Almost a Year Later for Fast ForWord

I have to still say that Fast ForWord is the best thing that has happened to my family!  And its rewards have been doing their 'thang for almost a year :)  My DD is still going strong and she hasn't lost any of her gains made from the program.

When issues of reading concerns come up in conversations, I always ask if they have considered this program. Unfortunately, not many people are familiar with it so I refer them to the BrainPro website and tell them to search for my blog about the process if they are interested.  Sometimes I'm curious if anyone uses the program after our conversation so if this blog has been helpful to you in your choice of programming, I would love a comment below! :)

Overall, I'd say that the biggest improvement is in her ability to learn something new in a timely manner.  I no longer need to purchase 5-7 different text and work textbooks that cover the same material 5-7 different ways for the sheer repetition of it. She has only 1 math textbook, which is now at grade level!, and she can comprehend the new information as it is introduced and reviewed in just one program.  She has only 1 cursive workbook, 1 phonics workbook, and only 1 spelling workbook!  More importantly, she is able to handle her workload without the added emotional stress of "I can'ts."  We can progress through her curriculum at a good pace, without needing to take calming breaks, relearning episodes, or intense scaffolding.  This all leads to her ability to feel competent in her work and, interestingly enough, responsible for her education.

This may seem like small stuff and you may think I'm over crediting the program, but if you were to really know where we were for YEARS before the tremendous gains from Fast ForWord, the program's impact speaks for itself.  Reread my last paragraph without the improvements and you may get a glimpse of how difficult things were for her, for me as a parent and teacher.  We are truly thankful :)

(March 24, 2014)

Beyond Fast ForWord: Growth

It is now July of 2013 and my DD's growth from the program is still strong!  She still struggles with listening accuracy with specific sounds (/i/ and /e/) that we are targeting with a great speech program called LiPS that the Consultant highly recommended.  With that said, it has not slowed her overall reading fluency down and this program teaches her to feel the sound and the correct mouth/tongue placement.  Her previous strategy was to give up or stare at the page.  Big improvement with the auditory word recognition and phonological memory!  

The Consultant also said to continue with her music instruction as the piano will continue to improve her listening accuracy and auditory sequencing.  Both of the Consultant's recommendations have continued to develop her skills after Fast ForWard.

Her sustained attention continues to improve slowly as she gains more and more confidence in her new abilities.  Her previous "can'ts" have hurt her desire to try things that were difficult for her prior to the program.  I'm truly amazed at how well and quickly she is reading now, even though she will only read the first page of any book.  It will take time for her to trust her own abilities again.

I also have to note that her ability to comprehend numeracy greatly improved after the program.  It was immediate.  It was like her brain just didn't have to work at pulling out the names for what the "number picture" was on the page or in conversation.  She went from one on one coaching to her telling me what every number she saw was called!  "It's 77 degrees out today," "It has been 30 minutes," and on and on!  And, she could read all the directions in her course work to herself in order to complete an activity!!!!!  (This was huge for us!)  She could follow her own directions!

I just can't say enough good things about Fast ForWard as it changed not only my DD's quality of life, but ours as well.

Thank you for following our journey!  

By The Numbers: A Look at Results

Our last program day was May 30, 2013.  I feel like quoting...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, ... it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us ...  

Charles Dickins, A Tale of Two Cities

 This program brought us the best of times and yet some days (especially during the final count down) it was the worst of times.  This program became the spring of hope for our reading and listening difficulties and yet some days seemed like the winter of despair as we struggled to complete another day.  This program put everything before us at our fingertips for success and yet we had nothing before us as a concrete formula for guaranteed success.  But alas! We triumphed!  And I have the numbers to prove it.

In May 2012, I brought my DD to our local school district for an Academic Evaluation.  The Special Education Department teachers met with my DD five times for evaluations.  

Let me highlight a few of the findings from each Evaluator as particularly pertains to skills addressed in the Fast ForWord program.

Special Education Teacher evaluation:

• (T) provided the sound for lower case i and did not respond to lower case u.
• When given a writing prompt, she wrote a two word sentence but then was able to verbally provide extensive details to her frog narrative.
• (T) required verbal prompting, positive praise, tangible reinforcement and breaks between tasks in order to remain on-task and follow directions.
• (T) demonstrates average grade and age level appropriate skills within reading, math, and writing.

Speech/Language Evaluation:

• Throughout testing, (T) had a difficult time attending to task.
• The CELF-4 and CTOPP tests were administered. She tested in the 47% for receptive language, 53% for language structure, 16%, 3%, and 2% for rapid naming skills.  Her Overall Phonological Awareness percentile rank was 77%, Phonological Memory rank was 58%, and her Rapid Naming Composite was 3%.
• On the sentence structure subtest, she demonstrated a relative weakness in her ability to interpret spoken sentences of increasing length and complexity.
• Expressive vocabulary was an area of relative weakness and she used strategies for recall and associative meaning.
• (T) score in rapid naming, the ability to efficiently retrieve information from her long term memory, fell in the poor range.  Students who present with difficulties on rapid naming are expected to have difficulty reading fluently.

