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Showing posts with tag academic problems Show all posts >
Fast ForWord® Language Series Has Greatest Impact of Any Intervention Listed by NCRTI
- September 22, 2011 by Norene Wiesen
Educators and families who are looking for appropriate learning interventions for students often turn to The Instructional Intervention Tools Chart from the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCRTI). Now, the Fast ForWord® Language series has been added to the chart, with the NCRTI evaluations of research on the series supporting the claim that the products have high-quality studies, demonstrating their effectiveness when used for Response to Intervention (RtI).
The effectiveness of the Fast ForWord Language series is evident from the “effect size” found by the NCRTI. Effect size is a statistical way to measure the magnitude of the effect of an intervention. Of the three studies on the Fast ForWord Language series that have been evaluated by the NCRTI, one showed a medium effect size and the other two showed a large effect size. In fact, two of the three Scientific Learning studies were ranked as having the highest scores in effect size, showing that the Fast ForWord Language Series had the greatest impact and the largest positive effect of any intervention listed by the NCRTI. These evaluations of research on the Fast ForWord Language series validate the quality of the studies behind the products, demonstrating their effectiveness when used for RtI.
The impact identified in the NCRTI evaluations holds up in real-world implementations, as well. For example, one district used the Fast ForWord program as its only intervention for kindergarteners during the 2009-2010 school year, to see what kind of difference the program could make when used as the sole intervention for participating students. Westerly Public Schools in southern Rhode Island identified kindergarten students who scored at the deficient or very deficient levels in letter sound fluency and letter naming fluency on the AIMSweb benchmark, and placed these students into the Fast ForWord program, with no other interventions.
After using the Fast ForWord program, test scores for the participating students rose substantially, and many were able to move off of the personal literacy plans they had been placed on as struggling elementary students. Because only the Fast ForWord program was used, the district was able to determine that these effects were due to the students’ participation in the program. And because the students didn’t need as many interventions, the district also saved money.
The NCRTI is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The center partners with researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Kansas to build the capacity of states to assist districts in implementing proven models for RTI.
Visit http://rti4success.org/instructionTools to see Scientific Learning’s listings on the NCRTI’s “Instructional Intervention Tools Chart.”
Watch the video on “effect size” and the NCRTI evaluation of the Fast ForWord Language series products.
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Related Reading:
Results from a “Gold Standard Study” Show Significant Student Gains in Language and Literacy Skills
Intensive Intervention Tier 3: What Leads to the Need?
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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research
Jolene’s Story: “I Saw Tremendous Change”
- July 19, 2011 by Norene Wiesen
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We regularly hear from our customers that Scientific Learning employees are tremendously passionate and committed. For many employees, that passion comes from having family members who have experienced dramatic improvements after using our products. We thought it might be nice to share some of those stories with you, and today’s post is the first in a series aimed at doing just that.
Jolene’s Story:
“Hi. I’m Jolene. I’ve been a Progress Monitor with the company about two years. When I first heard about Fast ForWord it was actually when I looked at a job posting and I looked into the company a little bit.
It was an interesting timeframe. I kind of looked at it when I got the job as a Godsend, because I have two twin boys myself and a little girl and they were behind in their reading tremendously so that we had ended up having to hold them back for third grade and they had to repeat.
I took the software home and I had them go through Fast ForWord Language v2 first. And I did all the facilitating and the monitoring just as I was doing with the teachers so it worked out very well. I saw tremendous change.
The boys are at reading level now; they were a year-and–a-half behind. So, it brings tears to my eyes to think that I was very fortunate to get this job so that I can not only make a difference with everyone else, but see success in my own family.
And continued success because I’m going to be using it with my little girl, too. Thank you for letting me share. “
Related Reading:
Fast ForWord Featured on ABC 7 News
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Categories: Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
Calculating a Response to Dyscalculia: What to Do When Your Child is “Number Blind”
- June 23, 2011 by Cory Armes
Do you know any children or adults who struggle with math? Perhaps they have difficulty with basic math skills and seem unable to understand what math process to use with which problem. Maybe they are unable to organize objects in a logical way or have difficulty with measurement of either time or money. If you know people with these types of struggles, they may have dyscalculia.
