I just wanted to share this picture to show how much the kiddos love all of the classroom materials they have received. Even Fernando and Pete are wearing their Lena vests.

Early childhood professionals have an amazing opportunity to positively impact children’s healthy development. Virginia Beach GrowSmart offers LENA GROW to strengthen the language environment for children in early care programs. Our goal is to improve the quality of early education in Virginia Beach and support the kindergarten readiness of children. GROW offers strengths-based coaching and professional development for early childhood providers. In addition, providers receive unique data insights into the classroom language environment using “talk pedometer” technology. Early care professionals receive an orientation followed by five stackable coaching sessions to transform interactions in their classrooms. Programs receive quality classroom materials to support language development, classroom interactions, and strengthen program quality in each session. Weekly reports provide a unique view into the classroom audio environment and help educators connect equitably with every child in the classroom. GROW coaches are also trained in CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) which focuses on interactions relating to high quality. Grow aligns with CLASS domains such as language modeling, positive climate, teacher sensitivity and facilitation of learning and development.

1. Relative to where they start, children who started out experiencing less talk than their peers had a 39% average increase in conversational turns per hour.  
2. Children who started out experiencing less talk than the national median of 15 turns per hour has a average increase of 56% in conversational turns per hour. 
3. Pilot classrooms experienced growth in CLASS dimensions for positive climate, language modeling and regard for student perspectives as measured through pre and post observations. 
4. 96% of teachers who participate in GROW report increased job satisfaction and increased confidence in their teaching abilities. 
   

100% of teachers would recommend GROW to other teachers!

Program participants will receive room data reports from the LENA days to review during coaching sessions and set weekly goals.

If you are interested in Grow contact the GrowSmart Coordinator at 757-385-0144. Interested child care programs in Virginia Beach can complete an Interest Form, a GrowSmart Team member will contact interested programs to discuss Grow in detail.