Autism Treatment

Protocols For Language and Learning Skills

Gemm Learning is the leading North American provider of Fast ForWord software at home with educator oversight. Fast ForWord is a science based cognitive skills training program, that has a long track record of success in helping reading and language skills, that is now emerging as a leading autism treatment. Its success in helping K-12 and adult autistic students build language and reading skills is based on its unique ability to isolate and exercise the underlying processing and working memory deficits common to most students with autism.

Our program -- both the software and the services we have build around it -- is setting a new standard in autism treatment, taking a powerful, clinical program and making it an effective at home intervention.

A dedicated Gemm professional, your partner, makes the programming decisions and ensures program protocols are being followed correctly. Your role as parent is to be a cheerleader -- no training is required. Here's why the treatment protocols are effective at home:

1. Treats The Underlying Processing Issue
   Fast ForWord was developed around the idea that most reading difficulties, and many learning issues are caused by auditory processing deficits. The software strengthens these and other cognitive skills typically impacted by weak processing. Processing delays are prevalent in the ASD population, making Fast ForWord an effective treatment for autism in most cases.
   How Fast ForWord helps autism


2. Remote Monitoring
   Through automatic uploads after every session, Gemm Learning professionals see every click, every error. We review data as we receive it, making regular contact by phone and email. If we see an incorrect protocol or a difficulty with an exercise we will be in touch.


3. Adaptive Exercises Avoid Frustration
   A key to Fast ForWord's success as a treatment for autism is its adaptivity. While it uses consecutive correct responses to pull the student up -- adding speed and/or complexity -- it will also drop back if a student makes three consecutive incorrect responses. This adaptivity keeps the student in the zone, engaged, not too easy and boring, but also, not too difficult and frustrating. For children with autism, this adaptive approach improves compliance and therefore outcomes.


4. Remote Interventions
   As in any treatment for autism, there are times when interventions are needed. In these cases, Gemm Learning educators will work with the student on the phone at the same time accessing their computer watching their clicks as they are being made. We are almost always able to help autistic children through these difficult periods.


5. Support Network
   Gemm Learning was founded on the idea that we provide "everything but the child." As much as possible, our learning interventions for autism and other learning disabilities aim to be all encompassing, where the parent role is to get the child into the chair each day -- no easy task of course.
   
   Our program managers are accessible, we have a dedicated parent resources website, My Gemm, at www.mygemm.com, with demo videos, manuals, point sheets, etc., we are monitoring progress daily, and we report on progress weekly.


6. Student Motivation Supplied!
   Any autism treatment requires engagement from the student. This is another differentiating aspect of our service. Our software is engaging -- it is adaptive, meaning students work at their own pace, and it has levels, point counters and other motivational tools to encourage a good effort each day.
   
   Gemm Learning supports the software with its own layer of student motivation, namely, Gemm City -- at www.gemmcity.com -- where students are rewarded with badges and purchasing power they can use for toys, electronics, clothes, donations to good causes, and much more.

Fast ForWord Software

Efficacy As Treatment For Autism

Behaviors and learning difficulties related to Autism Spectrum Disorders vary widely. And therefore treatment outcomes and definitions of success vary widely.
Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder

That being said, anecdotal success of Fast ForWord as an autism treatment has created real interest in our program for children with developmental delays -- PDD-NOS, autism and Asperger's Syndrome. We have had some wonderful feedback from our families with autistic students.
Parents of Gemm students with autism tell their stories

Unlike the 200+ trials of Fast ForWord related to language and reading efficacy, there have been very few formal trials measuring interventions for autism using Fast ForWord. This is partly due to the diversity of the autistic student population and partly due to the relatively recent interest in Fast ForWord for autism. Those trials that have taken place however, confirm the anecdotal evidence -- Fast ForWord helps autism symptoms in most cases.
Fast ForWord program trial results for autism