Fast ForWord
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Educational software |
| Founded | California, U.S (1997) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, |
Key people | Bill Jenkins Paula Tallal Steven Miller |
| Website | Homepage |
Fast ForWord is a family of educational software products intended to enhance cognitive skills of children, especially focused on developing "phonological awareness" (discussed below).[1] It is marketed as a therapy for strengthening the skills of memory, attention, processing rate, and sequencing for children. It evolved from studies that showed children with abnormal temporal processing and language learning impairment could have their phonological awareness improved in parallel with their temporal processing. It is currently marketed for children with a broad range of reading problems, and perhaps other cognitive disorders as well. Fast ForWord software was developed and is commercially distributed by Scientific Learning Corporation, which became a public company in 1999.[2]
Independent scientific analysis of the Fast ForWord product has shown little or no support for the effectiveness of the product in treating children's learning challenges.[3][4]
History
The Fast ForWord products evolved from the work of a number of scientists, including Michael Merzenich and Bill Jenkins at the University of California, San Francisco, and Paula Tallal and Steven Miller at Rutgers University. This team started Scientific Learning shortly after publishing two papers in Science.[5][6] These papers demonstrated that children who had abnormal temporal processing could be trained on software (which later evolved into Fast ForWord). This training results in 1–2 years of age equivalent improvement in language reception measures. The magnitude of the improvement, subject by subject, was correlated with their improvement in temporal processing. In other words, these studies showed that software like Fast ForWord, when applied to subjects with abnormally poor temporal processing and reading skills, could remediate both their temporal processing and language reception powerfully, and further suggest that temporal processing abnormalities can form a perceptual bottleneck in learning to comprehend language. The studies also included control groups and found significant differences in language reception improvements between control and experimental groups.[5][6]
Merzenich, who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is also the Chief Scientific Officer for Posit Science,[7] is no longer formally involved with the management of the company.[8] He and Bill Jenkins, currently Chief Scientific Officer at Scientific Learning,[8] are internationally known for their research on brain plasticity, which is the concept that the brain changes as we learn new skills. Paula Tallal is currently co-director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers and an active participant on many scientific advisory boards and government committees for both developmental language disorders and learning disabilities. She has published over 150 papers on the topic of language and learning and is the recipient of national and international honors. Steven Miller, former Senior Vice President of Research at Scientific Learning, has extensive experience in organizing clinical research studies and conducting longitudinal studies of children who have language and reading problems.[8]
Product line
Fast ForWord uses computerized exercises in which children identify computer-generated speech sounds (although the latest versions of the product apparently includes others kinds of computerized training as well). Participants spend 30 to 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for four to 16 weeks using the products[9] In the speech-sound drills, the training program starts off with sounds that have been altered by computer processing. These processed sounds preserve the frequency content of normal speech sounds, but are slowed down and have artificially exaggerated differences. These changes make the task easier for children with slower than normal temporal processing, but paradoxically are more difficult to discriminate for temporal processing normals. As the subject progresses, these differences are reduced to make the games more challenging.
The premise of this approach is that the drills help students with a wide range of language problems develop enhanced phonological awareness, and that this enhanced awareness will have numerous benefits for their language functioning, including especially reading. The method of utilizing exaggerated differences in training a person to tell two things apart is commonly referred to in psychology as "fading". Fading has been widely used beginning in the 1950s in many areas of behavioral research and treatment, including animal learning,[10] behavioral therapy of retarded individuals,[11] and problems with perception of speech sounds.[12]
Marketing and pricing
The Scientific Learning Corporation website does not appear to state what specific diagnostic indications for which the product is being marketing. The search engine keywords listed on the website include "improve reading scores improve reading skills" which suggests that the key market includes children with virtually any sort of reading problem. However, the website also describes results involving "pervasive developmental disorders" (a term usually applied to children with problems in the autism spectrum),[13] attention deficit disorder,[14] and quotes testimonials relating to the "broad range" of students supposedly helped by the product.
It is estimated that the cost is approximately $38,000 for 50 children.[15][16]
Scientific analysis
Randomized controlled trials
Drawing inferences about the effectiveness of an intervention is done most accurately with randomized controlled trials with appropriate outcome measurements. In this kind of study, individuals are either randomly assigned to receive an intervention or to receive whatever would be the conventional treatment. The outcome measure must be a set of pre-defined measures that assess the severity of the complaints for which treatment is being administered. This is the basis of the FDA's evaluation of new drugs, and is generally viewed as the "gold standard" for any kind of intervention research. Optimally, such a trial should be run with the so-called intention to treat procedure, which helps to prevent drop-outs from obscuring the results of the study.
