Study Proves Fast ForWord Effective for Dyslexia

Did you know that dyslexia affect 5 to 10 percent of Americans? We’re talking about a disorder that specifically causes difficulty in reading that directly interferes with our children’s academic progress and school success. It has nothing to do with a lack of educational opportunities, personal motivation or problems in sight or sound – it has to do with the brain.

In this web article that I’d like to share today, researchers discover that brains of dyslexia children can be rewired after undergoing intensive remediation training, using programs such as Fast ForWord, Interactive Metronome, and Wilson Reading System – which are all offered at Learn 2 Focus.

The following study centered on the use of Fast ForWord.  It included 20 dyslexic children aged 8 to 12 years. Their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at Stanford's Lucas Center for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy before and after participating in the eight-week training program. A control group of 12 children with normal reading abilities also underwent a functional MRI study.

Both the dyslexic children and the control group were asked to perform a simple rhyming task while having their brains scanned. During the rhyming exercise, children with normal reading showed activity in both the language-critical left frontal and temporal regions of the brain, the latter of which is behind and above the left ear. Dyslexics, however, struggled with the task and failed to activate the temporal region, and showed some activity only in the frontal brain area.

Afterward, the dyslexic children used Fast ForWord for 100 minutes a day, five days a week, as part of their regular school day. The result? The dyslexic children's scores went up in a number of language and reading tests, proving the effectiveness of the training program!

So why is this important? Professor John Gabrieli, one of the study authors, said:

"This is showing us for the first time the specific changes in the brains of children receiving this sort of treatment, and how that is coupled with the improvement they have in reading and language ability," he said. "We're hoping that this becomes an additional tool to understand how educational remediation programs alter children's abilities, as they must do, by changing the way their brains process information."

If you’re interested in learning more about Fast ForWord and how it might be beneficial to include in your child’s training, give me a call or shoot me an email! I’d be happy to share my own experiences working with it, and discuss how it could help your child overcome dyslexia.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/remediation-training-improves-reading-ability-dyslexic-children?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohsq7JZKXonjHpfsX56ukoW66%2FlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4JTcFmI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFSbPNMatv3rgFWBU%3D