877 914 4366
Speech & Language Software for Kids
Our adaptive exercises target language processing and related skill gaps that contribute to speech and language delays, boosting speech, receptive language, phonics, and pre-reading skills for children aged 5 and older.
Help for Speech Delays & Pre-Reading Skills
Our receptive language disorder program addresses:
- Listening accuracy and processing speed to help with speech,
- Working memory for following directions,
- Vocabulary and language syntax, and
- Pre-reading and reading skills, including fluency and comprehension.
If processing skills are delayed and the language sounds muddy (or worse, like sound through water), the brain can’t convert those sounds into meaningful words it can use in speech. And so speech is delayed.
Furthermore, most children with speech delays are at-risk readers. We learn language from birth by listening – vocabulary and attached meaning, language syntax and nuances, and the letter sounds inside words, phonemic awareness, needed for reading. If speech is delayed, the skills needed for reading are likely compromised as well.
How We Help
We provide Fast ForWord software, a speech and language intervention for children age 5 and older, at home with remote educator oversight. The first 1-2 months are completely sound-based, ensuring your child’s language processing is as efficient as possible. Most families continue into the reading phases of our intervention – 6-7 months in total, 30 minutes a day.
Most children start to see speech and vocabulary improvements in 4-6 weeks, with improvements in following multi-step instructions and reading skills soon after.
If you are unsure where your child stands, take our free learning difficulties screening, which reviews risk factors and symptoms.
“He is doing great – I credit Fast ForWord. His understanding of expression, word choice, and multi-step commands has all dramatically improved!!! We still have a path ahead, but I’m amazed by where we are when I look back at where we started!! It is truly night and day!! In turn, he has grown in confidence and social skills. I will never be able to thank you and your team enough.”
“We are delighted with the results so far. He is a different boy now…. He has improved in every aspect imaginable. His receptive language has improved immensely and his expressive language is getting better each day. We can now have a normal conversation and one which he will initiate. I am thankful for the opportunity to use this wonderful product.”
APDLimited Vocabulary
Levi
Age: 7
Location: Mississippi
Diagnosis: APD
Results
Levi has gone from an extremely limited vocabulary to verging on age-appropriate in just 6 months. His ability to follow instructions has also improved greatly.
Our Solution: Fast ForWord at Home with Oversight
Gemm Learning provides Fast ForWord software, an online speech and language intervention designed to permanently remediate near-term speech and language delays and language processing delays.
Fast ForWord was developed by four world-renowned neuroscientists using cognitive research on how the brain processes sounds and reads, and the science of brain plasticity – how the brain can change, how it can be led to higher function in tiny steps.
Fast ForWord is evidence-based. There are 300+ published research studies, 700 white papers, and research in 60 peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, it received the highest rating from the US Government’s What Works Clearinghouse.
How The Software Works
The first 2-3 months of Fast ForWord, our speech and language software, are all sound exercises – discriminating between speech sounds, sequencing, working memory exercises, and building attentiveness.
The program uses patented acoustically modified sounds that are slowed down and stretched, giving your child time to pick up every sound in the word. Once your child picks up rapid sound transitions (particularly blends like /br/), the software increases speed and complexity until they can hear the sounds within words at natural-language speed.
This provides a solid cognitive foundation for all the learning to come. The software then transitions to a focus on reading and adds text – syllables, then words, sentences, paragraphs, and thinking while reading.
How We Help Receptive Language Disorder
Our at-home receptive language disorder program is Fast ForWord software. The natural language speech rate is 25 sounds per second. Fast ForWord exercises boost language processing speed, accuracy, and overall efficiency with these primary goals:
- Listening Accuracy. Faster processing essentially slows the world down. It makes listening in class and conversation easier to keep up with.
- Phonemic Awareness. Picking out the sounds within words needed for reading is not possible without extra effort unless language processing is lightning-fast. At that point, reading can be effortless and automatic.
- Attentiveness. If listening requires concentration, it’s exhausting and leads to tuning out. Improved listening efficiency significantly improves attention stamina.
- Vocabulary, Syntax and Language Learning. If listening requires less concentration, the brain has the mental bandwidth to infer unfamiliar words, attach meaning, and observe sentence structure, helping with syntax.
