How Fast ForWord Provides Auditory Processing Help

The starting point for developing Fast ForWord software was that reading is a language problem -- if language is "muddy" sounding then decoding will be difficult. Fast ForWord scientists reasoned that if they could address the underlying auditory processing disorder that makes language muddy they could dramatically improve reading and learning skills.

Thirty five years later they have done just that. The vast majority of our students have some form of central auditory processing disorder, or CAPD, often severe but also often unnoticed until reading started to falter.
Learn more about CAPD here


Inaccurate listening impacts following instruction in class and reading -- decoding and comprehension. And so while Fast ForWord is primarily thought of as a reading program, it is able to dramatically impact learning efficiency by improving processing speed and accuracy.

How Fast ForWord Works on CAPD

Its main goal is to strengthen auditory processing speed and accuracy, along with related memory and attention skills

Why Auditory Processing Matters
If a young child cannot process at natural language speed they miss a lot of instruction and direction and they do not "get" reading. For children who hear every sound in every word, reading is simply a matter of transposing language to a new format using their ABC's. But, for those with a limited or muddy speech vocabulary, reading is like being confronted with a whole new language.

Fast ForWord Founders' Idea
The most common cause of poor listening accuracy is that the brain does not process fast enough to discriminate between sounds. To improve reading, Scientific Learning came up with a simple idea: when you teach a child to hit a baseball you start slow then speed-up - why not do the same with the brain?

Their Program
They created Fast ForWord, a slow pitch machine for the brain. This software is the first and so far only program based on neuro-scientific principles developed by founder of Fast ForWord, Dr. Merzenich.

Fast ForWord automates and strengthens auditory processing skills the same way an athlete builds muscle memory, through repetition. Each day the student is prompted to make hundreds of increasingly more complex decisions in quick succession, using the neuroscience principles of frequency intensity, and shaping. It is an adaptive program that adds speed and complexity in tiny incremental steps, each student working at his/her own pace.

At regular intervals students receive unexpected surprises in the form of fun activity on the screen or sounds. These surprises are designed to produce a spike in norepinephrine, activity that promotes brain change. Many of the exercises focus on memory in conjunction with other skills. Fast ForWord does this to encourage the brain as a system to reorganize. Every minute of computer time is productive, every minute working toward improved learning.
Learn more about Fast ForWord

Once mastered, these new skills are used everyday and so they endure, making this one-time program a compelling alternative to tutoring which tends to require an ongoing commitment.

More Quick Facts On Fast ForWord

There are 75,000 children around the country working on the software right now, and one million who have already completed it. Over 40,000 of these students have been part of highly scrutinized scientific studies, and over 700 scientific articles have been written on the subject. The Fast ForWord empirical evidence -- in trials and studies -- confirms that the software is indeed able to boost learning and reading skills for the vast majority of students who follow the protocol.
Read The Study Results