Device gauges a baby’s language skill
By Jim Esslinger CORRESPONDENT
Ethan Adams, 22 months, holds LENA, a device that automatically measures and analyzes his language.
WOODSTOCK—
Last year, Crystal Adams was browsing a Web site on child health when she came across an advertisement inviting parents to participate in a research study testing a new device to measure language development in children.
Like most parents, Ms. Adams knew the more you converse with a child, the more quickly the child is likely to develop a vocabulary. She went to the study’s Web site, LENABaby.com, completed the application, and in a few weeks learned that she and her son, Ethan, had been accepted to test the device, called LENA.
Ethan Adams was 13 months old when he was introduced to LENA. And for the past nine months, the two have been virtually inseparable, or virtually connected, as the case may be.
LENA is an acronym for Language Environmental Analysis, which is one-part language development research and one-part product for collecting and analyzing the data for the research. It also comes with a snappy wardrobe.
The program is the brainchild of a group of scientists at Infoture Inc. of Boulder, Colo., and might best be described as a way of measuring the verbal interaction between parents and children.
For the study, Ms. Crystal received a small recording device weighing about 2 ounces, software to be installed in the family computer, and some overalls, with a pocket with snaps in which the recorder was placed. She thought she and her husband, Nathan, were doing a pretty good job when it came to spending time talking to Ethan. “Ten or 15 minutes (of conversation) a day, read books here and there,” she explained. But the results of previous research by the makers of LENA surprised them. “We were really amazed at the average number of words a child hears,” she says. “We weren’t doing enough, and we would have to change the amount of time we spent with him.” They thought a few thousand words a day would be typical. It turned out that the number exceeded 20,000.
So, she says, even the smallest task now became a chance to converse with Ethan. For example, when she ties his shoes to go out, Ms. Adams will detail the task, explaining each move, describing the process, even noting the color of the shoe. “Everything becomes narrated,” she said. Each day in June, July and August of last year, Ethan would carry the recorder in his pocket for 10-12 (waking) hours a day, Ms. Adams says. At the end of the day, the data was downloaded to the computer for analysis by the LENA software.
Within a few minutes, bar graphs showed how many words were detected, who said them, and where Ethan was in comparison with other children his age in the number of words heard or spoken. The software also measures Ethan’s developmental age compared to his chronological age. Right now, Ethan is about three or four months ahead in that respect, she says. Typically, Ethan scores in the highest percentile in all categories.
The data used to measure these numbers comes from previous studies done by Infoture. LENA uses advanced speech recognition software to measure all this, according to Jill Gilkerson, director of child language research for Infoture. The company was founded by Terrance Paul who, in 1995, read new research on language development and decided to pursue the subject. LENA is the result of years of research and development, Ms. Gilkerson explains.
LENA also measures what are known as “conversational turns,” which are exchanges between a child and an adult. They are “what an adult says and what the child responds, and what the child says and what the adult responds,” she said. Ethan also scores very high in that category. Ms. Gilkerson says LENA has not yet reached the general public, but the company plans to market the device and the accompanying clothing, specially made to accommodate the recorder.
Parents can go to the Web site and get more information and can order the items. Ms. Gilkerson also pointed out that research shows that the more words a child hears before the age of 3, the higher the IQ scores. Ms. Adams can also use the data she collects to see if Ethan is having any developmental problems and then express her concerns to his pediatrician, using the empirical evidence to state her case. The study portion is over for Ethan and his parents, but they continue to use the device and use the software to measure Ethan’s progress.
Through the LENA study, Ethan has become something of a celebrity. He and his mother were the subject of a recent “Good Morning America” interview scheduled to be aired last week, but postponed; it is likely to be shown soon. Ms. Adams says she plans to use it until he is 4 and about to enter school. She will also continue to buy the specially designed clothing. What’s more, she says, she plans to use it for the family’s next child. “I would definitely use it,” she says. “It’s pretty cool to get a hard, concrete number and not have to guess how much time we are spending talking.”
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