Fast ForWord question ~ Almost finished!

I don’t know FFW but here is general advice on teaching: continue practicing the skills that have been mastered for the overlearning effect (learn until they are second nature and will never be forgotten.) However you reduce and space out the practice of the mastered work. You might reduce the mastered games to once or twice weekly eacy, and use the extra time to work more on the ones that are still in the learning phase.

And besides, if you are always doing the stuff that is hard, you tend to get this idea that you’re not very good at anything. We really underestimate the effect that “always struggling” has on the psyche. It’s an awful lot of fun to be getting thigns right.
(If the program is so monotonous that this isn’t true, then ignore that idea.)

I don’t think FFW has been a big struggle for my son, except that it’s time consuming and ultimately a little boring. I do think it may be getting monotonous. For the later part of last week I let him just do the 2 games (which he’s VERY relieved about!). With one he’s starting to do quite well. His scores on Treasure Tomb have increased from 300 to 500 while Polar Cop remains betwwen 200-300 (actually highest score so far with this game was two days ago at 370 and then the next day he was back down to 322).

It’s kind of interesting because Polar Cop is the only one he has consistently scored low on. Maybe this means something. I need to figure that out.

Thanks for the replies! With many things my son definitely needs extra intensive overlearning.

I like all of the suggestions you’ve been given. You could play the high games occasionally. Treasures in the Tomb is a good one to stay with as he will actually find the treasure, score 100% and be finished with the game, unable to play it any more. Polar Cop just moves very slowly. If you could see the print-outs (daily report) that I see, you will see that there may be less than 100 trials in the course of a game as opposed to 300-400 for other games. Since the student has fewer chances in Polar Cop it just takes longer to get the percent up. One thing about dropping the games for a kid who is really bored is that poor performance can make a score go down. I didn’t see it as much with Language to Reading, but in Language a bad (inattentive) day could drop a percent 30 points. I can access a line graph (grpah /history) that shows the ups and downs of a child’s score. Sometimes if we overstay our playing of a game the score drops below 80% and never recoops. Then it looks as if the child did not meet the final completion requirements. Fast ForWord like a child to cross train, just as you or I would at the gym. We wouldn’t stop working our arms as soon as the flab was firm (personal concern!!). We would continue to exercise our strong areas and our weak ones. I have had some kids who could just play all the games every day, but most needed to see that their hard work had payed off and their session was getting shorter.

Thanks Angela, I know you’re very knowledgable about FFW.

I like the idea of changing it slightly (adding higher scoring games on a rotation to reduce boredom, and keep up motivation). My son overall seems to be doing well with this program and consistently scoring high on most of the games. In some ways it has been more challenging than Language was. Although one nice thing about Language is it does roatate games.

It seems to me that both Treasures in the Tomb and Polar Cop work quite a bit on visual skills (more so than some of the other games). Do you agree?

At what point do you generally notice kids benefiting from FFW? I’ve noticed some subtle changes, but since we started Lexapro (an SSRI) this summer and I’ve used some supplements (like DMG), it’s hard to know exactly what’s helping (although I’m not sure if Lexapro is doing anything!).

Yes, TT and PC add the visual and now the child is recognizing the sounds they have been listening to. I’m glad your son did well in Fast ForWord. It is hard to know just how you’ll see results, but you’ll have to agree it is a very intensive auditory processing workout. Therefore, I think it is a good program to do. It was a good choice to do it during summer, so it was not included in the school year work load.