanced diagnostic tools that professionals can use to boost treatment quality.
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Curry Partners with Southwest Virginia

"You did it!" says Kim Austin from her perch on a toddler-sized chair. Beside her, three-year-old Jake snaps ring-shaped manipulatives one on top of another, grinning with each success.
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Researchers seek patterns in the sounds of autism

Scientists have created machines to detect distinctive speech patterns in children with autism that go unnoticed by the naked ear.
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Infants Do Not Appear To Learn Words From Educational DVDs

Among 12- to 24-month old children who view educational baby videos, there does not appear to be evidence that overall general language learning improves or that words featured in the programming are learned, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the May print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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KU scientist shows potential of technology for autism research and treatment

For the first time, researchers have measured precisely the impact of autism on several aspects of how children learn language with a new technology that has enormous potential for researchers, practitioners and parents, according to Steven F. Warren, lead author of study published online in the Nov. 11 Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
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Baby-by-Number: Parents' New Obsession With Data

Allen Fawcett admits he and his wife are mildly addicted to keeping track of their babies’ schedules. The pair of economists have been recording every diaper, feeding and nap since they became parents.
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Screening for autism: New tool looks at child's speech patterns

Parents can find out sooner -- and in their own homes -- if their children are at risk for autism, says a Boulder-based not-for-profit organization that has created a new screening tool.
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Foundation Helps Detect Autism Earlier

The numbers are staggering. Two new government studies have found that one out of every 100 children in the U.S. has some form of autism.
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The Lena Foundation Sent Us Electric Pants

Aiden recently participated in a study of children with Apraxia done by The Lena Foundation.
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Home Autism Detector Worries Some Doctors

A new device marketed to parents as an early detection device for autism has specialists debating whether the technology will become a powerful autism screening tool for doctors, or a do-it-yourself recipe for parental anxiety.
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BBC World Service: "The World Today": Autism Detection Software

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that appears in childhood and results in impaired social and emotional development. For autistic children even the most simple tasks can be traumatic. Early detection can be a factor in how well sufferers are able to deal with their condition. So it will come as some very good news that a U.S.-based company, the LENA Foundation, has developed a device to detect autism by using software to analyze the sound recordings of infants and children.
Listen

Can autism really be detected by voice alone?

The Lena Foundation, whose new autism-screening tool hit the market in September, claims that parents who use the Lena System are now able to determine with 91 percent accuracy whether their child is developing normally, has autism, or has unassociated language delays.
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A Device to Spot Autism Early

Researchers have developed a device that can automatically identify autistic children as young as 24 months using the vocalizations they make during a normal day at home.
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Language Assessment: New Tool for Pediatric Clinicians

The clunky, gargantuan tape recorders that speech-language pathologists have used for decades to collect data are officially obsolete.
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Bye bye to “Once upon a time?” New study shows talking is better for your kids than bedtime stories

Engaging your children in a bedside chat may be six times more effective in helping them learn language than reading a bedtime story, according to a new study by Dr. Frederick Zimmerman and colleagues from the UCLA School of Public Health, California.
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ABSTRACT: Teaching by Listening: The Importance of Adult-Child Conversations to Language Development

OBJECTIVE: To test the independent association of adult language input, television viewing, and adult-child conversations on language acquisition among infants and toddlers.
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Conversing helps language development more than reading alone

UCLA study finds that activities that get children 2 months to 48 months talking are most conducive to language acquisition
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UCLA Study: Give Young Children a Chance to Converse

Words are good. Conversation is better.
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Talk With Kids, Not At Them

If you want to help children develop language and speech skills, UCLA researchers say, listening to what they have to say is just as important as talking to them.
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Turn It off Now

Oh, gee. Who hasn't plunked an infant or toddler down in front of the tube every now and again? (Never mind those of you who don't own a TV. You have other vices, we know that you do.)
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Seattle Children's: Language Use Decreases in Young Children and Caregivers When Television is On, Study Finds

In a new study, young children and their adult caregivers uttered fewer vocalizations, used fewer words and engaged in fewer conversations when in the presence of audible television.
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Study Shows TV Distracts Babies

Remember when your parents told you not to watch too much TV. They said it wasn't good for you? Turns out they were on to something.
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LENA Foundation Works on Automatic Autism Screen

The LENA Foundation (formerly Infoture, Inc.) was started five years ago by Terry and Judi Paul in Boulder, Colorado.
Read more on page 14 of PDF

LENA: Language assessment at home? A new tool for parents and researchers

There is a new product on the market to assess language for children between the ages of 0-48 months. It is called the LENA (Language Environment Analysis) System.
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SpeechPathology.com Interview with LENA Foundation Director of Communications Mia Moe

Linda Schreiber: Today I am happy to interview Mia Moe, the Director of Communications for the LENA Foundation. Mia has been with Infoture, Inc. since 2005, as a member of the product development team and also as Director of Communications.
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Automatic Measurement of the Language Learning Environment of Young Children with ASD, presented at ASA Conference

Researchers and clinicians know very little about the natural language environment of young children with ASD and how this compares to typically developing children. Professionals working with children at risk for language and developmental disabilities have traditionally been restricted by limitations in measurement technologies.
See the full article on ASA’s website.

LENA on Good Morning America!!

Parents worry about everything when it comes to babies: Is the infant sleeping enough, eating enough, growing enough? Here’s another thing to fret about: Do you talk enough to your baby? Watch the video on:
ABC’s Good Morning America.

New device Gauges Baby’s Language Skill

Last year, Crystal Adams was browsing a Web site on child health when she came across an advertisement inviting parents to participate in a research study testing a new device to measure language development in children.
Read the full article on Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

Baby-talk show: Do you know how many words your child spoke today?

The early days of parenthood are filled with anxiety. Parents fret over whether their babies are eating enough, growing enough and sleeping enough. As the children get a little older, parents also worry if they are talking enough.
Read the full article at the International Herald Tribune.

Know Your Child’s Word Counts? Now You Can

The early days of parenthood are filled with anxiety. Parents fret over whether their babies are eating enough, growing enough and sleeping enough. As the children get a little older, parents also worry if they are talking enough.
Read the full article at The New York Times

Revolutionary Product Is Breakthrough in Early Detection and Treatment of Language Delay

SpeechPathology.com reports: The world’s largest database of child and adult speech ever collected from within home environments is the foundation of a groundbreaking study and breakthrough intervention product for clinicians and researchers.
See the full article at SpeechPathology.com

Give your child a leg up in life

What has been attracting the attention of parents and some experts in child development? Experts say that word acquisition in the early years is crucial. Now, there’s a device that records how verbal your child’s daily experience is. The LENA device has only been available a short time, but it’s attracting the attention of parents and some experts in child development.
See the full article from Life & Times.

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