The Fast ForWord® Program is based on more than 30 years of foundational research into how the brain learns. This research established the fact that boosting the brain's processing efficiency accelerates quality learning. It's called brain plasticity and among neuroscientists, it refers to the brain's ability to change at any age throughout life.
- The Fast ForWord Program can trigger change in the brain and provide an optimal foundation for learning and reading success.
- Developed by four internationally renowned research scientists, Drs. Mike Merzenich, Paula Tallal, Bill Jenkins, and Steve Miller, the Fast ForWord program works to improve the language to literacy continuum.
- The technologies behind the program were specifically designed to match the ability and progress of each learner. This ability to adapt to the student means they are always challenged, but not frustrated.
- There are four key cognitive skill sets that, when developed together, improve academic learning and reading. These skill sets are:
- Memory- The ability to store information and ideas. Memory is essential for word recognition, comprehension of complex sentences, and remembering instructions. Fast ForWord enhances working memory, short and long term memory.
- Attention- The ability to focus on information and tasks, and ignore distractions.
- Processing Rate- The rate at which a student is able to accurately perceive and manipulate information. The rate at which a student can distinguish speech sounds and identify letter and word forms to create meaning. Fast ForWord increases the rate at which students are able to process incoming information.
- Sequencing- Placing the detail of information in its accustomed order (for example, days of the week, alphabet, etc.). It is the ability to determine the order of letters within words or words within sentences. Fast ForWord improves the recognition of the order of sounds, letters, and concepts.
Reading is a demanding activity, calling for many specific events to take place simultaneously in the brain. The Fast ForWord Program applies discoveries of neuroscience to accelerate these important reading skills: Phonemic awareness, Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Decoding, and Syntax. And because the exercises are based in the science of how the brain works, the results are lasting and often life-changing.
*For more information on the Fast ForWord Products please visit www.scilearn.com
