LENA Foundation: A Case Study

Since it was founded after World War II in a caretaker's cottage in San Antonio, Texas, Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children has grown into an internationally respected institution. Using state-of-the-art teaching, treatment, and technology, Sunshine Cottage helps children who are deaf or hard of hearing learn to listen, speak, and live bountiful, independent lives in the hearing world.

It's not always an easy task. "When working with young children who are deaf or hard of hearing, it is important to encourage families to provide the best auditory environment possible," explains Dolores Lasswell, M.Ed., a parent advisor at Sunshine Cottage.

An assemblage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs), audiologists, and teachers, Sunshine Cottage staff can easily control the quality of the audio environment their students experience at the school. However, staff have no way of knowing for sure if their students are exposed to optimal audio environments at home.

One example is Adam, 2, who has bilateral cochlear implants. Using a demo version of the LENA System in May 2008, when he was 22 months of age, Sunshine Cottage recorded Adam and his parents in their natural home environment. Besides helping Adam's parents realize that Adam's vocalizations and exposure to adult words and conversational turns were low, the colorful, intuitive reports emphasized the fact that the TV, which was often on for a time in the morning and the evening, had been slightly hindering parent-child interaction and conversations. "With the easy-to-understand LENA graphs, we can see right away if there are any significant electronic media, such as TV or the radio, that might be hindering their listening and language development potential," Lasswell says.

Adam's mother was impressed with the quality of the reports and excited to learn more of the importance of exposing Adam to a high number of adult words and conversational turns. To check Adam's progress eight months later, Sunshine Cottage ordered a LENA Language Assessment from the LENA Foundation.