Fast ForWord from Scientific Learning Receives Second Consecutive Readers’ Choice Award

Online intervention uses the principles of neuroplasticity to make fast and enduring progress with struggling students and English language learners

Oakland, Calif. — Dec. 8, 2015 — The Fast ForWord® program from Scientific Learning Corp (www.sparklearning.in) has been named a Readers’ Choice Top Product by District Administration magazine for the second year in a row. 

Fast ForWord uses the principles of neuroplasticity — the ability of the brain to rewire and improve — to target the root causes of slow academic progress in struggling students and English language learners.

Winners of the Readers’ Choice Top Products were selected from more than 2,100 nominations received from District Administration readers over the past year. The annual awards program informs K-12 school superintendents and other senior school district leaders about products their colleagues around the country are using to help their districts excel in areas such as technology, instruction and assessment.

“The Fast ForWord program has been lauded for its validity and effectiveness, and indeed, it’s the What Works Clearinghouse’s top ranking English language development intervention. However, it is doubly rewarding to us to know that administrators and school leaders recognize how valuable Fast ForWord is in helping address the root causes of students’ difficulties,” said Robert C. Bowen, CEO of Scientific Learning Corp. “We are grateful to District Administration and its readers for this award.”

The Fast ForWord program was developed by neuroscientists to address reading skills while concurrently developing memory, attention, processing and sequencing skills. Students who use the program make fast progress, producing significant changes in academic results in as little as six weeks. They continue to make gains long after finishing the program.

“Maintaining a high level of achievement is difficult,” said Dr. Vickie Reed, superintendent of Murray County Public Schools in Chatsworth, Georgia. “We use Fast ForWord not only to address the needs of struggling readers, but to support all students to help them meet and exceed the standards in reading. In our own research, we see a strong correlation between students’ use of the Fast ForWord program and improved performance on state tests.”

For more information, visit www.sparklearning.in.

How Do ADD, Dyslexia, and Auditory Processing Disorder Overlap? - Lynn Gover

Key Points:

• Children who are perceived as not paying attention or not trying may actually be tuning out because they are having trouble understanding the words they hear.
• Children with a family history of dyslexia also have more difficulty with auditory processing.
• The parts of the brain that handle sensory input develop earlier than those responsible for focus and attention.
• Early intervention to improve auditory processing can have a significant positive impact on a child’s learning.

The following is a summary of Dr. Marty Burns' webinar “How Do ADD, Dyslexia, and Auditory Processing Disorder Overlap?”. Read below for the key takeaways.

The rise in diagnoses of ADD and ADHD in children over the last couple of decades has been a great cause of concern and controversy for parents and scientists alike. But new research suggests that for many of these children, the symptoms may actually indicate a more fundamental problem with understanding and processing speech.

While attention is closely related to sensory and language processing, they begin in different parts of the brain. Attention is mainly controlled by the frontal lobe, responsible for many of our higher cognitive functions such as planning and organization. This brain region develops slowly, only reaching maturity in the late 20s. And as we might expect, both children and adults with attention deficit disorders show lower levels of frontal lobe activity.

Our sensory processing, however, is concentrated among three lobes in the back of the brain, with an area called the angular gyrus integrating their audio, visual, and spatial information. These brain regions, which develop at a much earlier age, play a major role in language acquisition. And one of the crucial elements is learning to recognize the internal details of words, so that we can distinguish ‘bad’ from ‘pad’ or ‘moon’ from ‘noon’. By hearing speech in one’s native language, our brain eventually builds a map of all the sounds in that language – sounds that we then learn to reproduce and to associate with visual symbols.

Auditory processing disorders occur when there has been some impediment to the development of this mental sound map, making it difficult for children to distinguish units of speech. It’s important to note that this is a distinct problem from hearing impairment, as the problem is not with hearing the sounds, but with understanding them. However, hearing obstruction due to a prolonged ear infection or a cold can lead to auditory processing disorders by disrupting a critical learning period. And such disorders may have a genetic aspect as well. Children with a family history of dyslexia, previously thought to affect only higher levels of language learning, also show lower activity in sensory regions of the brain and difficulty with speech processing even before they learn to read.

Although attention is localized in the frontal lobe, it relies on the sensory networks developed in other brain regions. And this is where attention problems and auditory processing problems overlap. Attention involves learning to sort through all the sensory data around you and pick out what’s relevant. But you can’t recognize something as relevant until it’s part of your knowledge base. So it’s hard to pay attention to speech when you’re having trouble distinguishing its sounds from one another, or from other sounds in the environment.

