Looking for information about FFW

Suzi,

The latest article out is not on FFW:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/hsn/20030722/hl_hsn/dyslexiatherapygetskidsbrainsontrack

The FFW studies came out in February and were done at Stanford. The news this week is something else.

My child would not have done 100 minutes a day of FFW at age 6. It would have been too much. I still haven’t decided whether to do it.

If you really want to hear some discussion on FFW and have access to LOTS of posts on it, go to yahoo.com, go to groups, and join the group named AuditoryProcessing. The moderator of that group is Maxine Young, a prominent APD audiologist/SLP. She has been doing FFW for a long time. I know she will tell you that your child needs to be evaluated to see if she would be a candidate for the program. But you can read lots of opinions about it on that list.

Janis

Thanks Janis….someone else had said it was FFW. So, what does it sound like this intensive reading program was? Seems like they would spell out exactly what they had done. My dad really let me have it today about how I was wasting my money at Shelton. He was really in a huff about it all. Why can’t parents just be supportive. It’s not like we made our decision about Shelton lightly. We did alot of research, talked with lots of people not connected with Shelton, have made ALOT of personal sacrifice to place her at Shelton. etc. I’ve been told it is an excellent program. I’ll look up that group. Thanks for the info.

Suzi

Suzi,

I reread that article and it just says it worked on phonological and morphological skills. They didn’t specify a particular program. But I think the brain research will bear out that any highly structured, intensive, language based reading program will results in positive brain changes. I saw the other post suggesting it was FFW, but that really came out several months ago. I just hated to post that the person was wrong. You may want to read the new book by Sally Shaywitz called “Overcoming Dyslexia”. It really sums up the latest research on dyslexia and brain research very nicely.

I think this is just a case where your parents do not understand and you may just have to agree not to talk about these issues. You have made a very proactive decision for your child. Many people wait around in hopes that the public school will come through, but that almost never happens. I think the other alternative mentioned before was to stay with public school, but to get outside tutoring in OG or Lindamood Bell. That can be expensive, too. Our parents really don’t understand our daughter’s issues either. Of course, we have not had to do anything like take her out of school yet either. I just think that generation doesn’t like to spend money! My dad is like that, too!

If I had Shelton here, I’d be very tempted to do what you have done. I think Montessori would be good for my child as well as the reading program.

Janis

Just a few ideas to add to your discussion. FFW is a program that addresses auditory processing issues. It is a very intensive program that develops various auditory skills such as phoneme discrimination, but it also has some language components. The child works 2 hours a day, five days a week for at least four weeks, but often six or eight weeks. My son went through FFW 1 and 2 and while he still had reading difficulties, it is our hope that FFW improved his auditory processing speed. FFW is not a reading program. The hope is that it will improve processing so that reading programs will be easier and more effective. I am currently providing FFW through my public school district. My students have been identified as having auditory processing delays and FFW gives them very intensive work in this area. So, if your child has had a lot of intensive lessons in decoding or other language skills, but is not making significant progress, FFW would be one way to boost the auditory processing skills that we have been told underlie reading and language. Some school districts like mine provide FFW at no charge to you. Most probably won’t come knocking at your door, so ask. Do you have FFW? Is my child eligible? I know I am happy to have parents visit and try the demos and think about how these tasks relate to their child. See if your FFW provider will let you visit. I would hope so. Perhaps seeing (trying) the exercises will help you evaluate if FFW is appropriate for your child.

Angela,

What school district do you work for in CA that provides Fast ForWord? My daughter is in LBUSD and they say they don’t provide FFW because “the research doesn’t hold up”. It would be helpful to know if there are other CA school districts that beleive in the value of this program.

Thanks,

Wileysmom

I’ve never heard of FFW as a 3 or 4 week program before. If that’s so, they’re offering a shortened version of it. I’ve had students who’ve spent months in the program. While some families think it has helped their child, as the teacher I was never convinced I saw it make a difference.

Families, including mine, approach the latest program with a great deal of hope. We hope there will be a solution out there. As the right antibiotic can cure an ear infection, we’ve come to hope for similar cures in other areas.

I think you’re quite right to be wary of this program and to doubt in its ability to produce a ‘cure’.

Remember that with every issue in life, there are many out there willing to make money from it. Learning differences are no exception. There are many who will offer us solutions and each one of them is for sale.

the old adage of ‘let the buyer beware’ can be helpful.

I work for San Diego City Schools who I believe sees FFW as one piece in a program to improve reading and language. By itself, the improvements vary, but it is not a cure and not a reading program. My old district, Bonita Unified (San Dimas and La Verne) provides FFW on a limited basis and I know that Claremont also provides some FFW. Previously many felt that the research did not support the program’s time and cost. Check their web site because there are some new studies (www.scilearn.com). We definitely use it to improve auditory processing and I do see kids work very hard at the tasks it provides. Regarding length of time 20 days (4 weeks) is the minimum and I have had kids complete the games in that time, but most take six to eight weeks. Then with improved auditory descrimination, memory…etc., we hope that our intensive, sequential decoding programs can be more effective. I would say that to do FFW without an effective reading program to follow it, is questionable. So the question for all schools is what are they doing to teach a child who can’t read. For most children the problem is too complex to be hit on only one front-until research becomes more specific, my child and yours need the best we can offer.

Angela,

Thanks so much for the information. It will helpful in dealing with my daughter’s school.

FFW was never presented to me as some kind of cure, but part of a multi-modal approach to help my daughter with her problems. She will probably be doing Lindamood-Bell, some kind of listening therapy, and social skills training.

Thanks for your help!

Wileysmom