The Learning Success Blog

For some folk, these words: Speling, Spieling, Spelling, Spealing,  look so similar that it’s very confusing.

Which one is the correct one? 

Good spelling is vital because it allows the writer to focus on what they want to say. It frees up brain space for their ideas to flourish.

As children learn to spell, their knowledge of words improves, and this makes reading easier.

Sally Wilcox noticed that her son Mac was becoming increasingly frustrated with writing and spelling when he was in grade 5. 

In Mac’s words, it was very simple - he hated writing.

Thinking back, Sally recalled that the early markers were already appearing in grade 1 when Mac had difficulty following instructions.

On deeper investigation, Mac was diagnosed with auditory processing disorder. At first Sally was told that this was developmental and that Mac would grow out of it, and to some extent this was true. Yet the problems persisted and Sally knew that something else needed to happen.

Eventually she found the Fast ForWord programs, and that’s when things started to change for the better. Fortunately Mac was very receptive to resolving his issue, and his teacher was also familiar with auditory processing disorder.

This combination helped Mac make significant gains at school with his academic results. He also increased his self confidence and became more willing to try.

In this episode of Learning Capacity Podcast Sally shares Mac’s story.

“It would really pain me when I used to listen to my son read and he’d look at a word and couldn’t for the life of him try and sound it out. He just couldn’t do it”.

This is how *Alice described her 12 year old son’s reading before he did the Fast ForWord program.

Her son *Ryan was able to go from a reluctant struggling reader, to a determined flourishing student using the neuroscience based exercises in the program.

Alice used to watch on helplessly as Ryan would struggle with reading and spelling. But she saw how the program took Ryan from frustration to fluency.

Does your primary school child come home on Monday with a spelling list to be done each night and taken back to school on Friday?

Have they been instructed to “look, cover, say, write & check” each word?

If they are doing well with spelling, that’s great. But if they have trouble learning to spell, is this system helping them?

How do we get auditory processing disorder (APD) – is it something we are born with? To find out, LearnFast interviewed Devon Barnes, speech pathologist and APD specialist.

Key points from the interview included:

• You can be born with it
• There are likely to be students with APD in almost every classroom
• Informed, aware teachers can identify students who may have APD
• This disorder can be related to dyslexia

How can the Fast ForWord program build learning capacity and reading skills for all students, regardless of their ages and current ability?

This short video explains that the neuroscience-based exercises in the patented Fast ForWord programs simultaneously develop thinking skills (memory, attention, processing speed and the ability to sequence sounds, words and ideas) as well as language skills including:

•   Phonological awareness
•  Phonemic awareness
•   Vocabulary
•   Syntax
•   Grammar