Three FSU doctoral students specializing in child language development, Maya Callender, Emily Diehm, and Jane Messier, along with their faculty mentor, Dr. Carla Wood Jackson, associate professor in the FSU School of Communication Science & Disorders (SCSD), presented five presentations at the International Conference on LENA research.  The events took place on Apr. 28-30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Denver, Co.

This Conference is hosted annually by the LENA Research Foundation, a non-profit organization that develops advanced technology for the early screening, research, and treatment of language delays and disorders in young children.  The Foundation is dedicated to helping improve language development globally, and is responsible for creating the LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) System– the world’s first automatic language collection and analysis tool.

The LENA Foundation has developed and patented a licensed technology trademarked as the “System and Method for Detection and Analysis of Speech.”  There are no other like-kind products available so their Conference covers information related to the effective and safe use of this product, as well as data derived using this System.

The SCSD research team enjoyed working together with doctoral alumni, Jade Coston and Shubha Kashinath, in a multi-site collaborative project.  The LENA System’s tools allow for automated analysis of child vocalization counts, adult word counts, and conversational turns across day-long language samples.  The Conference provided opportunities to showcase their individual and joint research on innovative LENA technology.