Dyscalculia, also called “number blindness” or “numerical blindness,” is a learning disability that inhibits a person's ability to use and have a proper sense of numbers. Literally meaning “bad counting,” dyscalculia is estimated to impact three to six percent of the population so is just as prevalent as dyslexia but often goes undiagnosed since those with this disability often excel in reading and other subject areas.
Many people believe that math can be a difficult subject to teach or that some students just don’t “get it”. But for those who truly have dyscalculia, it is not about how the subject is taught; it is a lack of number sense. Two main areas of weakness may contribute to this learning disability: visual-spatial issues and language processing difficulties. With visual-spatial weaknesses, the learner has a problem processing what the eye sees so he or she may have difficulty visualizing patterns or parts of a math problem. Making sense of what the ear hears is the issue with language processing weakness which leads to a hard time grasping math vocabulary and building on math knowledge since there is a difficulty in understanding what the words represent.
Identification of any learning disability requires a trained professional who can evaluate a student to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses in learning. An in-depth assessment compares what the student’s expected level of performance is to what he or she actually can do in areas of mathematical skill and understanding. It also is helpful for at least an overview of this information to be shared with the student (especially the strengths) since knowing how you learn best is a good way to help students learn to compensate for difficulties and to build academic success and confidence.
So what can be done for those who have dyscalculia? The first step is for parents, teachers and other educational specialists to use the evaluation results to develop strategies to address the student’s math skills. Some will benefit from additional tutoring that adjusts the learning pace and focuses on specific areas of difficulty with repeated reinforcement of key skills. For those with visual-spatial weaknesses, using graph paper can be helpful for organizing ideas and for those with language processing issues, clear explanations and frequent checks for understanding are important. And, as with most students with learning disabilities, having all of the needed materials and working in a place with limited distractions is always a good idea!
As with any learning disability, the earlier that the dyscalculia can be identified and remediated, the greater the chance that your child will stay on track or stay motivated to catch up. Talking with your child’s teacher is the best place to start so make that call or, if the teacher has contacted you, be open to their concerns. As your child’s advocate, you can help make the difference in gaining access to the right resources to help your child work through learning challenges and achieve academic success.
Want more information on dyscalculia? Here are some online resources:
Number Blindness – More Common that Dyslexia
Related Reading:
What is Number Sense and How Does it Relate to Math Skills?
Do Teachers Give Students Math Anxiety?
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Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus, Reading & Learning
Our Changing Education Landscape: Cutting-edge Research and Strategies for Today’s Educators
- March 15, 2011 by Norene Wiesen
Where is K-12 education headed? What might the future look like for educators and students? Join us for a free webinar and get the answers with Dr. Willard R. Daggett, Friday, March 18, at 10am Pacific. A nationally acclaimed education expert, Daggett will discuss cutting-edge research and strategies to address today’s education challenges, improve teaching and accelerate learning for all students.
What are the real challenges facing schools today? How can we effectively and intelligently address student performance, leadership, finances, and the use of technology? Learn how K-12 educators can work to proactively address these issues in today’s accountability-driven climate.
Daggett is the CEO of the International Center for Leadership in Education, and author of numerous books, articles and studies about learning and education. He brings a comprehensive expertise in moving education systems toward more rigorous, relevant skills and knowledge for all students.
Join us for this free learning session! Register now for “Our Changing Education Landscape” with Willard Daggett—and visit the Scientific Learning webinars page to learn about other events about brain fitness and accelerating learning.
Related Reading:
The Technological Lives of Today’s Students
Creating the Optimal “Internal” Learning Environment
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning
Adult and Family literacy in the US; limitations to our Nation’s success
- February 3, 2011 by Corey Fitzgerald
“Some people there are who, being grown; forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child.” –John Steinbeck
But what about those who fail to become literate through traditional schooling? Low literacy continues to be a persistent problem among adults in the United States. Results from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), available through the National Center for Education Statistics, found that 30 million adults have “below basic” literacy skills, with more than half of those scoring at this level not having a high school diploma or GED. This translates to nearly 1 out of every 6 adults, age 25 and older, across the country. This crisis has resulted in the following: (findings from the Report of the National Commission on Adult Literacy)
- U.S. Scores Poorly Internationally. The U.S. is the only country among 30 OECD free-market countries where the current generation is less well educated than the previous one.
