LENA Report User Guide
- June 10, 2024
- LENA
Table of Contents
**LENA Report
**
Core Session 4: Understanding Your LENA Report
Estimated Session Length: 30-35 minutes
Participants will…
- Learn how to interpret a LENA report.
- Review their first LENA report.
- Reflect on how much they’re talking with their child and share ideas for talking more.
Before the session:
- Read “Core Session 4: Understanding Your LENA Report.”
- Confirm internet connection at session location for video playback, or download the video “Understanding Your LENA Report.”
- Print from LENA Online resources:
- “Video Review: Understanding Your LENA Report” handout
- “Video Recap: Understanding Your LENA Report” handout
- “Session Worksheet”
- “LENA Log”
- If needed, prepare a device to leave with the family, making sure to assign it in LENA Online.
After the session:
- Depending on device pick up timeline, process and charge the device.
- Enter reading minutes into LENA Online.
Opening
“You’ve just completed your practice LENA Day. How did it go?”
Listen and answer questions as they come up.
If you are collecting the device for processing at this session, turn on the device and read the screen. If it shows:
- “Paused” with no numbers — The device is empty with no data to process.
- “Paused” with numbers — The device was turned off mid-recording. Talk with the family about why device was turned off. Encourage them to leave the device on all day as advised in Core Session 2.
- “Memory Full” — The device has a full day of data and is ready to process.
“Did you try out any of the Talking Tips? Which ones?”
“Do you have any questions that came up after our last session?”
“Today we are going to learn about the LENA report and discuss the information it gives you after each LENA Day. Talking about your report will become part of each visit.”
Introduction to the LENA Report
” We’ll begin by watching a video that will teach you about all of the different parts of the LENA report. ” Play video (about 7 minutes).
“Any questions from the video?”
“This handout summarizes key points from the video. It can be a helpful reference when you’re sharing your LENA report with friends and family.”
Distribute and review “Video Recap: Understanding Your LENA Report” handout.
Video Review: Understanding Your LENA Report
Let’s review some of the key points from the video.
Circle the best answer to each question.
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What information will be on your LENA report?
a. the number of words adults spoke near your child
b. the number of “conversational turns” between adults and your child
c. the number of minutes the TV was on
d. all of those — A, B, and C -
What do the bars on the left hand side of the report show?
a. Each bar shows a LENA Day, in order left to right.
b. Each bar shows a different hour of the day.
c. Each bar is a different child.
d. Each bar is a different word. -
What do the bars on the right hand side of the report show?
a. Each bar is a different day.
b. how loud the room was each hour
c. words, turns, and TV for the most recent day, by hour
d. all of those — A, B, and C -
A “percentile” is:
a. your grade for the week
b. a comparison to the results of other parents and children who have used LENA
c. the percentage of words you said right
Read each statement. Circle “T” for True and “F” for False.
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“Conversational turns” means your child said something and you answered, or the other way around. T or F
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A star for words or turns means your score improved 10 percent over your previous score or average, or it’s at the 75th percentile or higher. T or F
Video Recap: Understanding Your LENA Report
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LENA reports show how much you really talk with your child, and times you could talk more. “Adult words” shows how many words were spoken near your child. You want this to be high.
-
“Conversational turns” shows how many simple conversations you had with your child. Very important: you want this to be high.
-
“TV/electronics” shows how many minutes your child heard mostly sounds from an electronic device (TV, radio, computer, phone, tablet, etc.). You want these minutes to be low, because TV time takes time away from talking with your child.
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“Daily Book Reading” shows the most recent number of minutes you reported reading with your child. This is a very important number. You want it to go up.
-
“Hourly” charts show detail from your most recent recording: words, turns, and TV/ electronic minutes. This information can help you see when you talked a lot with your child. Remember what you were doing then (a LENA Log can help). Try to do it more at other times!
• Each bar in the daily graphs (left side of report) is one recording day.
• Each bar in the graphs on the right side of the report is an hour in the most recent recording day. -
“Percentiles” (PCTL) are a way to compare your results to other parents and children who have used LENA.
• They are not a grade; they are a comparison. For instance, “60” means your results are higher than 60 out of 100 families.
• ”Turns” percentiles compare your child to others the same age. Turns are expected to increase as the child gets older.
Understanding “percentile” (PCTL)
**** LOW| LOW AVERAGE| HIGH AVERAGE| HIGH
---|---|---|---
1-24| 25-49| 50-74| 75-99
Where “stars” come from
You get a star for words or turns if your score is 10 percent higher than before.
You also get a star for words or turns if you’re at or above the 75th
percentile. (75th
percentile means higher than 3/4 of parents and children.)
You get a star for reading books with your child. Your goal for minutes per day is based on age in months.
