Overcoming Common Coaching Challenges
Coaching when conversational turns are low, decreasing, or consistently high.
LENA Grow data is unique, objective, and a powerful coaching tool. As one coach said, ‘The data speaks for itself, so I can focus on support and skill-building.’ For times when the data isn’t enough, we hope the following strategies offer helpful ideas!
Here are a few common scenarios you might encounter as a coach:
Turns are low and progress is slow
What does "low" look like?
- Look at stars on the Room Report.
If the group earns a Room Average Star each week, then their daily turn average is going or staying up. Even if it has gone down from the previous week, a Room Average above 25 is very good for a classroom setting! If this is the case, skip to when turns are high.
If the Room Average doesn’t seem to be changing much and is generally staying lower than you would like, keep reading! - Look at the Interaction Chart on page 2 of the Room Report.
Big changes for individual children are often undetectable at the group level. Using the Interaction Chart and Interaction Stars can clearly show which children to focus on.
Use benchmarks to determine how well the needs of each child are being met.- Are all children experiencing at least 5+ turns an hour/average? At a minimum, make sure no child experiences “language isolation.”
- Once all children are consistently above five turns/hour, help teachers focus on the next benchmark of 15, then 25, and so on.
Additional strategies:
- Model, model, model!
Model Talking Tips in the classroom or help teachers find time to observe an expert peer. You can also revisit the videos from Orientation or Coaching Session 1 (or use an outside resource such as Cox Campus) to show more examples of what conversational turns could look like between adults and children. - Start small and build on strengths.
For example, use the Hourly Breakout to find a time of day with high turns. Then, look at the Child Reports to find a child who has low turns during that time. Lastly, set a goal with the teacher:
“During lunch, sit next to the specific child you are focusing on. Try making one turn into two! What are some ways you can keep the conversation going?" - Consider background noise.
Remind teachers if there is a lot of noise in the environment, like background music, it could interfere with how well children experience conversational turns and how well LENA identifies them. Help teachers be mindful of things like:- Their proximity to children.
- The direction they are facing when talking.
- The arrangement of the room.
- What extra noises are going on during the day.
- Bring together teachers with different experience levels to share ideas.
It’s helpful to hear what others are learning and the creative goals they’re trying. New teachers can learn from experienced ones, and experienced teachers might feel inspired by fresh ideas from newcomers. Just remember — every classroom is different, so don’t directly compare reports from different rooms. - Encourage teachers to record a short video clip to use for reflection during coaching.
If there’s time and teachers are open to it, record a LENA Day and review the video with their report. If not, record on another day and share a short clip during the coaching session. No matter what they share, reflecting on their practice can lead to meaningful growth.- A clip of a routine they want to improve is a great way to start a conversation.
- If they share something that went well, use that success to build on—what made it work, and how can they apply that elsewhere?
- Make it an experiment!
Set a clear goal and check the data the following week. For example, if a teacher thinks it’s difficult to increase turns during outdoor play, try using a parachute. Have them note the time and who joined on their LENA Log. Then, look at the data for those children during that time to see if there’s a difference. - Break goals ALL the way down. Once a teacher has set a specific goal, talk through the action steps to get there. Get more detailed than you think is necessary. For example:
- Teacher: “I’ll work on that goal during circle time.”
- Coach: “What does circle time look like now? What will you do differently when you are targeting this goal?”
- Teacher: “I’ll make sure to call on each child during the story questions.”
- Coach: “What story will you be reading? What questions might you ask from the story? Are there kids who you think will need the questions to be simpler, or that can answer questions that are more complex? How can you make those questions open ended?"
Turns go down from the previous week
It can be disappointing to see turns go down. Unfortunately, it’s very likely to happen at some point during a sequence. Remind teachers that circumstances in child care change regularly, and the data in LENA reports is likely to fluctuate also.
If the turns on a report have gone down from the previous week:
- Ask about what might have changed.
“Was anything different or unusual about your LENA Day?”
Visit “What Impacts the Data in LENA Reports?” to understand more about the daily factors that may affect data. Changes in teacher-child ratios, attendance, health and moods, or special events can all cause some data variability. This is perfectly normal! - Frame it as a learning opportunity.
“What happened on this LENA Day that is different from the last one?"
"Do you notice a difference from hour to hour or child to child? What can we learn from that?”
Compare the last two reports. What insights can you offer the teacher about how certain circumstances impact engagement?
Turns are consistently high
Sometimes conversational turns start high and stay high for all children. This is a great problem to have, but can be a challenge for coaches. Even in strong classrooms, there’s always room to reflect. Goals might shift from boosting overall numbers to focusing on specific improvements for individual children.
In this situation, you may want to:
- Use the Child Reports to focus on specific children.
“What do you notice for James this week? Let’s explore his Child Report to see what we can uncover.” - Focus on a specific hour when turns are lower.
“Your Trophy Hour is so impressive! How can we bring that strength to an hour of the day that has fewer turns?” - Empower teachers who are consistently high performers to become peer coaches.
- Focus on family engagement.
Since these teachers really understand the data and how to engage with their children, encourage them to share those insights with families. In addition to sending home LENA Grow Family Talk handouts, discuss more specific observations with families about their individual child.