Giving Compass' Take:

• Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Ready for K Alliance are partnering to expand the Say & Play initiative using innovative environment analysis technology in Louisville.

• How can funders support the expansion of technology in early childhood development?

• Read about the role of technology in education.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its What Works Cities initiatives, has selected Louisville as one of five American cities to implement an innovative early childhood education program designed to empower parents and caregivers with tools to support language development at a critical age -- and help children enter kindergarten classroom ready.

The expanded Say & Play local effort will integrate innovative LENA (Language Environment Analysis) technology to track and measure words used in the home to gauge parent behavior change as a result of participation. The program provides families with a small recording LENA device known as a ‘word pedometer’ that counts adult words spoken in a child’s presence, as well as the number of conversational interactions a child engages in during the day. Research shows that robust exposure to words and conversation—from birth to age four—is crucial for children’s vocabulary building and brain development.

A Brown University study of Providence Talks found:

  • Children who participated in the program made significant gains in the number of words they heard and turns they took in conversations and in language development.
  • In the Home Visitation model, 56% of all children showed growth in the number of adult words they heard and 42% increased their number of turns taken in conversations.
  • In the Playgroup model, 73% of all the children showed growth in the number of adult words they hear daily and 56% increased their number of turns taken in conversations.
  • The largest gains were seen in children who started the furthest behind. These children, on average, showed a 51% growth in the number of adult words they hear daily, going from an average of 8,000 to over 12,100 words per day.
  • By the end of the program, children in the program showed, on average, a 15 percentile point increase in the Developmental Snapshot score.

Read the full article about Louisville and Bloomberg Philanthropies innovative early childhood learning initiative at LouisvilleKy.