- High School Dropout Rates Are Staggering. Every year, one in three young adults—more than 1.2 million people—drop out of high school.
- Low Parent Learning Affects Children. One in four U.S. working families is low-income, and one in five children lives in poverty. Parents and caregivers in many of these households lack the education and skills to earn a family-sustaining wage.
- Low Literacy in Burgeoning Prison Population. One in every 100 U.S. adults 16 and older is in prison or jail in America. About 43 percent do not have a high school diploma or equivalent, and 56 percent have very low literacy skills.
- Large and Growing English Language and Literacy Need. About 2 million immigrants come to the U.S. each year seeking jobs and better lives—the promise of America. About 50 percent of them have low literacy levels and lack high school education and English language skills, severely limiting their access to jobs and job training, college, and citizenship.
Yet despite the challenges, there is an incentive to overcome these obstructions. A better educated more literate population will improve our standard of living and offer benefits in the following ways:
- Higher rates of employment and better jobs
- Increases in personal income and individual economic well being
- Increases in voter participation, volunteerism and civic engagement
- Better health and more effective healthcare
- A greater fiscal contribution to our economy at all government levels
And at the very heart of this is you, an influential role model and innovator whose evidence-based approach to education will boost our country back into a position of global leadership; because effective education is the best investment we can make!
Related Reading:
The 30 Million Word Gap in Language Experience Puts Kids At Risk
HABLA Program Helps Disadvantaged Early Learners Lay Foundations for Success
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus
Why Do Boys Fail?
- January 11, 2011 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.
So, why do boys fail? A great many teachers, school board members, district administrators and researchers have considered the implications of this question. As a scientist, a researcher, a business leader, and yes, as a man, the question both fascinates and disturbs me for any number of reasons, so I’d like to take a minute to talk about the question and its implications. Why do boys fail? Why indeed.
This question tells us point blank that boys are failing. But behind every question that starts with “why” there lies an assumed truth. When a child asks, “Why is the sky blue?” that question is based on the observation that, most certainly, the sky is blue. When someone--no matter how well informed--asks why our nation’s boys are failing, the underlying assumed truth is that yes, our boys are failing.
But are they?
According to Sara Mead and her 2006 survey of the applicable research, the issue is not necessarily that boys are failing. In fact, performance among males has been on the rise in recent years. Still, the achievement gap between males and females is also becoming more pronounced because performance among females is going up faster than their male counterparts.
So, what are the facts in regards to the performance of the boys? As an example, let’s look at the trend of boys’ performance in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that Mead references in her article:
- On the most recent NAEP administered in 2008, fourth grade boys did better in reading than on the previous two comparable assessments.
- Long term data suggests that 9-year-old boys fared better on the 2004 and 2008 reading assessments than ever before, dating back to the first administering of the test in 1971.
- Since 1971, reading performance among 13-year-olds remained stable, while among 17-year-olds performance had been declining through the 1990s. But, the most recent 2008 results show scores for both age groups are back on the rise.
It should be noted that performance for minority boys is “shockingly low” (Mead’s words) as compared to Caucasians, but, from 1995 to 2005, African American boys improved more than Caucasian and Hispanic boys or girls of any ethnicity.
But what does achievement look like when we compare the boys and the girls?
- Girls tend to outperform boys in reading.
- Boys tend to outperform girls in science and math.
- There has been no significant overall decline in the academic performance of boys relative to girls.
Overall, the picture of performance as snapshots as well as in trends over time paint an extremely complex picture, and the data can be creatively compiled to support any number of agendas.
The question itself, “Why do boys fail?” can be used to criticize educators and practices. It can be used to make a statement about the educational system. It can be used to cause shock, create fear for our nations’ future, or inspire us to action.
No matter how you interpret the question, I suggest that we all simply become as knowledgeable as possible of the facts, and use that understanding and inspiration--whether that drive is based in shock, fear or hope--to continue to improve teaching and our educational systems. Because in the end, our goal is that none should fail.
