Fast ForWord^® Literacy

Fast Forward Literacy moves middle and high school students toward grade level reading skills, with a focus on listening accuracy, phonological awareness, and language structures.

To accelerate reading progress, Fast ForWord Literacy develops critical brain processing efficiency in four key areas:

• Improves memory by requiring holding a word or statement in short-term memory while retrieving picture-concept associations from long-term memory.
• Improves attention by making students focus on the tasks at hand.
• Strengthens processing ability through auditory, visual, and linguistic processing of orally and visually presented stories for meaning and comprehension.
• Develops sequencing through exercises that require using word order to comprehend simple and complex statements and instructions and organizing a response that follows the specified sequence of actions.

Fast ForWord Literacy software works by exercising the brain to process more efficiently, the way physical workouts train the body to be more fit and strong.

Four key components of our technology-based intervention work together to create the dramatic changes in brain function required to achieve universal literacy:

• Frequency and Intensity—Neuroscience research demonstrates that completing a set of learning tasks in a frequent, intense timeframe accelerates learning
• Adaptivity—Exercises adapt with each key stroke to individual skill levels and responses, keeping students continuously challenged but not frustrated
• Simultaneous Development—Exercises develop major cognitive and reading skills simultaneously to produce lasting improvements in learning
• Timely Motivation—Tiered rewards are designed to maximize motivation from start to finish.

Scientific Learning Progress Tracker, an accountability tool, provides real-time monitoring of individual and group performance on the Fast ForWord exercises.

Fast ForWord Literacy Completion History

It provides clear, action-oriented information showing student progress over time, in specific reading and cognitive skills areas. It’s one of the reasons why Fast ForWord products have been so successful in helping schools and districts meet state mandates and comply with NCLB.

Teachers can receive automatic emailed reports with specific recommendations for instructional intervention. Administrator reports provide disaggregated data for groups of students, making it easy to monitor progress toward AYP goals.

What is Fast ForWord Literacy software?

Fast ForWord Literacy software is a reading intervention product that builds foundational reading and language skills to help districts move special needs learners to successful learners in the general classroom.

Who should use Fast ForWord Literacy software?

Fast ForWord Literacy software is for secondary education institutions and clinical specialists worldwide whose students are reading two or more years below grade level.

What are the Fast ForWord Literacy exercises like?

• Space Racer: Improves the speed at which the student identifies and understands rapid, successive changes in sound (listening accuracy); and improves the student's ability to hold sounds in memory.
• Galaxy Goal: Improves identification and discrimination of phonemes, increasing the speed at which the student identifies and understands rapid, successive changes in sound (listening accuracy).
• Spin Master: Increases progression in difficulty across three dimensions: synthetic speech stage, presentation rate, and discrimination of syllables.

• View a DEMO

What kind of results have students had with Fast ForWord software?

Using one of our prescribed protocols, students have achieved, on average, a 1 to 2 year gain in reading skills within 8 to 12 weeks . Longitudinal research shows that the increase in the rate of learning is permanent over time, closing the achievement gap.

In addition, students often exhibit enhanced self-confidence, better communication, greater interest in learning, and improved mental agility and alertness, after working on Fast ForWord products.

How do I know Fast ForWord Literacy software is working?

Scientific Learning Progress Tracker, an accountability tool, provides real-time monitoring of individual and group performance on the Fast ForWord exercises.

Teachers can receive automatic emailed reports with specific recommendations for instructional intervention. Administrator reports provide disaggregated data for groups of students, making it easy to monitor progress toward AYP goals.

Why does Fast ForWord Literacy software work?

Just as physical exercise increases muscle strength and efficiency, Fast ForWord Literacy software exercises the brain, increasing its ability to learn better and faster. Each exercise targets and develops the processing efficiency needed for successful reading and learning.

How does Fast ForWord Literacy software work?

Fast ForWord Literacy software uses proven brain science principles to develop essential learning skills in the four key areas of memory, attention, processing rate, and sequencing. These are the underlying skills required for reading and learning.

The learning principles behind the exercises—frequency and intensity, adaptivity, simultaneous development, and timely motivation—are maximized by state of the art technology that is based on more than 30 years of research on how the brain learns.

• Frequency and Intensity—Research demonstrates that completing a set of learning tasks in a frequent, intensive timeframe accelerates learning.
• Adaptivity—Exercises adapt with each key stroke to individual skill levels and responses, keeping students continuously challenged but not frustrated.
• Simultaneous Development—Exercises develop major cognitive and reading skills simultaneously to produce lasting improvements in learning.
• Timely Motivation—Tiered rewards are designed to maximize motivation from start to finish.

What are the Technical Requirements for running the software?

View the Technical Specifications (92k PDF). Note: Adobe Reader (PDF viewer) is needed to view this document.