The result is that children with auditory processing disorders may exhibit symptoms similar to those of attention deficit disorders, such as being easily distracted, not engaging in class, or not following directions. Teachers may perceive them as not trying, not paying attention, or being disruptive when in fact what’s happening is that they try to pay attention but can’t follow what’s being said and eventually give up. Such children may also receive a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, with treatments that fail to address the underlying issues.

The good news, however, is that Fast ForWord provides targeted exercises designed by neuroscientists to remedy auditory processing disorders, which have also proven effective in addressing overlapping problems with attention and language processing.

Parent Checklist: Is My Child At-Risk for Learning Issues? - Kristina Collins

We developed the following parent checklist to learn what concerns parents see in their children and to help them decide if their child is in need of help. Choose one answer for each question and indicate how often the behavior is exhibited in your child’s daily life with the following options: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often,or Always.

• Misunderstands what you say
• Needs instructions repeated
• Misunderstands jokes
• Has difficulty understanding long sentences
• Needs questions repeated
• Has difficulty retelling a story in the right order
• Cannot finish long sentences
• Has trouble saying the same thing in a different way (rephrasing)
• Has trouble finding the right word
• Pronounces common words incorrectly
• Gets confused in noisy places
• Has difficulty engaging in conversation with others
• Has behavior problems
• Lacks self-confidence
• Avoids group activities
• Has trouble paying attention
• Has trouble sounding out words
• Has trouble reading
• Has trouble spelling
• Cannot tell you about the events of his/her school day

If you answered Sometimes, Often or Always to several of these, your child may be at-risk for a language-based learning disability and will likely require intervention to prevent these issues from affecting him/her academically in the future.

We hear from countless parents like you who are looking for help for their bright child who struggles with reading, writing, attention, or other issues. You’re in the right place. We can help you help your child.

New Study Suggests Fidgeting Helps Students With ADHD Learn - Cory Armes, M.Ed.

Key Points:

• Fidgeting may help students with ADHD concentrate on complex learning tasks.
• Allowing students to fidget and move during class can help improve academic performance.
• Try creating a "Jumping Corner" in the back of the classroom for students who need to move while learning.

ADHD: The Most Common Behavioral Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioral disorder diagnosed in children. Common signs include restlessness, continual talking and inability to concentrate and pay attention. About 11 percent of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, with 1 in 3 having received treatment with medication and behavioral therapy. Some of these students end up falling behind their peers academically.

New Insight Into Hyperactivity

A new study published in The Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology suggests that hyperactivity may actually help students overcome their attention problems. Common hyperactive behaviors like running, jumping, rolling on the floor and continual talking are typically viewed as a disruptive problem that should be treated in addition to the attention problems. New research shows these behaviors aren't always present; instead, they are displayed when students are asked to complete tasks involving the executive functioning centers of the brain.

Researchers found that when students with ADHD were asked to perform a task that involved working memory and organization, those who were allowed to move or fidget did significantly better than those who were asked to keep still. Conversely, children without ADHD did better when sitting still, but worse when moving around.

These findings suggest that students with ADHD actually need their gross motor movements to help them complete challenging intellectual tasks. Rather than being part of the problem, it's likely that hyperactive behaviors help these students stay focused and attend to the task at hand. Researchers describe "excess motor activity as a compensatory mechanism that facilitates neurocognitive functioning in children with ADHD." This means that hyperactivity may be a feature to encourage rather than a bug to fix.

Translating Research Into Effective Teaching

Because traditional classroom management programs seek to reduce or eliminate disruptive behavior, these findings require some new thinking about how to effectively teach students with ADHD. It's a major challenge to maintain a learning environment that respects the needs of traditional learners who thrive in quiet, orderly spaces while allowing students with ADHD the freedom to move. Student safety is also important, so it's crucial for teachers to create a classroom with designated times and spaces for movement. Some strategies for teachers to employ in the classroom include:

• Allowing students to keep a fidget toy in their desks is a small start. Students can take the toy out when they feel like interrupting or jumping up. This can be a ball to squeeze or another toy with interesting tactile properties to keep them physically engaged so they can pay attention.
• Designating a corner of the classroom as an "Activity Zone" or a "Jumping Corner" creates a place where students can retreat when they feel the need to move around. This area is ideally placed in the back of the room where other students will not be distracted, but will allow clear sight lines to the teacher so the student can continue to follow the lesson.
•  A yoga ball chair or therapy bands tied to chair legs can help students with ADHD bounce and move without leaving their seats. This is especially effective during tests or writing sessions that require quiet thinking and movement at the same time.

As more research indicates that hyperactive behavior helps students with ADHD overcome concentration struggles to master complex material, it's more important than ever for teachers to find creative ways that support these students within their comfort zones. Allowing students to fidget in a controlled, respectful way can improve academic performance and create a classroom environment that is more comfortable for all learners.

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