Fast ForWord
Fast ForWord is a computer program from Scientific Learning. The program is designed to help weak readers in grades 2-7 learn to read better. Through language games, it should help the students to better distinguish sounds and to transfer sounds into letters.
The program was developed with the collaboration of scientists Michael Merzenich and Bill Jenkins from the University of California, San Francisco and Paula Tallal and Steven Miller from Rutgers University . The program is used in American schools to promote the risk group of weak readers. It is used by over 120,000 students there. There is an English and a German version of the program. It is available in the USA, England, Ireland and Germany.
Scientific debate
In the work The Brain That Changes Itself individual success stories are discussed. On the other hand, two scientific studies could not prove any benefit from the program.
Study by Rouse and Krueger
The program was made available to 512 students in grades 3–6. The students were poor readers who attended schools in economically deprived school districts (ghettos).
Rose and Krueger describe the program as ineffective. The students in the Fast ForWord group did not read better or worse than the students in the control group.
Study by Borman et al.
415 students from Baltimore received the program. They were students from the risk group of weak readers. 141 went to second grade, 274 to seventh grade.
There was no demonstrable benefit of the program.
Web links
credentials
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- Jump up ↑ Borman, Geoffrey D., James Benson, and Laura T. Overman (2005): Evaluation of the Scientific Learning Corporation's Fast ForWord Computer-Based Training Program in the Baltimore City Public Schools.