Here are a few resources to spur your understanding:
- Sara Mead, The Evidence Suggests Otherwise: The Truth About Boys and Girls (2006)
- Richard Whitmire, Why Boys Fail, Education Week Blog
- NEAP: The Nation’s Report Card
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1 Marianne Perie, Wendy S. Grigg, and Patricia L. Donahue, The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2005 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. 2005).
2 Rampey, B.D., Dion, G.S., and Donahue, P.L. (2009). NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress (NCES 2009–479). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.
3 M. Perie, R. Moran, and A.D. Lutkus, NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Achievement in Reading and Mathematics (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2005).
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Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus, Reading & Learning
Learning Difficulties in Children
- December 28, 2010 by Terri Zezula
Today, you are nine years old and in the third grade. You enjoy playing on the monkey bars at recess and drawing pictures of your dog and your fish. You also like watermelon hard candies, mac and cheese, and, to your friends’ bewilderment, you have an affinity for tuna fish sandwiches, especially when your mom has mixed crunchy celery in with the tuna.
But also unlike your friends, you have often felt that school seems harder than it should be. For some inexplicable reason, you tend to make more mistakes than your classmates. You have a hard time grasping math concepts that they seem to get easily. You don’t remember geography facts as well as they do. And because of those difficulties, you feel different and separate from those around you. You feel incapable. You feel like a failure. And because of it, you feel angry, sad and alone.
While this is a simplistic snapshot of the thoughts typical of children with learning difficulties, such an exercise reminds us of two things: the magic of being young, and the loneliness and frustration of a youngster who lives with these challenges.
According to the Child Development Institute, six to ten percent of school-aged kids in the US are learning disabled. The causes of learning disabilities vary from genetics to nutrition to pre-birth and early childhood injury, and the challenges that children with learning difficulties experience tend to fall into five different areas: spoken language, written language, math, reasoning and memory. They may simply work slowly. They may have disorganized thinking. They may have difficulty in sequencing tasks. They may have poor impulse control. They many experience these difficulties in any number of combinations and groupings.
All children have problems. They all experience challenges with school and in social relationships. But when these problems begin to appear in combinations and clusters, or if they persist for long periods, we as educators must take a close look and ask ourselves whether the student’s challenges fall within normal ranges, or whether they should be evaluated in more detail.
If an evaluation comes back with an indication that a student has a learning difficulty, it is absolutely essential for educators and parents to team up and support that student in every way possible. If an IEP (individualized education plan) is in order, everyone needs to be informed and on board to support the student’s new path.
What exactly can we do for these children to boost their self-esteem? Writing for the Learning Disabilities Association of Illinois, clinical psychologist Aoife Lyons offers a number of recommendations:
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- Help children understand what the label means. This gives them a degree of ownership and control that they did not have before.
- Help them recognize their areas of strength as well as their areas of difficulty.
- Help them feel special and appreciated.
- Help them develop problem-solving and decision-making skills.
The good news is that, for the student who has experienced years of frustration and difficulty and loneliness, a positive diagnosis can be freeing. It gives them a clear explanation for why they have been experiencing all these feelings and difficulties. It allows them to once again be proud of who they are and see their differences in a new light. And, given the research, expertise and research based interventions available, it gives these students a clearer path forward to define--and achieve--their own success.
For further reading, check out:
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Family Focus, Reading & Learning, Special Education
Our Lives Change, Too: From Fast ForWord® Skeptic to Believer
- December 21, 2010 by Carrie Gajowski
I often hear from customers and other Scientific Learning employees that our company is distinguished by the passion and commitment of those who work here. One reason for that palpable passion is that many have been personally and deeply touched by the life-changing experiences that their own family members, students, or customers have experienced with Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ products. We have seen children’s lives be changed forever by these products. Students who may not have had opportunities in school now can succeed in ways that wouldn’t have been possible even 15 years ago.
