Fast Forward Auditory Processing With Fast ForWord
Research-validated software for auditory processing
Fast ForWord is brain training software that targets auditory processing disorder (APD), the most common source of reading and learning issues.
Developed by world-renowned neuroscientists, Fast ForWord harnesses the power of brain plasticity — the ability of the brain to respond to exercise and improve function — to target auditory processing delays and help children become better listeners, learners and readers.
The Science Behind Fast ForWord
Founding scientist and cognitive researcher, Dr. Paula Tallal, was one of the first to connect reading to language processing delays. Her early research studies found an almost perfect correlation between struggling readers and children who could not accurately identify and sequence sounds at high speed. It makes sense. Children who cannot pick out the small sounds, the phonemes, that make up words will struggle to read.
This discovery lead to the idea of Fast ForWord for auditory processing. Dr. Tallal and 3 other founding neuroscientists reasoned that if auditory processing could be strengthened with the stimulation, it would significantly improve language, learning and reading. They spent the next 20 years developing a series of cognitive and processing exercises, launching Fast ForWord for auditory processing in 1997.
Fast ForWord is a second chance to learn how to process language
The concept behind Fast ForWord is simple. It finds the student’s processing level and then builds speed and complexity in tiny, incremental steps, not unlike how a child learns to hit a baseball.
Students make hundreds of sequencing and sound discrimination decisions in quick succession. It adds speed and complexity, building to the auditory processing efficiency required for reading.
This approach is very different to how children have to learn to learn language in the real world. When they are babies, parents instinctively talk slowly, but once they are 2-3 years of age, everyone talks at natural language speed. If a child is not processing at natural language speed, too bad. His window to improve auditory processing, the foundation for all future learning, is closed.
Fast ForWord gives these children a second chance. It slows language down and helps them build auditory processing skills at their own pace.
Fast ForWord helps auditory processing delays by creating a cognitive foundation first (takes 2-3 months), and then with a reading series, which has elementary, middle and high school-level programs.
Neuroscience principles
Fast ForWord is based on established neuroscience concepts that promote improved brain function in a relatively short period. These principles help create new neural connections, improved learning.
Fast ForWord Research For APD
Over 70,000 students, mainly struggling readers, have been part of highly scrutinized scientific studies, and 700+ scientific articles have been written about Fast ForWord, many focused on APD. The study results have been overwhelmingly positive.
