Scientific Learning announces that the neuroscience-designed Fast ForWord® program now includes Reading Assistant™ real-time corrective feedback to help students make fast, permanent gains in a wide range of reading skills
2/14/17
Media Contact:
Hallie Smith
Director of Marketing
Scientific Learning Corporation
(619) 888-0887
hsmith@scilearn.com
Oakland, Calif. — Feb. 14, 2017 — To provide educators with a comprehensive language and reading intervention that gets better results in a shorter period of time, Scientific Learning Corp. (OTC PINK:SCIL) today announces that the Fast ForWord® online reading intervention will now include Reading Assistant™ patented speech recognition technology, plus hundreds of reading selections and new teacher-directed lessons.
Fast ForWord was developed by neuroscientists to intensively target working memory, attention and processing speed in the context of language and reading exercises. Reading Assistant uses advanced speech recognition to rapidly build reading fluency and comprehension by “listening” to students as they read aloud, correcting and guiding them just like a reading tutor. By combining the two solutions into one for K-12 customers, Fast ForWord is now the only online reading intervention that supports one-on-one guided oral reading, the single best practice for improving reading fluency as a bridge to comprehension.
“In recent years, research has helped us understand that there are multiple reasons why students may struggle to master language or learn to read fluently. We now know that traditional ‘surface approach’ interventions are not closing the achievement gap for these struggling learners,” said Robert C. Bowen, CEO of Scientific Learning. “The good news is that research has also proven that many of these difficulties can be overcome by providing intense, individualized practice in core cognitive, language, and literacy skills, and by providing ample opportunities for students to read aloud with support. This combination of strategies, which are all now part of the Fast ForWord program, is exactly what is required to improve the language and reading proficiency of students of diverse ability levels, including those who are most at-risk.”
In addition to the Reading Assistant technology, over 300 hundred reading selections across multiple genres and 200 lessons have been added to the new Fast ForWord, allowing it to address a wide range of language and literacy standards and all five of the National Reading Panel’s components of reading.
“This new release makes Fast ForWord the only program that prepares the brain for reading, intensively addresses foundational skills, and offers students supportive practice reading aloud,” Bowen continued. “Using this comprehensive approach to intervention, schools and districts can rapidly narrow the achievement gap with their most vulnerable students, and see continued improvements over time.”
For more information, visit www.scientificlearning.com.