I have my own story to tell—about my nephew—and I will tell it here soon, but today I want to share a personal story from Cory Armes, one of our Education Consultants, who was so impacted by her experience with the Fast ForWord products that she left her teaching job to work for Scientific Learning:
“ I began my experience with the Fast ForWord products, or in my case, product, several years ago. On a cloudy afternoon in February 1999, our Special Education Director gathered the diagnosticians (of which I was one) and speech pathologists to hear a presentation about a new product called Fast ForWord. After the presentation, my mind was spinning to think that there might be even a modicum of truth to the research that he had shared…
As a certified skeptic, I had some serious questions about the claims he made that day. After all, I knew as a teacher that if I made a year’s gain with my students in a year’s time, we were doing a good job. My problem was that many of the students I worked with throughout my career came to me two-to-three years below grade level. If we made a year’s progress in a year’s time, it was great but they still were two-to-three years behind. So to have someone tell me that there was a product available that could help students make one-to-two years gain in a few weeks time was questionable at best. I couldn’t imagine that brain fitness exercises actually could change a student’s ability to focus and retain information much less improve the way the brain processes. But we had a recent article from ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) that supported his claims along with other research information so decided to implement Fast ForWord as our summer school program.
After the meeting, I called the Special Education Director to ask if there was something that I could do, beyond the pre-and post-testing, to learn more about the program and how it worked. She very graciously said, “Of course.” and promptly put me in charge of the implementation for the district. Now, there were a few things to consider: first, I wasn’t convinced that this program would even work and, second, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. So, I decided that there was only one thing to do and that was to run the implementation exactly as the company suggested with a strict fidelity to the protocol and a good motivational system in place so if we didn’t get the results they advertised, it wouldn’t be my fault!
Our first implementation included 25 first to eighth graders who had been through multiple reading products with little improvement. I had a great team who loved kids and we had a blast for the six weeks that we ran the program. I learned a lot about running Fast ForWord (such as you don’t need to allow ten minutes between exercises for breaks because you can’t get them to stop working!) and at the end of the fourth week at 100 minutes a day; we had some students reach completion. In week five, we began post-testing those students and could not believe the results. By the end of the six-week session, our students averaged a 1.5 year gain in language (using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization assessments) and 1.5 years in reading (Gray Oral Reading Test)!
The rest, as they say, is history. An eighth grader with an extremely high IQ but who, as a student with severe Dyslexia, had been reading on first grade level now tested at the fifth grade reading. One of the third graders who essentially was a non-reader, went to fourth grade with improved reading skills and, after completing the second Fast ForWord product the following summer, was reading on grade level in fifth grade and passed the state reading assessment. A fifth grader who was reading on first grade level became engaged in school the next year and after completing additional products over the next two school years, was on the A-Honor Roll, no longer required Resource assistance and, according to her mother, read everything she touched. Many stories, many changed lives and my sincere regret that I didn’t have Fast ForWord much sooner in my career.
After two years of supervising and implementing Fast ForWord for the district, I believed so strongly in the products that I joined Scientific Learning as a trainer. Over the last ten years, I’ve seen wonderful product additions, large numbers of students using the products and a worldwide impact in accelerating learning.
As my 4 -year-old granddaughter would say, “How cool is that”?
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
Beating Bullying for Better Learning
- December 16, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.
In March of 2000, nine year-old Verity Ward of Great Britain had been pushed to the limit. She had been physically and emotionally bullied by fellow students at her school. They had repeatedly kicked, slapped and otherwise abused her for over eighteen months.
At the time, after she and her family tried unsuccessfully to have the problem addressed by the school, she said, “"I just want them to stop. I can't take it anymore. I used to love coming to school, but now I hate it." (BBC News, 2000)
Sadly, Verity’s experience is somewhat common. In a 2001 survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, sixteen percent of U.S. school children reported being bullied sometime during the current term. (National Institute of Health, 2001) Bullying is something we tend to think of as taking place between individuals or small groups. The reality is that such destructive interactions not only affect the lives and learning of those directly involved, but those affects can ripple outward, negatively affecting the across classrooms and even the entire school.
