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Infoture, a Colorado-based company with scientific advisory board membersin California, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas, is receivinginternational recognition for its Power of Talk study. The study confirms andexpands on the well-known benchmark study by Drs. Betty Hart and Todd Risleythat showed children who hear at least 30,000 words a day will thriveregardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. That's the same numberheard in 18 and a half readings of Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat."
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"I tell parents the best way to increase the speech and language skills ofyoung children is engaging in lots of talk and lots of reading right from thestart," says Judy Montgomery, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, professor of special educationand literacy at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and an Infoturescientific advisory board member. "I remind parents to speak often, use lotsof expression and describe what's around them. It's not educational toys, TVor videos that help a child develop language; it's talk from an engagedcaregiver."
Conducted by a team of scientists, including language experts and speechtechnology engineers, the Power of Talk study(http://www.lenababy.com/Research.aspx) examines the relationship between talkand child language development. Some key findings include:
Infoture used revolutionary technology to develop a system that measuresthe quality of a child's natural language environment and language developmentthrough the number of words and conversational turns. Named LENA (LanguageENvironment Analysis), this device is now available to parents for trackingwords and conversational turns with their children. The LENA feedback reportshelp parents improve a child's cumulative language experience and acceleratethat child's language, cognitive development and preparedness for school.
Jill Gilkerson, Ph.D., director of language research for Infoture, helpedauthor the Power of Talk study. "Most parents want to provide outstandinglanguage environments for their children -- but they have no way of knowingwhat level of language input their children are receiving. They are not awareof inconsistencies and low-talk times during a day or week," said Gilkerson."With LENA, parents can make educated choices based on real information andnot on guesswork. And that means they have one less thing to worry about. Infact, the LENA reports might be compared to food journals that dieters keep,because the perception of how much a person eats (or in this case, talks) isoften far different from the reality."
"Talk is for everyone," added Mia Moe, director of marketing for Infoture."A solid foundation in language advances a child's potential and futureacademic success, regardless of socioeconomic status. If we can focus on talkas the number-one priority, then all children can be successful."
About Infoture
Founded in 2004, Infoture, Inc. is the Boulder-based developer of LENA, orthe Language ENvironment Analysis system. Infoture's goal is to help parentsaccelerate their child's language, cognitive and social development byproviding a means to measure their child's language environment, and tocommunicate this information so parents can provide the richest languageenvironment possible. Infoture comprises a team of world-class scientistsskilled in computerized speech and speaker recognition, microelectronics,statistical research, and children's language acquisition and development. Formore information, visit http://www.lenababy.com.-- Parents estimated they talked more with their children than they actually did. -- Parent
