Brains learn better after consistent use with the Fast ForWord exercises. The key is processing efficiency, and students around the globe, regardless of native language, are using the Fast ForWord program to develop the cognitive skills that enhance learning, leading to academic success.
There have been numerous research studies conducted using the Fast ForWord software products. Some studies have used experimental designs, including the use of random assignment, while others have been intervention group studies or case studies. Across all the studies, data from more than 32,000 students at 455 schools worldwide have been analyzed and reported. Few studies manage to incorporate all the best attributes, but many studies incorporate each of the attributes.
The brains of the children with dyslexia changed after completing exercises in a computer program known as Fast ForWord Language. Brain imaging studies in the Harvard Medical School / Children's Hospital Boston show significant positive results. Click here to read an article in Advance Magazine
Click here to read an article from Phsyorg.com
After using Fast ForWord Language the APD group demonstrated significant gains in both skill areas, moving into the average range in sight word reading ability and phonemic decoding ability.
Click here to see a summary
Click here to see the full report
Following Fast ForWord participation, students with Autism Spectrum Disorder reached the average range in auditory discrimination skills and their overall language ability improved by approximately one year.
Click here to see the full report
John Gabrieli of Stanford University said. "The study supported the idea that for some children, getting training on just simply processing rapid sounds is a route to becoming much more fluent and capable readers,". In addition, activation of the children's brains fundamentally changed, becoming much more like that of good readers.
Stanford University report on the research click here
Phonics Bulletin Article
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the USA report Click here
"The Dyslexia Rapporteur Group was particularly impressed by the Fast ForWord® computer based products and the experience of these products in the Everett Public Schools for the following reasons:…….. "The key features of Fast ForWord were highlighted in the report: scalability, replication, teacher efficiency, adaptability, engagement for students..............."The Rapporteur Group were impressed by the Fast ForWord® Progress Tracker which is an online data analysis and reporting tool that enables teachers to monitor individual, classroom and school performance of students working with Fast ForWord® products." The full report can be read here
The US Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse has evaluated Scientific Learning Corporation's Fast ForWord® Language product based on a study that met its highest evaluation criteria, and has concluded that the product is in the top tier of interventions aimed at English Language Learners (ELL). Click here to see the report
Middle school students in Planegg, Germany, who used Fast ForWord products at the end of the 2004-2005 school year made significant improvements in English language and auditory skills. Auditory Perceptual Quotient scores improved from an average of 62 to an average of 80.
Executive Summary Click Here
Full Report Click Here
The WWC reviewed 115 studies on Fast ForWord® Language. Five of these studies met WWC evidence standards, one study met WWC evidence standards with reservations, and the remaining studies did not meet WWC evidence screens. Based on these six studies, the WWC found positive effects on alphabetics and mixed effects on comprehension. The evidence presented in this report may change as new research emerges. To see the report click here
The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that Fast ForWord® programmes produce enduring neurological changes. Students' gains in reading achievement were sustained after Fast ForWord use was ended.
"The level of support we’ve received is more than we ever anticipated. They’ve made such a difference for so many successful students to achieve proficiency..." Read on
This study used a randomized control trial experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of using Fast ForWord products to improve the performance with 144 Western Australian primary school students with difficulties in language, literacy, auditory processing, attention, and/or behaviour.
Click here to see a summary
After using Fast ForWord products, struggling readers, on average, made significant progress towards closing the achievement gap. Comparing the performance of students in the study with their peers statewide, the performance discrepancy decreased by 25% after Fast ForWord participation. The improvements in the TAKS scores were maintained longitudinally. To see this four year longtitudinal study completed in Dallas click here
Scores from before and after Fast ForWord participation show that, on average, students made significant increases in their reading achievement, with a higher percentage of students moving closer to or meeting Idaho performance standards. Scores also show that these students’ stronger skills and rate of learning were maintained or even continued to improve six, twelve, and eighteen months after initial Fast ForWord. To see the Pocatello study click here
This study was completed in the Smart Learning Centre in Dublin. The average reading accuracy age equivalent of the students at pre-test was 7.5 years and the average reading comprehension age equivalent was 8.1 years. In both reading skills, students were performing well below their actual age level of 10.2 years. After approximately four months of Fast ForWord product use, student reading accuracy increased by 14 months and reading comprehend improved by more than 2 years. To see the Executive Report Click here To see the Full Report Click here
".... Furthermore, an innovative ICT programme for learning support and cognitive development has recently been added to the school’s provision. This involves students being assigned for fifty minute sessions, a number of times each week, to interact with the programme. Individual students’ cognitive needs are evaluated by the software which then creates individualised programmes. The learning support coordinator retests students’ literacy levels following interventions utilising the programme. The adoption of the programme was originally initiated by the parents’ association, which has a learning-support subcommittee. The proactive approach adopted by the education-support team, with the assistance of senior management and the parents’ association, is to be praised."