Psychologist's Evaluation:

• She required frequent redirection from the examiner.
• On the Verbal Composite, which measures a child's ability to process verbal information and apply verbal skills, she was at 45th percentile.   Information subtest was 37% rank by age, Vocabulary was 25% by age, and Word Reasoning was 75% by age.
• Her Processing Speed Composite, which measures the speed of mental operations and graphomotor processing, was in the 42nd percentile. She did better on a visual scanning task for matching.  The subtest for Coding was 25% by age.

As a parent and and home educator with a strong background  rehabilitative practices, these results put numbers to our needed target areas.  Personally, I saw "Dyslexia" written all over these results in addition to her auditory processing issues.  She relied heavily on visual and context clues for comprehension which was putting a strain on her working memory.  I conceded that it was the brain that needed rewiring for her to improve efficiently and effectively.

I compiled the following table for her Fast ForWord results for a comparison.

Skill Groups	Starting %	Ending %	Total Minutes
Listening accuracy and auditory sequencing	0	29	553
Phonological accuracy	6	69	326
Phonological fluency and sustained attention	0	20	313
Vocabulary and auditory word recognition	0	100	157
Auditory word recognition and phonological memory	0	100	501
Following directions	4	97	300
English language conventions	6	100	172

How amazing is that!

Fast ForWord® for Us!

My daughter is dyslexic and also struggles with hearing sounds.  The combination of the two issues have created much heartache and learning complications for both my daughter and myself.   For the past two and a half years, I have been using various reading intervention programs, auditory programs, spelling programs, and implementing researched strategies.

At this point, she is at a pivotal point in her education: we can continue with these strategies and fall slowly behind or we can jump forward using a proven brain training program that goes behind the scenes where I cannot go easily.  I have chosen to dish out the cash now (it is not cheap) instead of a slow and steady stream throughout her education in remediation curriculum.

I have not come to this decision lightly as it costs more than one month of my mortgage!  However, four months of intense training will have huge payoffs immediately.  Part of the responsibility of homeschooling is in making decisions like these.  In conversation some have said to me that if she were in public school, there would be no cost.  On the contrary, there would be no progress.

Last year I took her in to the public school to be tested for various learning issues.  The results from three days of testing clearly show all of the "symptoms" of dyslexia and poor working memory, however, the Board's decision was that she is within normal learning levels.  I'm sure it would be different once she was enrolled in the school since school funding is greatly increased per labeled child.  She is seven and can not read, can not hear the sounds of short e, short i, b, d, and only hears parts of conversations while relying on context and visual cues.  Lessons in reading, spelling, and math take excessive repetition to acquire a skill base.  When talking with parents with children on the Spectrum, they instinctively recognize traits of their own children's struggles in her.

After much research, I had narrowed down my options to two programs: Earobics and FastForward.  Due to financial constraints, I chose Earobics and have witnessed slow but steady results for my daughter.  Sadly, she is still falling behind because during this time period, a "normal" child develops quite rapidly and she just cannot keep up.  Since that time, I have used Earobics with two other children and seen great results with the oldest one and slight improvement with the middle aged one.  All three are receiving intensive reading and phonics tutoring, which verifies the impact that developmental stages can have on mastery learning.

I have come across documented case studies and statistics on the program Fast ForWord® in multiple research texts and online over the past three years.  While online reviews indicated a lack of success, these reviewers also admitted an a la carte approach to the program where individuals were not fully following the program due to time demands.  These reviews were all done on school usage.   Despite this, a small posted comment by a mother of three restored my hope.  She very simply stated that if the reviewer had actually completed the program correctly, it would match her son's results.  She said that she would pay even more money for this program it was that beneficial.  

The Customer Service department is very personable and provide plenty of support.  I found it weird to be talking to someone who understood Auditory Processing Disorders and the like and had a personal testimony about a child like mine. She was not pushy, just knowledgeable.  The FastForward online program we are using is called BrainPro and before you start, you must choose an available Consultant who will work with you throughout the program.  They even match your time zones for phone calls!  All of the Consultants bios were extremely impressive and thorough.

Even before I paid my dues upfront, the BrainPro Representative walked me through all of the screens I would be using online, gave me details on the starting games for my daughter, and logged me in.  

First Use:

My daughter eagerly sat with her headphones on and intently watched the screen.  I later read that I should have a dual headphone jack so I could listen in also; This is needed!  I kept distracting my daughter by yelling loudly so she could hear me ask "DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE DIRECTIONS?" She would nod.  I would ask again because it looked like she was doing nothing.  Finally, she said, without glancing away, "Mom, this is hard! I'm trying to listen!"  She gets it ;)

Several times during the three games, which took 30 minutes, she asked if she could stop.  I'd encourage her and she would resume.  After it was all done, she then asked if she could do it all over again!  (I knew my daughter would ask me this and so I had previously asked the Representative if that was possible.  She said she'd have to ask the Consultant I chose!)

Day One: Success!