Students in Mumbai, India Dramatically Improve Literacy Skills With Fast ForWord(R) Products
Learners Made Significant Improvements in Cognitive, Language, and Reading Abilities
8/30/06
Media Contact:
Mary Anne Petrillo
Director of Marketing
Scientific Learning Corporation
(510) 625-2218
mpetrillo@scilearn.com
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Jane A. Freeman
Senior Vice President
Scientific Learning Corporation
(888) 665-9707, ext. 5526
investorrelations@scilearn.com
OAKLAND, CA - 08/30/2006 - Learning-disabled students at The Nalanda Institute in Mumbai, India, improved their listening skills by more than 300 percent and significantly improved other literacy skills after using Scientific Learning Corporation's (NASDAQ: SCIL) Fast ForWord® software intervention for an average of just eight weeks.
According to a recent study, the students showed remarkable and significant gains in their cognitive and reading skills. They improved their listening skills scores from the 4th percentile to the 17th -- a change of 325% -- and increased their phonological awareness scores from the 29th percentile to the 41st, an improvement of 41%.
In addition, the students improved reading ability by an average of seven months during a five month period that included two months of Fast ForWord product usage.
"The results found in this study support other studies demonstrating that using the Fast ForWord products increases students' learning capacity by strengthening foundational cognitive skills, better positioning students to participate in the curriculum and classroom instruction," said Robert C. Bowen, Chairman and CEO of Scientific Learning. "These dramatic neurological changes set the cognitive foundation for these students to significantly improve their academic achievement in the years ahead."
Study Protocol
During the 2005-2006 school year, a group of students at The Nalanda Institute spent an average of 40 days using Fast ForWord Middle & High School products, which develop and improve the cognitive skills essential for academic learning and reading success. The students ranged in age from 10 to 14 years, spoke colloquial Hindi and averaged nearly seven years of English study.
Study participants used the products as part of their class curriculum for 48 minutes, five days a week, and were monitored and coached by The Nalanda Institute instructional staff. The students' cognitive and English language and reading skills were evaluated before and after Fast ForWord participation with tests including the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) and the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination (GFW).
About The Nalanda Institute
Located in Mumbai, India, The Nalanda Institute is a not-for-profit education center for students with learning disabilities.
About Scientific Learning Corporation
Scientific Learning produces the patented Fast ForWord® family of products, a series of computer-delivered reading intervention products that build learning capacity by developing the neurocognitive skills required to read and learn effectively. These foundational skills are built through a series of brain-based exercises that create fast, effective, and enduring results. Based on more than 30 years of neuroscience and cognitive research, the Fast ForWord products use patented technology and applications of accepted neuroscience principles to help children, adolescents, and adults build the language and reading skills widely recognized as the keys to all learning.
The exercises align with the scientifically based reading-research guidelines and the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The efficacy of the products has been confirmed by independent researchers, by evaluating the results of standardized achievement tests, and by Scientific Learning's scientists.
For more information about Scientific Learning and its products, visit our Web sites at www.scientificlearning.com and www.brainconnection.com, or call toll-free 888-452-7323.
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