This study evaluates feasibility and efficacy of adding the LENA Home program to the standard Every Child Succeeds (ECS) home visiting curriculum. Half of the participants will receive the standard ECS curriculum during normally scheduled home visits, while the other half will receive this plus LENA Home.

Every Child Succeeds is a program that uses home visiting as a preventive strategy to support low income families in providing stimulating, safe, and nurturing environments for their young children. Most families in home visiting have experienced adversity in their lives, and had inadequate parenting role models as they grew up. Home visitors visit families during pregnancy through the child reaching three years of age, providing information, teaching, and resources to help parents provide the best possible start for their children.

LENA Home is a 13-week curriculum designed to add an early-language focus to existing home visiting or parent education programs for children ages birth to three. It employs LENA wearable audio recorder technology and targeted content to help parents and other caregivers increase interactive talk. There are 13 weekly one-on-one sessions, including modules on parent-child reading and increasing verbal interaction during typical home activities. Sessions include videos, practical techniques, and feedback from LENA recordings via intuitive reports to help parents talk more with their children. LENA Home reports provide data on adult words spoken to the child (AWC) and conversational turns (CTC). LENA Home has been shown to increase interactive talk and child language ability and informs parents how much they are talking with their children in an objective way.

Upon completion of the study, we will have more information regarding whether (1) LENA Home can be successfully integrated into existing home visiting programs (feasibility), (2) children exposed to LENA have larger vocabularies than those who do not receive the intervention, (3) mothers using LENA engage in more literacy-promoting behaviors relative to controls, and (4) LENA improves parent-child interactions (utility).

Inclusion Criteria:

1. enrollment in the Every Child Succeeds home visiting program,
2. child age between 6- and 9-months old,
3. English-speaking household,
4. child gestation of at least 32 weeks,
5. child has no known neurobehavioral/genetic syndrome or brain injury likely to cause language delay,
6. maternal age at least 15 years old.

Exclusion Criteria:

Not meeting the above criteria.

Access to data will be restricted to protect the privacy of enrolled subjects. It may be made available in a de-identified fashion in the future.