What is Fast ForWord Language Software?

What is Fast ForWord Language Software? Scientific Learning’s Fast ForWord Language is an adaptive computer program that is CD-ROM and internet-based. Drawing on 25 years of research on brain plasticity and the neurological basis of language, scientists developed the Fast ForWord Language product in an attempt to provide training in oral language comprehension and other skills critical for success in reading. The Fast ForWord Language product is designed as an immediate, intensive intervention for students in grades K-12 who experience difficulties with oral language skills, are students with a learning disability, are ESOL students, or are students performing at levels 1 and 2 on the FCAT. The developers of the Fast ForWord Language product propose that language impairments may be caused by a slow rate of processing for the rapidly successive acoustic cues in speech. They hypothesize that students who have difficulty distinguishing phonemes at normal speeds of fluent speech may be successful when the speech is acoustically modified and slowed down. Moreover, through intensive, frequent exercises with gradual and progressive changes in difficulty, they maintain that the brain can be “rewired” to process speech at normal speeds. Based on the theory of brain plasticity, or the concept that the brain can change as people learn new skills, the Fast ForWord Language exercises were conceived to retrain the brain in making the connection between speech and meaning. In order to improve the rate of neural processing, the exercises are presented with altered speech sounds that have been slowed down and amplified or digitally enhanced to facilitate understanding. A special feature of the software is its ability to adapt to each student’s incoming skilllevel and rate of progress. As a student moves through an exercise, the level of difficulty gradually increases and the modified speech sounds gradually change toward natural speech sounds that the student processes at the individual phoneme level, in groups of phonemes, at the word level, and then the sentence level. The adaptive software immediately increases or decreases in difficulty based on the student’s progress, thus creating a program that is challenging and rewarding at the same time. The seven exercises in the Fast ForWord Language product are presented in an engaging format with a built-in system of rewards to increase student motivation. The exercises use sounds and discrimination tasks to develop the student’s syntactic and semantic skills. Immediate corrective feedback is given before continuing an exercise. At the end of a set of correct responses, students are rewarded with brief but highly motivating features such as lights and animations, amusing sounds, and fetching musical phrases. Because the developers say that the brain is being remapped, the schedule for using the product is frequent and intense. Students participate in computer-based individualized sessions 5 days a week, 100 minutes per day, for 4-8 weeks with the guidance of a Fast ForWord trained clinician or educator. The flexibility of the product permits the student to complete the daily exercises in one session or in sessions that are divided throughout the school day. Sessions may also be scheduled before and after school, as well as on the weekends and during the summer.