Out of five goals in Independence County, one is to strengthen the foundation for oral language and literacy. The E8 steering committee was awarded a $60,000 grant to invest in LENA, a professional development opportunity focused on increasing adult-child interactions.

Research shows that increased verbal interactions between children and the adults who care for them, called conversational turns, are one of the most important factors in language development. Program participants included 4-year-olds and educators from early childhood centers in Independence County’s four school districts – Batesville, Cedar Ridge, Midland, and Southside. Watch this video from Independence County to see LENA in action.

Through weekly data reports and coaching sessions, teachers were able to implement a more equitable talk environment in real time. Children who started the program in the “low talk” range, about 15 conversational turns per hour, increased their conversational turn rate by 42% by the final week. Overall, each center saw an increase in the quantity of adult-child interactions across all children during the 10-week program:

• 96% of teachers reported seeing positive changes in children’s language development.
• 91% of teachers reported feeling more confident in their teaching abilities after the first five weeks of the program.

Planning and strategy development in Independence County are ongoing in areas of physical child development, social-emotional development, oral health, and access to child care. With the help of the federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, child care facilities in Independence County added a total of 128 infant and toddler slots, a 50% increase in county-wide capacity.