AR LENA Grow Project Fall 2024 Recruitment Underway

Source: Early Care & Education Projects (ECEP)

The University of Arkansas Early Care and Education Projects (ECEP) is one of the state’s professional development contractors. ECEP has enhanced the quality of early childhood care and education in Arkansas since 1992. ECEP remains mission-minded as we educate, connect, and equip early childhood professionals.

ECEP provides LENA Grow to infant and toddler classrooms to support teacher-child interactions. LENA Grow is a strength-based coaching framework that facilitates early educators with increasing conversational turns, enhancing language environments, and supporting social emotional development. Research has found a relationship between classrooms that participated in LENA Grow and an increase in CLASS scores.

Impact:

• In the first year of implementation, ECEP provided LENA Grow to 40 classrooms, 74 teachers, and 302 children.

• ECEP is projected to provide LENA Grow to 74 classrooms in 2024-2025.

• ECEP offers its services across the entire state. Recruitment is underway for the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025.

Additional Benefits:

• Increased job satisfaction for teachers who participated (82%)

• Changes in children’s language development (91%)

• Increased interest in advancing education, like a CDA

• A noticed increase in teacher confidence

Contact Information:

To learn more about the AR LENA Grow Project contact Robin Jones at robjones@uark.edu