Reading Programs

Improve Reading Online, With Coaching

Our K-12 reading programs use neuroscience software to target the cognitive impediments to reading, and 30+ adaptive exercises to build vocabulary and reading comprehension. Parents report:

• More confidence and willingness in reading
• Better fluency and reading speed
• Improved reading comprehension
• More reading stamina

Around 90% of reading difficulties stem from cognitive -- processing or memory -- skill gaps that are typically not addressed at schools. Left untreated, however, cognitive skill delays can undermine reading throughout life.
Understand what's behind your child's reading problems

Treat Underlying Causes
The brain is plastic -- it is constantly changing and self-organizing. Just because cognitive skills do not develop naturally in early life, does not mean they cannot be developed at all. These skills will respond to exercise at any age. Our reading software series, Fast ForWord, taps into this opportunity, with intense exercises that target all aspects of reading, including these important foundational skill gaps.

Reading Program Detail

Process Overview

The main barrier to reading comprehension is lack of fluency. Less than 15% of struggling readers have comprehension problems if they read accurately and read faster than 80 words a minute. The National Reading Panel found that comprehension instruction should be only taught after reading accuracy and fluency are mastered. It is like teaching a child how to change gears on a bike before they learn how to pedal.

Our Fast ForWord reading software starts at the bottom of the reading pyramid, securing your child's cognitive foundation, required for fluency. Cognitive skills are assumed to be "natural" and are not part of the school curriculum, which are typically instruction focused. We then move up the pyramid step by step, mimicking the natural learning progression of skilled readers.

Fast ForWord is a series of programs with 50 different exercises, based on the principle of neuroplasticity. It uses powerful, adaptive algorithms that generate the intensity required to rewire cognitive skills and improve reading, an approach that has helped over one million struggling readers in 40 countries.
Research based Fast ForWord programs in more detail

Fast ForWord develops reading skills in three phases:

1. Build cognitive fundamentals
   The first reading program strengthens the auditory processing, phonological awareness, working memory, attention stamina and sequencing skills required for efficient decoding.
   Cognitive skills training
   


2. Make reading more fluent
   The next set of exercises adds text to the mix, training sound discrimination (phonics) and decoding automaticity, as well as helping vocabulary, spelling and language structure.
   Reading fluency program
   


3. Develop reading comprehension
   The reading software then presents a series of exercises that adapt each student, filling in all kinds of reading skill gaps, with a particular focus on reading comprehension and active reading strategies. Exercises escalate in difficulty and sophistication to build robust reading skills and to undo prior bad habits.
   Improving reading comprehension

Protocol Length
While many reading intervention programs require years of open-ended instruction, our program has specific reading goals and takes only a few months. Middle and high school students take 3-4 months on average, using a five day a week, 30 minute a day protocol. Elementary age children, and students with dyslexia or more severe reading and/or processing difficulties will take up to a few months longer. Protocol length can also vary depending our your goals.

Neuroscience and Natural Learning
Fast ForWord uses adaptive algorithms that create the intensity of processing required to create new neural pathways, to tap into the ability of the brain to change. The reading series uses a natural learning approach -- not instruction, that is received then forgotten, but rather interactive discovery -- similar to how children learn language in their first years of life.
Why cognitive brain fitness

Reading Programs For Children
Our programs are appropriate for children five years of age and over. Younger children enjoy elementary reading programs for their interactive computer game feel -- this is not boring, text heavy reading instruction -- and the adaptivity that means they are able to progress at their own pace, without frustration.

Our middle school reading programs use "best score" and other incentives built into the exercises to extract an aerobic, intense effort. These same features motivate older children, although our high school reading programs are popular, mainly because of their potential to significantly boost ACT and SAT scores.
Reading programs for children

Reading Programs For Adults
Our programs are also suitable for adults, most often with a lifelong reading difficulty or dyslexia diagnosis. At only 30 minutes a day, it can fit into the schedule of most struggling adult readers motivated to make a change.
Adult reading programs

Reading Skills Helped

For reading to be successful throughout life, a number of skills need to be practiced and learned. Our reading programs take a comprehensive approach:

• Cognitive Skills. While the primary target of the reading software is auditory processing, related to phonological awareness, there are exercises that work on attention, sequencing, working memory and other fundamental cognitive skills.


• Language Skills. While skilled readers typically absorb vocabulary, syntax and the nuances of the language just by listening, most struggling readers have cognitive gaps that impede this natural language discovery. And so our reading programs fill in the gaps, using a natural learning approach.


• Reading & Writing Skills. Most struggling readers need help with spelling, guidance in developing higher level metacognitive reading strategies and other reading skills, all of which are covered in the Fast ForWord program.

Many of these skills are themes that your child would work on throughout the reading program, whereas some, such as the metacognitive skills, appear only in later levels.
Improving reading skills

Description Of Our Service

Gemm Learning is the leading North American provider of Fast ForWord, an online reading program series for at home use with certified educator oversight.

Fast ForWord was previously only available in clinics. However,in 2006 Gemm Learning pioneered home use. Your child works on software on your home computer, with a Gemm professional providing oversight and protocol management services, using automatic Internet uploads after each session.
Process and service description

Get Started With A Free Consult

The ultimate measure of our reading software success is our client satisfaction rate: 96.8% of clients say they would recommend us to others. However, every child is different. To find out if your child is a candidate for our program, call for a free consult Monday to Friday, 9AM to 6PM EST, or request a different time here:
Find out if we can help.