Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the department of Speech-Language Pathology at Salus University, as he moderates a podcast that focuses on one of the services provided at the Speech-Language Institute. He is joined by a fellow faculty member, Beth Davidoff, PhD, CCC-SLP, to discuss LENA Start, a parent program that uses regular feedback from LENA's "talk pedometer" technology to help increase interactive communication in order to close the early-talk gap, improve school readiness, and build stronger families.
Beth Davidoff:
I'm Beth Davidoff, and I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at Salus University. I teach courses in child language disorders from birth to five years of age, language disorders in school-aged children from six to 21 years of age, augmentative and alternative communication, as well as autism spectrum disorders. I also supervise our student clinicians in the Speech-Language Institute.
Robert Serianni:
How did you get into speech pathology?
Beth Davidoff:
Well, originally I wanted to write children's books. I went to college and was able to design my own major, and took a course. I wanted to take a course in child language acquisition because I thought that would be appropriate for someone who writes children's books. But I had to take courses in linguistics and introductory linguistics, and I just became fascinated with language by taking these courses and that led to my interest in further information about language acquisition, as well as developmental and acquired language disorders. I decided to pursue a degree in speech-language pathology because I was able to learn that you could actually do something about the problems that people have in communicating. Over the years, I began to specialize in this area of augmentative and alternative communication in order to provide individuals with complex communication needs with ways of supplementing or providing alternate ways of communicating when their natural speech is not effective.
Robert Serianni:
We've developed this really special partnership with a project called LENA Start. Tell us a little bit about LENA Start.
Beth Davidoff:
LENA Start is from the organization called LENA and I became interested in this when I was doing my doctoral dissertation on the characteristics of spoken language interactions of young beginning communicators who have autism spectrum disorders and their mothers. When I started at Salus, we began to investigate the use of LENA's, what's called its talking pedometer technology to measure aspects of language interactions between children and their caregivers, and we applied for and were rewarded the LENA Start Launch Funds to begin a program at Salus University through our Speech-Language Institute. LENA Start measures the way the parents talk with their children because that has a direct effect on their reading, their writing and their communication skills in school and at home.
Talking with a baby is the best way for parents to help their children's brains develop. And the more interactive talk parents have with their child during the first few years of their life, the better they're prepared for school and for a life of opportunity. So, that's where LENA Start comes in. LENA is a Colorado nonprofit that comes alongside families and equips them with the tools to increase talk with their babies and toddlers. LENA uses this talk pedometer to measure the amount of words and conversations a baby experiences within a given period of time. And then in the program in each season, we bring together a group of families who are interested in using the LENA device to learn more about their baby's brains through this free program called LENA Start.
Within each of the parent groups, we can accept a number of families, but the parents will embark on a 10-week journey that teaches them how to increase their baby's brain development. Over these 10 weeks, they'll receive feedback from the coordinator on how much their baby's talking, combined with different techniques and resources, increased talking and reading in the home. Families of children from birth to 33 months are eligible to participate. In addition to all the materials and training, which is provided free of charge, families receive a new book each week while they're enrolled in the program. These are meant to be culturally, linguistically appropriate for the families. We know that LENA's results show the children whose parents participated in LENA Start are gaining nearly two months of developmental skill each month.
Robert Serianni:
This project really is the trifecta. We get to teach our students about language development, we're working with parents and children in our community, plus, it's generating really interesting research for the project for your particular interest areas.
I want to really hone in on what the benefits are for Salus working with the LENA Start project. How is this going to help educate a Salus student?
Beth Davidoff:
Our students come to Salus with a foundation in child language and early literacy development from their undergraduate programs, and while at Salus in their graduate program, they take courses at our university in child language disorders. With this important background knowledge, they're able to participate in helping families promote early language and literacy development and thus prevent early language delays and also early literacy delays. This helps them put into practice what they've learned to make a real impact and immediate impact on a child and that child's family.
Robert Serianni:
If one of our listeners is really interested in signing up for the program here at Salus, how can they do that?
Beth Davidoff:
We have some information available on our website and you can fill out a little questionnaire that then comes to our Speech-Language Institute. We have orientation set up that you can participate in to learn more about the program. Then if you're interested, you're able to fill out an application and participate with us.
Robert Serianni:
We’re going to be running these programs pretty much consistently throughout the year, so it's not like you have to get your information in right away, but if you are interested to reach out and then we'll work with you to get a particular start date that works with your schedule.
Beth Davidoff:
Our hope is to just keep moving along and have at least one each 10-week period, if not more than that, as we get more and more participants who are interested.
Robert Serianni:
I think it's really important that folks know that this is for all types of communicators, not just children that have, or felt to have, communication difficulties. This really falls into the genre of early intervention. So, children who are what we call normally developing or at risk for developing communication disorders really would benefit this.
