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Sorry - I somehow mixed up my e-mail with the subject. Don’t ask me how I did that! It’s been a long, hot day here in Virginia! :-)

My son has significant reading and writing delays and he did FFW 1 & 2. I am a special education teacher and in my current job, I am administering a FFW lab. I put 60 kids through this year and have another 20 for summer school. I like what I see. The auditory tasks are varied in skill and complexity. There is a lot of auditory discrimination, but there is also auditory attention and language. You might go to their web site and read descriptions of the exercises (www. scilearn.com). Before paying for this privately, see if your school district provides FFW. Many do. Hope this helps.

Margo,

First of all, has your daughter been evaluated by an audiologist who specializes in APD to know whether she really has APD? What is her reading level? If she learns to read with Phono-Graphix (PG), you may not need FastForWord. Most people use FF because their children are not learning to read even with good phonics instruction. Even though FF has had very good results for some children, it doesn’t for others. It certainly doesn’t “cure” APD. It also requires 100 minutes a day, five days a week (I think), for six weeks to complete the program. I made the decision that I will try PG first before I spend $800 plus for an unproven program that I’m not sure my child could sit through for that long!

I may try it next year if I am not seeing good progress, however. Or I may choose Lindamood Bell instead. But regardless, you need your child evaluated by someone who could really evaluate whether FF might be helpful with her particular problems before making a decision.

Janis

Angela, I would be interested to know how your school manages for kids to be out of class for 100 minutes for 6 weeks (or more) to do FFW? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great for the school to provide it, I’m just wondering how it is managed. Do they have breaks between sessions? How are the children chosen for FFW?

Janis

All of the students have IEPs and auditory processing deficits. They have not been progressing as hoped in reading, written language and language. We are open from 8 to 5, so some students come early, some late and some in between based on child, parent and school needs. We provide transprotation. Preferably students are doing FFW then following it with Lindamood LiPS instruction on a one to one basis. Basically, this is a large public school district that is running its own clinic type program. We are a designated instructional service, like speech or OT, so children still have their home school and classes. Our plan allows students to be with us for up to two years as needed for two hours a day, five days a week. It is a tremendous relief for me to work in a district that can provide such a program. My son’s district made it so difficult to get any real help for him. I’d have given my eye-teeth for something such as this for my son. Most districts are not this size and this program would be difficult for them to manage.Still, my son’s district was part of a SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) and as five or six district combining resources they could do this.

Thank you for the feedback. I spoke with a woman at a speech and language clinic where I live and she said she wanted to give my daughter some specific language testing (now I don’t remember the name of the testing) that wouldn’t have been given by an educational pyschologist. Of course this will cost money, too. I really don’t want to put my daughter through two hours five times a week for six weeks and spend $3,000 (the price she quoted) if my daughter doesn’t need it. But the pediatrician really seems to think it would help my daughter. I’ll be interested to see what the testing shows.

She mentioned that a local university (George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia) has a grant to study older children with auditory processing difficulties and that my daughter might qualify. Then she said to qualify my daughter would have to be below the 30th percentile in reading to qualify. I’m certain my daughter is not that low. Too bad, because most of the $3,000 fee would be waved.

Margo

Janis, say your post re: LMB. My daughter has significant auditory processing delays and LMB has worked wonders. It is a well researched program and their VV is outstanding. Our LMB tutor told me that FF is good but that my daughter didn’t need it. Just FYI.

Leah,

By coincidence, I am hoping to view the LB LiPS training tapes within the next month! I know that LiPS teaches a child to read, whereas I do not think it can be proven how much FF generalizes to other things. (I know there are some who think it is outstanding; I am just not sure if it is necessary for most kids.) After I study LiPS, I’ll view the V/V training videos as well. I plan on using both with my students and hope it will be used with my child if she needs it. I know she’ll need V/V. We are trying Phono-Graphix with our daughter first, though.

