Fast ForWord™

Recent advances in technology offer new hope for the language-learning impaired child. An estimated 10 to 15% of all school-aged children have some form of language-learning impairment, a disorder which has no relation to the child's intelligence. Without therapy, this physical problem of the brain impedes the understanding of language from birth. It affects understanding of the spoken word and possibly the written word as well. Specifically, language-learning impaired children need more time to distinguish the difference between certain consonants. Given the past pace at which language is spoken, these children are so busy decoding individual words, they do not understand the sentence. It is similar to the situation one would find after taking a couple of years high school spanish and then trying to understand the native Spanish-speaker.

Scientific Learning Corporation, which was founded by two prominent research scientists, introduced Fast ForWord™ as a CD-ROM / Internet-based program. The program comprises a series of games which have had success in improving the abilities of language impaired children. Using these special games, most children have made gains of 18 months or more in age level of language ability. When these computer-based activities have been administers by a trained therapist in an intensive program, these gains have been accomplished within weeks.

Children are apparently born with the inability to process spoken language. In our normal rate of speech, some consonant sounds are audible for only 10 milliseconds. These children need more time to distinguish the difference between a "b" sound, for example, and a "d" sound. At a very early age, they tend to group these sounds together rather than separately. Developers of the program found that when the consonant sound is drawn out to 80 milliseconds, these same children have no trouble discriminating between sounds.

Fast Forword™ founders have called the program's computer activities "aerobics for the brain." The programs feature imaginative games in which children must discern differences in consonant sounds. The program is set at the child's level, and, as the child improves, the program automatically moves to a more difficult level. Incrementally, the child learns to understand speech in faster and more natural forms. Everyday, the child's data is uploaded through the Internet and the games are changed to meet his or her individual needs.

Children who may be appropriate candidates for Fast ForWord™ included those who:

Fast ForWord™ Two (R), a sequel to the pioneering Fast ForWord™ program for 4- to 13-year -olds with language and reading problems, is also available at Community Therapy Services. Fast ForWord™ Two takes what the child has learned about sound in the original program and helps them to link letters to sounds and achieve additional critical language and reading skills.