LENA recordings are never listened to! They’re deleted as soon as they’re processed.
Review the LENA Report
“Now, let’s take a look at your first LENA report. Remember, the first recording was just practice and used to get information about the typical sound and talk levels in your home.”
“LENA reports show you how much you’re really talking with your child and times when you could talk more. Remember, LENA doesn’t know the meanings of your words.”
“Let’s begin in the upper left corner of your report. ‘Daily Adult Words’ shows how many words were spoken near your child — you want this to be high. Each bar on the left represents one LENA Day. The bar furthest to the right shows your most recent LENA Day.”
“Moving to the ‘Hourly Adult Words’ graph on the right side, each bar represents one hour of your most recent LENA Day.”
To encourage reflection, ask questions like:
- At what times was talk high? What were you doing then? Suggest reviewing the LENA Log to remember the events from that day.
- At what times was talk low? What were you doing then?
“Let’s look at the middle of the page on the left side, where it says ‘Daily
Conversational Turns.’ This section shows you how many conversational turns — back and forth conversations — you had with your child. This is a very important section, and you want this to be high.”
“Measuring conversational turns shows us how much children are engaged in conversations. When turns are high, it means that we are talking in a way that helps a child develop speech and language, and also in a way that s/he can understand.”
“Moving over to the ‘Hourly Conversational Turns’ on the right, again, each bar represents one hour of your most recent LENA Day.”
To encourage reflection, ask questions like:
- What times of the day were there a lot of conversations?
- What times of the day were there not a lot of conversations?
- What was happening at these times?
“Now let’s look at the graphs at the bottom of the page, starting on the left. ‘Daily TV/Electronic Sound’ shows you how many minutes your child was hearing sounds that were mostly coming from an electronic device like a TV, radio, computer, phone, or tablet. You might notice that during these times, conversations go down. That’s why we want these minutes to be low. TV can take time away from talking with your child.”
“On each chart on the left, you’ll notice the Percentiles (PCTL) are listed on the side. Percentiles are a way to compare your results to those of other parents and children who have used LENA. You may have also heard about percentiles when you go to the doctor’s office and learn about your child’s height and weight.”
“Percentiles are not a grade; they are a comparison. For example, “60” means your results are higher than 60 out of 100 families. Turns percentiles compare your child to others who are the same age. Because children develop language skills and talk more as they grow, turns are expected to increase as the child gets older.”
Introducing Reading Minutes
“Finally, on the report, you’ll notice the green box at the top where it says ‘Daily Book Reading.’ This box lists minimum recommended reading times based on the age of your child. Each week when we meet, I will ask you about the number of minutes you read with your child on a typical day, and we will include it in your next report. It can be helpful to write down the number of minutes each day, so you don’t forget.”
“To get started for this week, are you already spending time reading with your child? If so, how many minutes would you say you’ve read each day over the last week?”
- Write this number down for later when you enter Reading Minutes in LENA Online.
- Reminder: Minutes are an average of the number of minutes spent reading per day, not a total for the entire week.
“If not, that’s okay — it’s a great time to start. We will talk more about ways you can include shared reading in your daily routine. It’s a good idea to read with your child every day and it can be a fun way to increase conversational turns.”
- If your program is providing books to families, tell them you will bring a book every week to add to their home library and present them with their first book to keep and read with their child.
Introducing Stars
“Don’t forget, you also have the opportunity to earn stars for increasing the number of Daily Adult Words and Daily Conversational Turns. You will see those stars appear on the bars in the chart.”
Note: If the family has done two recordings, they may earn their first stars on this report. If they have only done one, they may not earn stars until next time.
“For each star you earn, we will place a sticker on your Talking Tips Chart.”
Give them star stickers to place on their chart, if they have earned them.
Closing
“We have talked about a lot today — what questions do you have?”
“The last thing we are going to do today is talk about what goals you would like to set between now and our next session.”
Identify specific Talking Tips to try during the next LENA Day:
- During what times or activities will s/he try to talk more?
- Goals should be realistic and achievable during the next LENA Day.
- Write goals down on the Session Worksheet.
OPTIONAL: “This Session Worksheet can be a helpful tool to use when you are looking back at your report. It can also help you keep track of goals for your next LENA Day. We didn’t cover everything on the form today, but we will be using this at our upcoming visits. I will leave it with you today to look over, and we can talk more about it next time.”
“Thinking about your next LENA Day, what day are you planning to record? If something comes up that day, is there another day that might also work? Feel free to use the LENA Log to keep track of what happens during your next LENA Day.”
Distribute LENA Log.
Tell the family when you will pick up the device for processing.
Set a date/time for your next visit.
“Have fun with your next LENA Day!”