New answers for learning difficulties

An educational programme designed to rewire the human brain for better learning is improving the lives of thousands of Australian and NZ school children struggling with learning difficulties, including Dyslexia, Autism, Auditory Processing Disorders, ADHD and other language disorders.

Fast ForWord is a learning programme based on 35 years of neuroscience* research into the principle that the brain is plastic, with the ability to change and adapt.

Children with learning difficulties are given the tools to rewire their brains to become more efficient at learning.

With one in eight Australian school children at risk of learning difficulties by the time they start school**, Fast ForWord is providing the answer for thousands of children who are benefiting from improved memory, attention and reading abilities as a result of being involved in the programme.

Introduced into Australia and NZ by LearnFast, an organisation based in Lindfield on Sydney’s North Shore, the Fast ForWord programme has grown rapidly from a few hundred students in 2007 to over 4,000 students today. The programme is now being used in more than 70 public and private schools throughout Australia.

In addition, Fast ForWord is an approved intervention for the Australian Government’s Helping Children with Autism Package, a commitment of more than $190 million over four years designed to help autistic children access mainstream education.

The package includes funding the full cost of Fast ForWord for parents with children aged under seven years as part of their early intervention programme.

Internationally renowned US language and learning expert Dr Martha Burns will visit Australia and NZ in March to speak at a series of educational seminars titled Building Brains for Learning. She will reveal the latest insights on how we can rewire the brain to optimise cognitive abilities and learning.

“Every time we learn new things, the brain changes and forms new connections,” Dr Burns said.

“Reading is a relatively new human skill, dependent on brain capacities that evolved for other survival purposes. Whether it is a child learning to read or an adult mastering a new iPod, the brain adapts to cater for this need. This ability is known as brain neuroplasticity, while the speed with which we process the new information is known as brain efficiency.

“The exciting news is that computer-based programmes have now been developed which can increase brain capacity and efficiency at any age, and with remarkable results.

“Fast ForWord is specifically aimed at school students struggling to read and is proving to be the vital link between students whose brains do not efficiently process school work and students who excel in the classroom.”

Fast ForWord is a series of computer ‘games’ which build new connections in children’s brains, making learning easier and faster. The programme evolved from the work of US research scientists at the University of California and Rutgers University who found the core cognitive and linguistic attributes that define a student’s ability in the classroom (memory, attention, processing and sequencing) could be successfully improved.

By using acoustically-modified speech technology in an interactive computer programme, students can build a wide range of critical language and reading skills such as phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, decoding, syntax, grammar, and other skills that had previously been inaccessible to them.

LearnFast director and speech pathologist Devon Barnes said Fast ForWord automates and strengthens the brain in the same way an athlete builds muscle memory – through repetition.
“Students in the Fast ForWord programme are provided with a daily computer program which stretches the brain by prompting the student to answer hundreds of increasingly difficult exercises in quick succession,” Ms Barnes said.

“The programme uses scientifically-based neuroscience principles and has been clinically proven to get results (see research findings in accompanying document).

“Fast ForWord can significantly improve both reading and learning in children because it strengthens both cognitive skills and fundamental reading and language skills.”

Dr Martha Burns will be a guest speaker at a key educational seminar series, Building Brains for Learning: It’s all in the Connections to be held in Sydney on 8th March, Melbourne on 10th March and Auckland NZ on 12th March.

Dr Burns will address the implications of new neurological and literacy research and how both parents and educators can help children with learning difficulties achieve much better results.

For further information on the seminars, please visit www.fastforWORD.com.au/seminars2010

*    Neuroscience is a scientific discipline that includes a range of areas that explore, among other things, how the human brain learns and what factors affect that learning.

**    Australian Early Development Index released 2009 (http://www.smh.com.au/national/one-in-eight-at-risk-of-learning-difficulties-social-problems-by-school-age-20091209-kk3h.html)