ADD Treatment

At Home Service Details

Gemm Learning has had great success using Fast ForWord software at home as an ADD treatment. Fast ForWord is a series of cognitive and reading programs that treat underlying learning issues as well as train attention skills -- improving attention stamina as well as reducing distractibility and impulsiveness.
How our treatment helps ADD

Gemm Learning is now making this professional, in-clinic software, available for families at home. Our service combines:

• Personalized, high touch service -- regular phone calls and emails, progress reports, and personal remote one-on-one student (or parent) help sessions if needed.


• A network of online support sites, including Gemm City, an incentives website to motivate students and My Gemm, a parent resources website with demo videos and materials to support the at home experience.

Your role as parent is to be a cheerleader -- no training is required.

Fast ForWord Treatment Details

Gemm Learning has been providing Fast ForWord at home for learning and reading difficulties, including treatment protocols for ADD, auditory processing and working memory, since 2006. The program is made up of discrete exercises that emphasize processing speed, selective attention, working memory, listening comprehension, phonological awareness and sequencing.
Fast ForWord program details

The most challenging aspect of the remote protocols for children with attention deficits is, of course, compliance. While the exercises are engaging, they are heavily themed to develop selective attention skills. This means that they are video game like, but they have distracters and focus challenges that exercise underlying attention skills that require student engagement.

This is where Gemm's experience with the remote, at home ADD treatment is helpful -- we have interventions, demos, and coaching tips to handle any difficulties. And if the attention challenges are over-whelming, the program will adapt and/or Gemm Learning will call to provide intervention suggestions.

The Software Adapts
One critical reason Fast ForWord is proving to be effective in helping ADD and learning difficulties, is that the program is adaptive and self-organizing, meaning that the student works at his/her own pace. Students typically come to us with a lack of confidence, making this adaptive aspect particularly valuable as it avoids frustration -- it keeps students in their zone, pulling them up if they can handle the higher speed or complexity, but it will fall back if three consecutive errors are made at these higher levels.

A Gemm Professional Monitors Every Click
The software is loaded onto your home computer and then after every session we receive an upload of every keystroke, every error, where progress is being made and where it is not. Your dedicated Gemm professional will make protocol adjustments, intervention suggestions and will be in regular contact by phone and/or email, particularly in the early phase if your child is tentative to start.

The Software Is Engaging
The protocol is 30 minutes a day (it can be broken up into smaller segments), five days a week for 3-6 months. Since the program is adaptive, students derive confidence from being able to work at their own pace.

All effective treatments for ADD require engagement. We further develop this required enthusiasm for our program with Gemm City (www.gemmcity.com), an incentives website where daily sessions can be converted into prizes, virtual rooms, sweepstakes, support for causes, and more. We find our elementary and middle school age students respond well to these added incentives.
Gemm Learning student incentives website

Reporting and Support
We start by developing an individualized treatment protocol, based on a Behavioral Survey, an initial assessment and a few program sessions. Once underway, you will receive a weekly progress report with details on each exercise, mapped out daily. To help support the at home environment, we also have My Gemm (www.mygemm.com), a dedicated parents resource site, which has point sheets, coaching tips, demo videos, background material on the science and more.

Your Next Step: A Free Consult?

Treatments for ADD are by nature complicated. Real change requires energy and effort, and every case is different. If you have questions or are unsure if our treatment is right for your ADD child, please call to find out. The 15-minute consult is free. If you are only available outside standard hours, Monday-Fridays 9AM to 6PM EST, please complete this simple request.
Request free consult