- Cognitive Skills. For children with receptive language impairment, poor-quality language input hinders other language-based cognitive skills, including attentiveness and working memory.
Fast ForWord was developed as a reading program based on cognitive research showing that almost all children with reading delays had difficulty sequencing and discriminating sounds at high speed. It’s a receptive language program that improves phonemic awareness for phonics, which requires faster processing than processing whole words.
How We Help Expressive Language Delays
Fast ForWord software has been adopted nationwide by Speech and Language Pathologists as an auditory processing and speech therapy program because it works on all aspects of expressive language:
- Sound discrimination
- Phonemic awareness
- Listening comprehension
- Vocabulary
- Language structure
Improvements in these areas lead to:
- Participation in conversation. Improved processing improves receptive language skills, slows down conversation and teacher instruction, and makes participation easier.
- Vocabulary gains. Because your child can listen more accurately, more words will be absorbed and used. This applies particularly to longer words and words with blends — both of which will be easier to pick up — and words relating to intangibles that, without a concrete item to point to, were hard for a child with processing difficulties to pick up.
- Improved articulation. Improved listening will help your child hear the sounds inside words more clearly, leading to better pronunciation.
- Relating stories. Fast ForWord can eventually help children with speech delays learn how to relate a story in sequence and with detail.
If you have concerns about your child, try our demo. We’ll send a video overview and an interactive link where you can try the exercises.
“We are delighted with the results so far. He is a different boy now…. He has improved in every aspect imaginable. His receptive language has improved immensely and his expressive language is getting better each day. We can now have a normal conversation and one which he will initiate. I am thankful for the opportunity to use this wonderful product.”
Our At-Home Service
If a young child can’t get started after a few sessions, or if the slowest level is too fast, we recommend taking a break and trying again a few months later. Students work 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, on average, for 6-7 months.
We manage daily assignments remotely; students log in and start. We monitor activity daily, check in regularly, and send weekly reports. You need a computer or iPad, an Internet connection, and ear-covering headphones.
Our start process is:
- 1-on-1 consultation to make sure we can help and to answer your questions
- Baseline testing to start: a reading assessment and behavioral questionnaire
- A welcome call to help you get set up at home, and then training starts.
Long-Term Benefits Beyond Speech
Gemm Learning is a comprehensive cognitive solution that exercises and strengthens, where needed, the 40+ cognitive and language skills needed for efficient listening, learning, and reading. These learning skills are interconnected; a weakness in one area can have an outsized impact on overall learning performance.
Yes, there are speech therapy apps and other ways to address the problem in front of you right now, such as a receptive language disorder or expressive language delay. But if you recognize those delays are the first symptoms of deeper-seated skill gaps, a comprehensive treatment like ours makes more sense.
APPENDIX
Understanding the Types of Speech & Language Delays
1. Receptive Language Delays (Listening & Comprehension)
Our receptive language disorder program treats receptive language deficits as a processing issue, not a physical hearing impairment. The brain cannot process language and attach meaning fast enough (early grades) or efficiently enough to have the mental bandwidth to consider the larger meaning (later grades).
Common symptoms include:
- Not seeming to listen when spoken to, or showing a lack of interest in storybooks.
- Difficulty listening when there is background noise.
- Inability to follow verbal instructions or understand complex sentences.
- Goes quiet in fast-moving group conversations.
2. Expressive Language & Speech Delays
A speech delay (how words are pronounced) is a subset of a broader expressive language delay (how words are understood and shared).
- Articulation & Phonological Delays: Immaturities in pronouncing consonants/vowels or organizing sound patterns accurately.
- Specific Language Impairment (SLI): (sometimes called Developmental Language Disorder – DLD). A condition where expressive and receptive language development is markedly delayed, but the child is otherwise developing typically in non-verbal areas (like getting numbers or showing initiative). “Specific” refers to the fact that the delay is confined specifically to language. It’s a common issue affecting an estimated 7% of children, and it is treated with speech therapy or home-based speech and language interventions like Gemm Learning.
- Motor Speech Disorders: Conditions like Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), where the brain struggles to coordinate the muscle movements needed to speak, or Dysarthria, which is often tied to physical injuries or neurological conditions.
Speech & Language Milestones by Age
Use these markers as a general guide to gauge your child’s progress relative to their peers.