Janis

Margo,

$3000 is too much! The program costs something like $850! The training kit costs about $50. I think I recall that you have to be an educator or SLP to get a license, so if you are not one of those, perhaps you can think of someone like your school speech therapist who might do the training and order the program for you (with you paying). You do the exercises at home anyway…or at least that’s how many SLP’s do it.

Language testing is ordinarily done by a speech/language pathologist (SLP) rather than an educational psychologist. So that sounds okay.

Yes, the university program sounds great…it’s terrible to be disappointed when our kids aren’t LOW enough to qualify for help, isn’t it!?

Janis

Angela,

What a fantastic set-up! I have never heard of a public school district doing something this sensible and beneficial! If only all kids had access to services like these! About the best I can do in regard to my own child is to get the SLP and LD teacher at her school trained in some of these programs. And I am doing some of the training myself. I am concentrating on Phono-Graphix, LiPS and V/V for next year. I have the training kit for FF, but I’d never be able to use the program at school as no one would pay the license fee! So I have not proceeded with FF. The others can be used with unlimited numbers of kids once I have the training and materials, so I am focusing on those.

Janis

Janis,

My daughter started LIPS and VV at the beginning of 2nd grade 2/wkly. Within 3 wks. I began to see her trying to sound out words on the back of cars (Ford) and road signs (talk about guilt - I had never noticed she couldn’t do this!) She will be beginning 4th grade in August and is at grade level for sight reading (comprehension, however, is outstanding). SHe is gifted/LD and scored in the 95% for state assessment this past year - I almost dropped my teeth! I do not believe, however, that if I had put her in spec ed and allowed the school to provide direct instruction that she would have made the gains she has made. Her word attack skills (not in context) are only about 57 - 60%. She continues LMB - I’m hoping 1 more year will give her enough and we can stop tutoring. She also did sensory integration OT which helped tremendously with motor planning, handwriting and visual processing.

Leah,

That’s very encouraging to hear! I always recommend on here that parents seek outside help rather than depending on schools. Angela (above) is in a VERY rare situation to be in a district offering LiPS and FF. As a matter of fact, you were fortunate to find a LB tutor. Hopefully over time, more people will be trained and tutors will be more plentiful.

Janis

Leah,
Sounds like my daughter, now a rising junior in high school.

She tested last time gifted-ld, 92% overall. Reading was then, three years ago, one level below grade level. Dictation was third grade and she was a rising freshman. She’s now only appearing less than a year behind (whew!!). She was two years behind in elementary - middle school.

She sounds like your daughter, in that she still has trouble with word attack. That’s where I think FF would help, but I’m also reluctant to take the $850 plunge. Anyone have any other suggestions for a 16 year old? All greatly appreciated.

She is on monitor in school, with one resource block every other day to help her study, finish tests is she didn’t in class (time extension accomodation) and make up work (she also suffers from migraines).

I’m a teacher and have team taught reading remediation with the reading specialist (I was her assistant, since we incorporated Ganske into my communications curriculum for a couple years, then in isolation the last year). I picked up a lot from her and also had her tutor my daughter for three summers. She now has a baby and can’t tutor, so I’ve just been reading with my daughter and she reads mysteries along side me.

She’s college bound and I’m worried that she’s going to stagnate. Where do I go from here?

Cindy

Cindy,

Has your daughter had LB tutoring? I think both your daughters are fortunate in that they have the giftedness to compensate. My daughter has good visual-spatial skills, but just a high average IQ. So that is what worries me.

Janis

My daughter had great success with Lindamood and FFW. I think the FFW helped her with 2nd language couses, but if I had to pick between the 2, I think Lindamood is the better choice. It is excellent for those kids that see the 1st letter and then try to guess the word. My daughter’s word attack skills went from grade 2 to 15 on the Woodcock in 6 months.

If you call the local branch of Freemasonry in your area, they can direct you to nearest Scottish Rites clinic (which provide Speech and Language services), often on a sliding scale. The one in my area does offer FF. You can probably also find sites by typing “Scottish Rites” in your favorite search engine.

Here’s the Scottish Rite link:

http://www.mn-mason.org/language.html

Janis