Fast ForWord Family of Programs is a State-of-the-Art, Technology based program designed to build the skills that language-learning impaired children, need for listening, speaking, and learning to read. Developed by the Scientific Learning Corporation, the Fast ForWord Family of Programs is used by specifically trained and certified professionals in over 35 sites, including SPS, throughout the United States and Canada.

To make sense out of what he/she hears, a child must be able to distinguish speech sounds in everyday conversation. While most children naturally acquire all the skills necessary for language learning during the first few years of life, about ten percent of all children have difficulty understanding what they hear.

Imagine what it is like listening while you are underwater, or being in a foreign country where you understand only parts of what you hear. You smile, nod, and try to catch on; some of the rapidly spoken words are familiar but others are totally baffling, you listen for awhile, then lose interest as it becomes increasingly difficult to follow what's being said.

This is what life is like for children with auditory processing problems. If they are particularly intelligent or social, they devise numerous strategies to cope in a world of rapidly changing speech. As the child gets older, however, these coping mechanisms lose their effectiveness. In the younger years, children with auditory processing problems fare more easily as oral directions are short and accompanied by gestures. As spoken interactions become more complex and learning in the classroom depends upon good listening and comprehension skills, these children face more academic, social, and self-esteem challenges.

Many programs for auditory processing difficulty focus on symptoms; Fast ForWord Language is the only program that addresses the under-lying neurological problems. Based upon 20 years of neuroscience and language-learning research, Fast ForWord has helped thousands of children. It employs fun, computer exercises with animated rewards to help children process auditory information quickly and accurately. The program is individualized, progressing with each child, growing more challenging and rewarding as the child masters new skills.

Fast ForWord Language to Reading builds on the skills acquired in Fast ForWord, accelerating the development of such language and reading skills as sound/letter correspondence, processing speed and sequencing, and the use of rhyming, correct word order, and working memory. As a result, children are able to decode, spell, and assimilate new vocabulary faster and easier.

Fast ForWord Reading is designed for those students who need structured practice to build reading fluency. Once students have developed good sound awareness skills, research strongly supports concurrent training of the five other reading skills (letter-word correspondence, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and appreciation of literature) as the next steps towards reading fluency. Fast ForWord Reading 1-5 specifically focuses on these reading skills, preparing the child to make the critical transition from learning to read to reading to learn. This changeover requires students to be fluent and automatic readers by the end of 3rd grade so they are prepared to read and comprehend complex narrative and expository texts in such content areas as history and science. The Fast ForWord family of programs helps children with auditory processing difficulties bridge the gap between potential and performance.

Our Fast ForWord to Literacy Advanced Program is specifically designed for the adolescent and young adult learner. This new program helps to build the foundational skills needed to read to learn in high school and in college. These skills include advanced listening accuracy, auditory sequencing, listening comprehension, word analysis, English language conventions, vocabulary, phonological memory and sustained attention. With these skills, one can not only read to experience success in school, but read for pleasure the rest of one's life!