‘Every hour counts': Daycares track conversations to boost language skills

Once a week, children at First Academy Preschool in Leesburg wear purple vests equipped with electronic devices that work like fitness bracelets. But instead of steps, these devices track the number of conversations each child has with their teacher.

The goal is to help boost the preschoolers’ language skills.

Data from the vest devices is shared with teachers, who can monitor how often they talk with each child in their classrooms and gain insight into the quality of those conversations. Then they can increase frequency as needed, working on avoiding yes-or-no questions and instead asking children things that will elicit thought-out responses.

"It's impacted the way we communicate with the kids. It adds more depth into our conversations," said Shelby Kubusheski, a teacher in the pre-k classroom. "I like it because it helps expand their vocabulary also."

First Academy is one of 400 preschools in Florida that has adopted the LENA Grow program, developed by a nonprofit in Colorado with the mission to "transform children's lives through early talk."

The state budgeted $975,000 in 2025 for the effort, which covers the costs of the equipment and coaches who help teachers analyze the data recorded inside those small purple vests.

The program aims to show early-childhood teachers ways to engage children in constructive conversation and to make sure every child in the room is part of that effort.

Children in childcare centers typically get fewer opportunities to talk to adults than they do at home, the program's research found, and those conversations can also vary from child to child.

Talking with adults is key to developing language and other skills, like controlling emotions and following rules, that set kids up for success in school, so the program wants childcare centers to improve both the number and quality of those conversations.

Numerous studies show it helps, LENA Grow advocates say.

One study published last year, for example, found the program had "positive effects" at Head Start programs. Classes that used it showed more "improvements in children’s early literacy skills" compared to control classrooms that did not, according to an October article in the journal Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

The key to the program is the devices inside the vests, which recognize the pitch of a child speaking or a baby babbling and the pitch of an adult and capture when an adult speaks and a child or baby responds or vice versa. Those “conversational turns" are tallied but the actual words spoken are not recorded.

After class, data from the devices is uploaded into spreadsheets showing how many conversational turns each child had. More turns, or back and forth between teacher and child, indicate a child is engaged in the discussion. Coaches then review the data and show teachers ways to improve their conversations.

Brandi Simmons, the director of First Academy, is using the program with the 100 students in her 3-and 4-year-old classes this school year.

In one class, the first week of data showed that the teacher averaged between 16 to 28 "turns" per child each hour. By week three, that figure had jumped to as high as 42 turns per child.

Coaches also zeroed in on times when conversation lagged, such as lunch, and brainstormed ways to keep everyone talking.

"We may have some teachers who just kind of eat their lunch, too. And they don't talk to the kids," Simmons said. "But they're learning that during lunch, we're going to talk about, ‘What did mom pack for you today? Do you like cantaloupe? You've never tasted cantaloupe? Well, ask your mom to get you some cantaloupe so you can taste it'."

Recently, Simmons expanded the program into her infant and toddler classrooms, where her charges wear even tinier vests.

"It's making it more literacy rich for children, gets their minds thinking, exposing them to that critical thinking, that back and forth," she said.

Children wear their vests one day a week for five weeks. A parent must sign a consent form and most do. But if a parent does not want their child to take part, the child still gets a vest, but one without a transmitter, so they won't feel left out.

The data also lets teachers pinpoint kids who are speaking less than their peers and then work to determine if the child is shy or perhaps has signs of a speech delay the parents should discuss with their pediatrician.

"Teachers feel empowered with this data. They're able to change some of their behaviors in the classroom, able to see real changes in the children," said Rocy Gomez O'Keefe, chief growth officer for LENA.

The Lake County Early Learning Coalition, which oversees state-funded pre-K and subsidized childcare programs, introduced LENA Grow four years ago, before the state funding was available. The coalition used federal COVID-19 relief money to implement it in 150 preschool classrooms. With the new state funding, it has brought the program to 70 more classrooms.

"I feel like it's an ‘aha moment' for providers and teachers," said Lesha Buchbinder, CEO of Lake's coalition. "They see this data and they're like ‘I had no idea. I didn't realize that my teachers weren't talking. I didn't realize that our conversational turns were low. I didn't realize the importance of ensuring that those conversational turns are higher'."

Now all but two of Florida's 30 early learning coalitions are trying it out. The Florida Legislature has not yet decided if it will be funded for another year.

Jennifer Grant, CEO of the Seminole County coalition, put the program in 10 preschools and will collect data from teachers to determine if she wants to expand it.

Grant directed the program to infant and toddler classes thinking those teachers could benefit most from the training since they typically do not have as much education as teachers in pre-k classes.

"There's a misconception that infants and toddlers don't need as high a level of teacher," Grant said. "But infants are born hardwired to connect. Those neural connections are the foundation for future learning. They stick their tongue out and make a noise and you do it back and then the baby responds."

LENA Grow, Grant said, shows teachers they are not just there to change diapers and feed the children but play a critical role in a baby's development.

"If the teacher is quiet all day and the child just babbles, then they are not getting any feedback for communication," Grant said. "And if the teacher just talks at the child all day but doesn't wait for a response, they're not building that foundation for communication."

Grant also likes the program because it gives teachers feedback without the intrusion of a classroom observer.

"I've been a classroom teacher. Having somebody stand in your classroom and observe you while taking notes is a little intimidating," Grant said. "But this is something, they can go about their day, they can follow their routine as they should and still get great feedback."

Kubusheski, the First Academy teacher, said the data brings out her competitive nature but also highlights what's important in her classroom.

"Every hour counts. I have to make sure I'm making my rounds every hour, and everybody's getting those conversations."

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:21 AM.