Read Aloud Delaware seeks families for next LENA Start session

After announcing a new joint venture with the LENA Start program in September, Read Aloud Delaware had a successful launch in October and has been working with nine families throughout the state to help them measure, improve and make the most of verbal connections with their young children. 

Read Aloud Delaware recruited families with children from birth to age 3 to participate in the initial sessions. The LENA Start program, headquartered in Boulder, Colo, was created to help close language, learning, and opportunity gaps for children.

For 10 children enrolled in the program, a device called a talk pedometer monitors the words they hear from adults and the conversational interactions they have, and measures the ambient sounds within their environment. Parents are provided with feedback and participate in one-hour Zoom workshops each week during the 10-week program. LENA facilitators offer simple techniques to help them increase their children’s exposure to oral language.

Parents are reacting positively to the program, according to Stacy Penaranda, Read Aloud Delaware Sussex County coordinator and a LENA facilitator. “Parents feel that the LENA Start program is extremely valuable in augmenting their child’s development,” said Penaranda.

Participation in the program is free, and families are offered incentives for meeting program milestones, including a free book each week and gift cards. 

“I have learned a lot from the LENA program, and I’m so excited that Ethan and I get to be a part of it,” said Samantha Catts, a Milton resident whose son Ethan Barnes is enrolled in the program.

Recruitment is underway for the next LENA Start session, which will run from Thursday, Jan. 14, to Thursday, March 18.

“We are grateful to the Delaware nonprofit and educational community for helping us recruit our first cohort of families,” said James Spadola, executive director of Read Aloud Delaware. “As we recruit families for the January 2021 Sussex cohort, we hope to broaden throughout the state with another diverse group. If you know anyone with a child ages 0-3 that wants to increase their child’s kindergarten readiness and build their brain while receiving incentives along the way, please send them our way.”

Interested families can register to receive Read Aloud Delaware/LENA Start information at readalouddelaware.org. Informational sessions take place from 10 to 11 a.m., every Tuesday via Zoom.

Read Aloud Delaware is a statewide organization that has been dedicated to promoting early childhood literacy for more than 35 years.