Kindergarten
Receptive: Follows simple directions; understands age-appropriate stories read aloud. Speech: Understood by most people; answers simple questions and relates brief stories.
First Grade
Receptive: Recalls information; follows 2-to-3 step instructions. Speech: Expresses ideas in sentences; stays on topic; uses reasonable grammar.
Second Grade
Receptive: Follows more complex directions; understands time-related words. Speech: Uses longer sentences; can persuade, entertain, and maintain eye contact.
Third Grade
Receptive: Listens attentively in a group or classroom setting. Speech: Able to tell stories with good detail.
Fourth & Fifth Grade
Receptive: Is able to think while listening, comparing the information to prior knowledge; begins to grasp figurative language. Speech: Is able to summarize and starts to have opinions backed by facts.
FAQ Speech & Language
Can a speech and language delay fix itself as my child gets older?
Before age 7, yes, speech delays more often than not do resolve themselves, with or without a speech therapy program. nd yes, over time, speech and language gaps do reduce as an individual is stimulated by words day after day. However, that’s not the same as resolving the underlying language processing delay that may have caused the speech issue. The concerns are:
- Lost ground while the processing glitch remained unresolved
- Concern that the underlying deficit is not fully resolved, risking reading and learning problems later.
How we help: Our receptive language disorder program targets the root causes of processing delays. It’s an intervention, not speech therapy, and uses added stimulation through repetitive drills. Fast ForWord, our speech and language software for kids, provides that language stimulation using quick-fire adaptive exercises to help remediate auditory processing delays.
How does a speech delay affect reading skills later on?
Surprisingly, fMRI scans show 98% overlap in brain activity between listening and reading. Reading is a language skill, and a speech delay is a warning sign that the cognitive skills that support language may not be properly set.
How we help: By resolving the processing glitch that caused the speech and language delays, we “clean up” word memory, so that the text now matches what is heard. That is the start of fluent reading and comprehension.
Why does my child constantly mispronounce words?
When a child regularly mispronounces words, substitutes sounds, or leaves off word endings, parents often assume a physical articulation problem. However, the root cause is usually auditory: children cannot accurately pronounce a sound they cannot accurately hear.
How we help: Our receptive language disorder program uses patented slowed speech sounds to stretch the rapid sound transitions between syllables, helping your child clearly pick out each sound. It then speeds up until your child can map sounds at natural-language speed. At that point, your child is no longer guessing. They hear every sound in every word and pronounce them accordingly, i.e., accurately.
Why can’t my child follow multi-step directions?
It is rarely deliberate behavior. Weak receptive language processing and working memory make it hard to listen accurately through the instructions or hold what is heard.
- How we help: Our speech and language intervention at home acts like an intensive workout for auditory processing speed. By making listening automatic rather than exhausting, it frees up the mental bandwidth and working memory your child needs to hold onto and complete multiple instructions at once.
Why does my child struggle to keep up with conversations?
Natural, everyday conversation moves incredibly fast—at about 40 distinct sounds per second. For a child with an underlying language processing delay, a group conversation or a fast-talking peer sounds muddy, like listening to someone speak underwater. Because they are working twice as hard just to distinguish where one word ends and the next begins, they fall behind the rhythm of the conversation, causing them to withdraw or miss the context entirely.
- How we help: Fast ForWord is an auditory processing speech therapy program that exercises train the brain to track and map sounds at higher speeds. As processing speed accelerates, the “auditory world” effectively slows down for your child, allowing them to effortlessly keep up, understand the nuances of speech, and confidently join the conversation.
How do you build phonemic awareness for a child with a speech delay?
Phonemic awareness—the ability to identify and manipulate the individual, tiny sounds (phonemes) inside a word—is difficult for children with speech delays because they cannot clearly articulate sounds they cannot accurately hear. Traditional speech therapy tries to fix this on the surface by repeating words. True phonemic awareness requires retraining the brain to hear the sharp transitions between consonant and vowel sounds at high speeds.
- How we help: Our software uses acoustically modified speech. It artificially stretches out and emphasizes the rapid sound transitions inside words so your child’s brain can finally “catch” them. As their brain maps these distinct sounds more accurately, their phonemic awareness spikes, which naturally improves both their pronunciation and their reading readiness.