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Dyslexia Treatment for Adults
Our adult dyslexia treatment is built around Fast ForWord software – quick-fire and adaptive exercises to make reading more automatic.
Adaptive Reading Software at Home With Oversight
Our service can help if any of these signs of adult dyslexia apply to you:
- Are you a slow reader, or is reading exhausting?
- Do you struggle with comprehension?
- Do your test-taking skills let you down?
In most cases, our program can help in just a few months.
The Problem and Our Solution
Why Reading Is Difficult
When reading is automatic, it’s effortless, and comprehension is equivalent to listening comprehension.
For adults with dyslexia, reading is not automatic. It’s slow and/or exhausting, and the effort to focus on reading the words detracts from comprehension. It’s hard to read for long periods, and reading for pleasure is rare.
For most adults with dyslexia, and with undiagnosed dyslexia symptoms, the problem is underdeveloped language processing, needed for accurate listening.
This matters in reading, as amazingly, the brain is capable of mapping every single word it hears to the text word so that every word is a so-called “sight word” – instantly recognized. But to do that, it needs processing speed to provide the “sound pixels” needed to pick out every sound in every word, perfectly.
If processing is not 100%, e.g., if “jump” is heard as “jum,” then the brain can’t map it. When you see “jump” when reading, you will rely on context, but it slows you down and diverts brain effort needed for comprehension.
The problem is that because “jum” and “jump” don’t match, the brain never maps them. And so every time you come across “jump” you need to use context to guess it. Multiply that by thousands of unmapped words, and you have dyslexia.
Our Solution
Our software works directly on the root cause: processing speed.
Faster processing, more words heard clearly, more words mapped (more “sight” words), and so reading is easier.
Fast ForWord develops processing and related skills, such as working memory and attentiveness, and then builds reading-specific skills to complete the path to reading with comprehension. It helps make reading easier and improves test-taking efficiency.
Fast ForWord is an amazing series of programs for children, teens, and adults:
- Based on advanced neuroscience
- Backed by 300+ studies
- Has helped 3+ million struggling readers in 45 countries.
The exercises engage the brain with intensity and precision in a way the school cannot.
Most adults need 4-6 months, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Online with professional oversight.
Dyslexia Program Benefits
Our clinical-strength programs make reading automatic, like riding a bike, which helps you:
- Read faster, and with less need to re-read pages
- Read for more extended periods, because reading is less tiring
- Think while you are reading – connect to prior knowledge, etc., to improve comprehension
- Enjoy reading!
Once your longstanding impediments to reading are removed, anything is possible, including a new favorite pastime, reading for pleasure!
“I have struggled with reading all my life… It’s been very frustrating and speed reading courses were of no help. At the age of 58, … I can, for the very first time, read entire sentences and lines on a page. This has changed my reading speed as well as my comprehension. The difference is absolutely amazing. Now I will always wonder how my life would be different today if I could have solved my reading problem in third or fourth grade instead of at age 58.”
Fast ForWord Protocols for Adults
Fast ForWord is the primary intervention tool in our adult dyslexia treatment. It is a series of programs that give Gemm Learning a variety of exercises to include in a dyslexia protocol for adults.
What all exercises have in common, is that they are intensive, adding speed and complexity at your own pace. The neuroscientists who developed Fast ForWord focused on how to treat dyslexia in adults as a follow on from their work with young struggling readers.
The brain is plastic, meaning it can improve function at any age – and so they knew that by creating age-appropriate exercises for adults that. Fast ForWord could tap into this opportunity.
“He is doing really well and still continues to make gains. I really credit regaining his now very strong listening skills to this program. I see a big difference in his memory that he really suffered from the accident. And more and more, he is working on his own, becoming quite independent.… it’s a miracle, really.”
Fast ForWord Cognitive Series
Fast ForWord for adults starts with Elements I and Elements II. This cognitive skill training program creates an intensive exercise environment required to build the skills needed for reading, specifically:
- Sequential processing and working memory skills
- Knowledge of language structures
- Selective attention skills
These cognitive skills are developed to the level required for reading efficiency and then pushed to their biological limits in Foundations II.
Fast ForWord Reading Series
Fast ForWord Reading Level 2
Fast ForWord Reading 2 is the first for most adults in the Fast ForWord reading series. It improves reading fluency skills — grammar, vocabulary, spelling — and reading comprehension.
Fast ForWord Reading Level 3
Fast ForWord Reading 3 builds reading comprehension by breaking that skill into its various parts: spelling, vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation rules, decoding, critical thinking, and analytical skills.
Fast ForWord Reading Comprehension
Fast ForWord Reading Comprehension takes reading skills to the high school level by targeting all aspects of language and reading. Some exercises focus on language and vocabulary nuances, while others build analytical reading comprehension skills.
Fast ForWord for adults typically takes 4-6 months to complete, using a 30-minute-a-day protocol, 4-5 days a week.
Reading Plus
In some cases, we will add Reading Plus—which reinforces left-to-right reading at faster speeds – to the protocol for adult students to cement the gains.
Success For Adult Students
Our experience over the years in treating dyslexia in adults gives us confidence in achieving results. This applies to other learning difficulties in adults, also, including attention issues and APD in adults.
We are long past worrying about how well our programs help to reduce dyslexia symptoms for adults. We have helped hundreds of adults, including many with traumatic brain injuries. Read our testimonials by our adult students here.
A study reported by Science Daily shows that Fast ForWord for adults improved attention and cognitive skills not only immediately after the 8-week protocol but also 18 months later when measured.
“I find I can read for much longer periods than before Fast ForWord. Plus I don’t need to re-read pages. I used to read a page and then realize I did not take in a word. That does not happen anymore. I flew through books this summer, where before I struggled to get through one. Reading for pleasure is a marvelous new aspect to my life. Thank you.”