BOULDER, Colo. - July 10, 2017 - PRLog -- The LENA Research Foundation and the Colorado Home Intervention Program (CHIP) have announced a partnership to support the language development of children who are deaf and hard of hearing by giving parents the tools they need to increase the quantity and quality of talk in the home.
Every year, about 150 children are born with hearing loss in Colorado, and 93% of those are born into hearing families. CHIP uses a data-driven, one-on-one, home-based early intervention approach to support the language acquisition and development of those children from birth until they reach thirty-six months of age. CHIP has a track record of impressive results over its more than 30-year history, and the enhancements offered through LENA's online platform are expected to boost results even more.
LENA's "talk pedometer" technology collects a full day of the child's audio environment, then translates the audio into data about talk provided in easy-to-read, actionable reports for parents. Information includes counts of adult words, child vocalizations, and the number of back-and-forth interactions (or conversational turns). Audio environment reports shed light on the child's opportunity to access adult speech and participate in conversations. The objective feedback helps families to better understand their child's language needs and to more effectively adapt their communication strategies. CHIP's therapists and audiologists can also use the information to make recommendations for adjustments to hearing augmentation and other assistive technologies.
"The cloud-based enhancements to LENA technology will dramatically simplify our logistics and improve our ability to provide rapid feedback to families and early intervention providers, as well as enhance our assessment process in order to support better language outcomes for children," said Dr. Christie Yoshinaga-Itano, an advisor to the CHIP program and a pioneering researcher on the developmental trajectories children who are D/HH.
CHIP was an early adopter of LENA technology, having used the first versions of LENA software in 2008. Throughout development and piloting, Dr. Yoshinaga-Itano and Dinah Beams, CHIP Program Director, have helped to shape the innovations tailored to the needs of the D/HH community to allow for both a broader and a more focused reach. Family participation in the LENA-based portion of CHIP's program is partially supported through funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and the Disability Research and Dissemination Center (DRDC).
"We've been a proud partner of CHIP for many years now, and they are truly a best-in-class organization that sets the global standard for D/HH early intervention approaches and outcomes," said Dr. Stephen Hannon, president of LENA. "Joining forces using the LENA Online platform now enables us to bring data feedback to families more frequently and efficiently, which ultimately enables early intervention providers to spend more time working with families."
The rollout of LENA Online to CHIP providers across the state began in June. For information on adding LENA to your initiative, contact Jess Simmons at 303-441-9048, or email jsimmons@lena.org.
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