Fast Forward

It is designed for children with auditory processing problems. It does not teach reading. It is no magic bullet. My son did it at age 7 and at age 9 still does not read on grade level.

We found that afterwards he could hear sounds correctly—and that his receptive language skills were normal. He could follow multi step directions for the first time in his life.

Beth

Please be alert to the “test re-test” policy of some of these providers. They may tout tremendous growth, academic progress of numerous grade levels and increased time-on-task.
It has been statistically proven that if you test/re-test a child with the same measure anywhere closer than 1 year apart, you cannot tease out that the child is “learning” the test-not the skill you test for.
Personally, I think if you do anything for 3 hrs a day, 5 -7 days a week you’re gonna get “good” at it.
Be cautious. This program is NOT for everyone- although when the provider is looking at $,they may say it is!

I paid $100 dollars for fast forward. It was presented to me as an extra curricular program for children who had auditory processing problems. Since my daughter is AI, I thought we would try it. Can’t say I saw much difference, but she really liked it.

I’d have to say I’m a fan of this program, though it is not for everyone, can be torture to get through with your own child, and is expensive. In my case, I trust the post-test results because independent measures (CTOPP) etc. were used by an audiologist who is also a FFWD program provider.

The immediate gains I saw were: increased verbalizing (ex. during play with action figures, previously absent), less tuning out/shutting down during class time reported by his teachers, increased confidence and the ability to focus and contribute during group work (previously he’d shut down because of auditory overload).

Most recently we’ve seen changes that the audiologist might attribute to the pgm. (She said changes would continue to appear in the 6-8 mos. after completion.) However, it’s hard to say for sure. Since May when we finished the pgm. and now, his Slosson Oral Reading went from Gr. 3.8 (at grade level) to Gr. 6.8. Morrison-McCall spelling from Gr. 3.1 to Gr. 5.1. This is fairly dramatic, I think. Recently he amazed me by looking forward to doing a class presentation to his afternoon (mainstream) gr. 4 class—last year he would do oral only for his SLD teacher and small a.m. class and only with a LOT of coaxing. Lastly, in the last four weeks he has also amazed me by reading three, above grade level chapter books at home completely independently.

While FFWD does not directly address reading, it lays down foundation skills that make gains possible. Where it is warranted, it gets my vote.