The Learning Success Blog

Rubin was in his first year at school (kindergarten in NSW). His teachers told his mum, Lani, that he was not concentrating, he fidgeted a lot, and he could not complete his work.

He was also having great difficulty with his early reading, struggling to sound out simple sentences like "I am Tim. Tim sits."

Because his older brother Kito* had benefited from the Fast ForWord brain training exercises a few years ago following an audiologist's recommendation for his auditory processing disorder, Lani decided to have Ruben do the exercises as well.

Do you have a child or student with poor listening skills?

At home you might ask your child to do something like, "go and put on your school clothes, get your jacket and put your library book in your school bag". He or she may look confused or just say "huh", or actually go and just get one or two of the three things done.

In the classroom, the student with poor listening skills will have trouble keeping up with classroom discussions, following instructions and learning information when it is presented to them by the teacher's voice.

Parents and teachers often assume that children like this are deliberately ignoring them, have something wrong with their hearing, or are just not paying attention.  They could be right, but if the child's hearing is fine, their poor listening skills may be due to an auditory processing disorder (APD).

Why do ESLs struggle with reading?

Students with limited or no English speaker proficiency need instruction in recognising and distinguishing the sounds of English as compared or contrasted with sounds in their native language.

To be most effective, instruction for ESLs in oral language knowledge, skills, and abilities must be explicit, intensive, and extensive.

Oral proficiency in English (including oral vocabulary, grammar, and listening comprehension) is critical for ESLs to develop proficiency in text-level English reading comprehension.

The Fast ForWord reading and language program has received an official re-endorsement from the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE). Fast ForWord’s CASE endorsement now enters its 7th year and will extend through December 2024. Read the Businesswire announcement here.

Developed for struggling readers, Fast ForWord is a unique 3-in-1 program that simultaneously develops reading, cognitive, and social-emotional learning skills to efficiently build reading and learning skills. Included in the Fast ForWord suite of exercises is Reading Assistant, an innovative guided reading tool that uses speech verification technology to support and listen to students as they read aloud, acting as a guided reading coach.

Do you know what this means?:

"Brain wave oscillation bands appear to be a major mechanism co-ordinating billions of nerves across different brain regions to perform even basic cognitive tasks such as paying attention to someone who is talking and understanding what they are saying."

It's about brain science, language learning and reading, and it may help your children or students.

For most of us brain science is mysterious, a field of knowledge open only to neuroscientists. Much of what we read about how our brains work, how brains learn and what can go wrong with them is written by people who have no special knowledge of brain science. They are generally reporting summarised conclusions of scientific research.

Fast ForWord and MATHia have been named as Award (Gong) winners in the 2021 Best Tools for Back to School (USA). They were awarded for helping students, parents, and teachers succeed as they head back to school.

The new Awards of Excellence program is published by:
Tech&Learning (techlearning.com) TOOLS & IDEAS TO TRANSFORM EDUCATION

And is designed to help their readers find the most impressive products and solutions for their work in any learning environment.

If you’d like your child or students to be a better reader then Fast ForWord Reading Comprehension program could help.

The exercises work on the underlying skills of Working Memory, Attention,Processing and Sequencing this helps all learning becomes easier.

What to expect from Reading Comprehension

• A concentrated focus on reading comprehension and the sub-skills that build it, from fluent decoding and grammar skills, to comprehension strategies 
• Practice in reading for understanding with a wide range of texts, including fiction, expository prose, tables, instructions, diagrams, and flowcharts—the kinds of texts that students encounter when reading to learn across the subject areas
• A new look and feel, with graphics age-appropriate for secondary learners and motivational features to keep students engaged and learning
• Improved adaptivity and responsiveness, so that individual students get the content they need at the right level of challenge
• Just-in-time supports, to help students work more independently and stay motivated
• A safe learning environment, where students can take chances without fear of judgment by their peers
• The same research-driven design and content that have made Fast ForWord a reliable, evidence-based solution for over 20 years.

“I heard from a school about the great results they are getting from a neuroscience program.  Then one of my staff pointed out a meta analysis that is critical of the program. I can’t understand why supposedly gold standard research - a meta analysis - is saying something totally different from what I hear is happening in other schools.” 

That’s what a school principal said to us.

She understood the value of educational neuroscience and was considering whether to use the Fast ForWord neuroscience program in her school to assist teachers to help improve students' learning and reading abilities.

The meta analysis was published in 2010, using research from the previous decade. The authors, Strong et al, selected 5 of 79 published studies they had found on Fast ForWord.

If you are considering a product to help your brain or improve academic performance, what evidence would you rely on?

Many people don't want to read research and thus seek a trusted advisor. Sadly, they are often unaware of potential conflicts of interest.

A case in point is the Macquarie University's Special Education Centre (MUSEC) brief discussed herein, where Macquarie University crudely used one meta-analysis to support their commercial initiative.

Can you rely on MUSEC for an independent, impartial and unbiased opinion?

What about the practical, real world gold standard evidence: 20+ years of product validation by millions of users around the world:

In 1996 four world leaders in neuroscience, after 25 years of ground-breaking research, formed a company (Scientific Learning Corporation). Their core product - Fast ForWord® translates neuroplasticity-based training research into educational programs to develop learning capacity and reading skills. It has been continually revised and enhanced ever since.