Several studies have been published that have evaluated Fast ForWord Language using randomized controlled trial designs. In 2004, a study of Fast ForWord in a large urban school in the Northeast was published. The study consisted of 374 students who scored in the bottom 20% on the state's reading test. The study concluded that although certain aspects of the children's language skills were slightly improved, the gains did not appear to translate into actual increases in reading skills.[15]
A larger randomized study examined 415 second and seventh graders performing far below national reading standards. The students randomly assigned to receive Fast ForWord treatment did not show statistically significant improvement in most of the reading measures examined, although there were a few small gains for certain subgroups, and a significant fraction of students with the lowest language test scores dropped out. The study authors concluded that "the Fast Forword Language program did not, in general, help students in these eight schools improve their language and reading comprehension outcomes".[4] However, in their discussion they noted that the "supplementary analyses, which examined the causal effects of participaton, revealed that when the middle school teachers and students remained committed and more faithfully achieved the completion standards set by Scientific Learning Corporation, the students exhibited statistically significant improvements in reading comprehension.[17]
In 2010 a systematic meta-analysis of all randomized controlled trials of FastForword was published. It concluded that there is no evidence that Fast ForWord was effective in treating children's reading or oral learning challenges.[3]
Non-randomized studies
The Scientific Learning Corporation website lists many dozens of studies with positive results that do not use the "gold standard" randomized designs, but instead compare children's performance before and after treatment.[18] In early studies that pre-dated the commercial development of Fast ForWord,[5][6] it was reported that 8–16 hours of training using Fast ForWord produced "1.5 to two years of progress in reading skills". These age-equivalent improvements are based on their published data expressed in the same format.[6]
See also
- Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities
- List of alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities
References
- ^ Begley, S.; Check, E. (1 Jan 2000). "Rewiring your gray matter". Newsweek: 63. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ "Hoover's IPO Central". Retrieved 2010-02-06.
- ^ a b Strong GK, Torgerson CJ, Torgerson D, Hulme C (2011). "A systematic meta-analytic review of evidence for the effectiveness of the 'Fast ForWord' language intervention program". J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 52 (3): 224–35. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02329.x. PMC 3061204. PMID 20950285.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Borman, G. D.; Benson, J.; Overman, L. (2009). "A randomized field trial of the Fast ForWord Language computer-based training program". Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 31 (1): 82–106. doi:10.3102/0162373708328519.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ a b c Merzenich MM, Jenkins WM, Johnston P, Schreiner C, Miller SL, Tallal P (1996). "Temporal processing deficits of language-learning impaired children ameliorated by training". Science. 271 (5245): 77–81. PMID 8539603.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d Tallal P, Miller SL, Bedi G; et al. (1996). "Language comprehension in language-learning impaired children improved with acoustically modified speech". Science. 271 (5245): 81–4. PMID 8539604.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Explicit use of et al. in:|author=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "National Academy of Sciences: Merzenich, Michael M." Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ^ a b c "Scientific Learning Management". Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ^ "Intervention- Fast Forward". Institute of Education Sciences. 2007. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ Lawrence, D. H. (1952). "The transfer of a discrimination along a continuum". Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 45 (6): 511–516. doi:10.1037/h0057135. PMID 13000022.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Irvin, L. K.; Bellamy, G. T. (1977). "Manipulation of stimulus features in vocational-skill training of severely retarded individuals". American Journal of Mental Deficiency. 81 (5): 486–491. PMID 848515.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Morosan DE, Jamieson DG (1989). "Evaluation of a technique for training new speech contrasts: generalization across voices, but not word-position or task". J Speech Hear Res. 32 (3): 501–11. PMID 2779195.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Tons of Validated Results". Scientific Learning Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ "Improved Attention". Scientific Learning Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ a b Rouse, C. E.; Krueger, A. B. (August 2004). "Putting computerized instruction to the test: a randomized evaluation of a "scientifically based" reading program" (PDF). Economics of Education Review. 23 (4). Elsevier B.V.: 323–338. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2003.10.005. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
- ^ "Fast ForWord is a CD-ROM and Internet based program". The Metiri Group. 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ Borman, G. D., & Benson, J. (2006). "Can brain research and computers improve literacy? A randomized field trial of the Fast ForWord® Language computer-based training program" (pdf). University of Wisconsin School of Education. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=/|date=mismatch (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Scientifically Based Research". Retrieved 2011-12-11.
Further reading
- Stevens, C.; Fanning, J.; Coch, D.; Sanders, L.; Neville, H. (2008). "Neural mechanisms of selective auditory attention are enhanced by computerized training: Electrophysiological evidence from language-impaired and typically developing children". Brain Research. 1205. Elsevier: 55–69. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2007.10.108. PMC 2426951. PMID 18353284. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
- Temple, E.; Deutsch, G.K.; Poldrack, R.A.; Miller, S.L.; Tallal, P.; Merzenich, M.M.; Gabrieli, J.D.E. (4 March 2003). "Neural deficits in children with dyslexia ameliorated by behavioral remediation: evidence from functional MRI" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100 (5): 2860–2865. doi:10.1073/pnas.0030098100. PMC 151431. PMID 12604786. Retrieved 2010-02-02.