While bullying can encompass any number of behaviors, the general definition involves one individual using an imbalance of power to dominate another. While this imbalance can be real or perceived and exist between individuals or groups, it manifests in a combination of three ways: physical, verbal and psychological abuse. Interestingly, males tend to be bullies and/or bullied more often than females. Between males, physical and verbal bullying is more prevalent. Among females, verbal and psychological forms tend to be more common. (U.S. Department of Justice, June 2001)
Bullying can create a stressful, anxiety-filled environment where it becomes difficult for individual victims, classrooms and even the whole of a school population to learn effectively. Studies have already shown that victims of bullying are more likely to have cognitive deficits than their peers and score lower on tests that measure executive function. Researchers suspect that the lower academic performance in such individuals may be a result of the chronic stress that can actually kill brain cells. (Seattle Times, March 2010)
So what can an institution do to remedy the problem? In the 1980s, researcher Dan Olweus of Norway implemented a multi-level intervention program to address bullying:
- At the school level, he surveyed the bullying problems, increased supervision, held school-wide assemblies, and offered staff training to increase awareness.
- In classrooms, he helped to establish rules against bullying and helped conduct classroom meetings--including parents--to discuss the problem of bullying at school.
- Finally, he performed individual interventions with those identified as bullies and victims. (Limber and Nation)
The results of Olweus’s work were more than promising. In just two years, reported incidents of bullying had dropped by half. What is more, students reported drops in truancy and vandalism and theft, and, maybe most importantly, they characterized their school environment as “more positive as a result of the program.” (Ibid.)
While bullying is an extremely serious and prevalent problem in schools across our nation, work such as that of Olweus gives us as educators a clear response. The fact is, we must respond. We cannot let bullying go un-addressed as it so often is. In taking actions that involve whole school populations as opposed to just the bullies and victims, we make the issue a public one. We give the victims a voice, and we give every member of the school community the tools to talk about and deal with the issue head-on.
In the end, we can relieve the victims of their pain, freeing them to take advantage of all the school has to offer. We can also help bullies build self-esteem and positive relationships. As educators, it is our responsibility to help every individual--bully as well as victim--to find their positive life path and achieve success.
For more information, check out these articles:
- Bullying Widespread in U.S. Schools, Survey Finds, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, April 24, 2001.
- Addressing the Problem of Juvenile Bullying, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Fact Sheet, June 2001.
- Bullying Among Children and Youth, Limber, Susan, and Nation, Maury.
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Categories: Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning
Where is Superman?
- December 7, 2010 by Terri Zezula
Why wait for Superman? Students across the country are making great academic gains with great teaching, rich content and outstanding educators.
Take a look at Patterson High School in St Mary Parish, Louisiana where Kenny Hilliard could barely read at the level of a second grader when he reached high school. After a few weeks of doing the Fast ForWord program at school, he reads at grade level and he understands what he reads. Once at risk of dropping out of high school, now Kenny is headed for Louisiana State University on a football scholarship. Kenny had great teachers, a rich curriculum and a community that supported his academic and athletic goals. Yet Kenny, like many other students across the country, needed an intervention to help build his cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing and sequencing – the skills necessary for reading and learning.
“What changed is that Kenny did a computer program called Fast ForWord,” said Patterson High School Principal, Rachael Wilson. “He is such a talented football player, and his talents can carry him far, but recruiters are looking for kids who have talent and good grades. The first two questions recruiters ask me are ‘What kind of kid is he?’ and ‘What kind of grades does he make?’ Thanks to the progress Kenny made in Fast ForWord, he does not need to rely on athletic talent alone.”
Kenny says he was a little nervous at first, but he decided to give Fast ForWord a try. It is a program that is proven to accelerate learning and increase reading proficiency in students from kindergarten through high school. The software consists of brain fitness exercises and actually improves how the brain learns.
“It worked,” said Wilson. “Within weeks, Kenny began to see a change in his ability to focus. Over time, his reading comprehension improved dramatically and that’s helped him in all subjects, and he has the GPA and ACT scores required for enrollment into a four-year university.”
Today, Kenny continues to break records playing football for St. Mary Parish School District and is planning for his college courses at LSU. To learn more about Kenny and his amazing story, watch this video.
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Education Trends, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