See Department of Education and Science, Ireland; Whole School Evaluation of Kenmare Community School (Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine ) section 5. Quality of Support for Students, 5.1 Inclusion of Students with Additional Education Needs. Click here to read the full report
"Results are impressive; Fast ForWord was one of the few technologies reviewed that conducted solid experimental studies with random assignment to conditions both at the clinical and school implementation levels. The technology was highly successful in improving a series of prerequisite reading skills in at-risk students."
J.Schacter, "Reading Programs that Work: A Review of Programs for Pre-kindergarten to 4th grade."
Fast ForWord software was the first educational product developed and tested before it was introduced to the marketplace. Our products successfully improve the core cognitive and linguistic attributes—memory, attention, processing, and sequencing— that define a student’s ability to benefit from classroom instruction.
Fast ForWord software incorporates dozens of patented technologies and processes to effectively improve cognitive and language-based reading skills. For example, acoustically modified speech breaks down complex sound patterns into recognizable units, enabling students with auditory processing problems to more quickly develop phonemic awareness and listening comprehension skills. Students then map the critical speech sounds they hear to letters and text, which lays the foundation for faster pattern recognition and analysis of words and pictures. Once they can recognize patterns in sounds and words, students begin to increase memory span and reading fluency while building vocabulary, comprehension, decoding, syntax, and grammar skills. This process creates fast, effective, and enduring gains that accelerate students' reading abilities and positively impact their performance in multiple subjects.
Fast ForWord is the only product on the market that is based on a solid foundation of in-depth, neuroscientific research. Scientific Learning Corporation the developers of Fast ForWord holds more than 70 patents relating to a wide variety of practical applications of neuroscience and the advancement of learning skills. Clinical trials funded by the US National Institute of Health have confirmed the efficacy of Fast ForWord.
There are currently over 120 research studies related to Fast ForWord with 35,000 student participants. Over 4,000 publications reference the foundational research that underlies the development of the Fast ForWord products, and this body of research continues to grow.
Advances in the field of neuroscience over the last 30 years have created the potential for a new era in education. Breakthrough research first conducted in the 1970s has shown that limitations in the brain’s capacity to acquire new knowledge can be reversed through proper scientific application. In what has become known as the concept of brain plasticity, scientists proved that the application of specific, targeted learning paradigms can change the activity patterns of neurons, which are the fundamental processing elements of the brain. The results of this foundational research have enormous implications for the classroom.
The old model of learning held that the vast majority of the brain’s functioning was established during the critical period of the first few years of life. By the time a child entered school, his or her brain was already seen as "hardwired" for learning, for better or worse. The most that a teacher could do was work within the limits already prescribed by that child’s genetic allotment and early cognitive development. Since no new capacity for learning was assumed possible, intervention for struggling students was targeted towards helping them compensate for what were considered lifelong deficiencies. This view of the brain is now known to be incorrect. We know today that the brain is continuously modifiable. This realization has opened the door for novel approaches to facilitate learning for students of all aptitudes.
Fast ForWord software is recognized as a proven scientifically based reading intervention product at leading educational organizations such as:
Data independently gathered by schools and educators has shown that with recommended use, Fast ForWord products get results. Our extensive database of student results show our products have a statistically significant positive effect on a wide variety of student populations, including English Language Learners, Special Education students, academically at-risk students, and students performing below their potential.
Scientific Learning is one of the only educational software companies whose research has been and continues to be published in peer review journals. It has an open door policy regarding access to research reflects and defines their approach. A sample of the science supporting Fast ForWord products from Journal Articles Books & Book Chapters Conference & Meeting Presentations and White Papers
The Scientific Learning website provides a link or direct access to more than 140 studies on Fast ForWord. To see the Website reports Click here
This document provides an organized list of the studies using experimental designs, Randomised Control Based Studies, reviews by US government and universities and School Results Studies. Click here to see the pdf file