Neuron Learning

Nice Feedback from a Mother of a Student

"Yes all going well now thank you.  Jack did the course with Fergal yesterday so I will check tonight re the reports.  Fergal is not usually the sort that gets impressed easily but boy he is really impressed with this course and thinks it is ideal for Jack, so we are all delighted, including Jack!"

Summer Classes Starting Already !

The summer season is starting already. Lots of our students are rebooking for summer 2011 to do more advanced work on the Fast ForWord programs and now Reading Assistant as well!

Here is one happy mother.....

"Dear John,

 

Hope you are well. It's been a few months since my son Nicholas l has completed the Reading 4 of the Fast ForWord program. I can tell you that I'm happy to see his progress, especially at school. I would like him to take the Reading 5 program, if possible this summer after school is finished. Could you kindly guide me in this request? Thanks."

And these were his results last year!

Here is the latest Reading Progress Indicator test.
  
+3.2 Years
Now is the 99% Percentile
Reading Grade Year 12 and 6 months
 
He did great work.

Autism Eye: New Autism Magazine

Autism Eye is a new independent magazine. It has a fresh outlook and is written by journalists who are parents of autistic children. Click here to see the Website

There is an in-depth review of the experience of UK based autistic children with Fast ForWord.

The first print edition is published in February and the website is very promising.

 

Whole Language Vs Sounding Out

A nice contribution from Jim and Judy Nelson:

"My son went through Fast Forword training and it was very effective for him. It’s greatest use is for children with an inability to identify sounds to map to letters, or an inability to break apart the sounds of a word.
When he started at the age of 10, he would look at me like I was crazy when I made the ccc -aaa- t sounds for cat. It made no sense to him. He did not read at all at that time, although he could memorize a few words. After Fast Forword, he started a Wilson reading program (the one that is provided through the Scottish Rites Masons.) He is now reading independently at grade level at age 14, although he still has an IEP (individual education plan) for speech (for R’s) and qualifies for help in the Language Arts class for spelling.

His training was provided by our own speech therapist and I believe it would be helpful for the people who provide this training to have some audiology understanding.

Our school district did not provide this program, as they were heavily enamored with the Joys of Whole Language Reading and didn’t believe sounding out to be necessary."

 

Great Testimonial from a Teacher

Fast ForWord is a game-based, reading intervention program that strives to improve reading brain functions in the areas of attention and sequencing, as well as guided reading in the areas of fluency and vocabulary. The program is responsible for many success stories and helping at-risk schools improve their standardized test scores. 
 
My sixth graders recently demoed the program, and their concentration was amazing. We plan to use this program in the second semester with our students as a means of remediation and intervention. Coupled with Read 180, the program is proven to help students, especially those who are “on the bubble” of passing our state ISTEP+ test. I am looking forward to using this program more in the upcoming year, and I think it is worth checking out for anyone interested in helping readers succeed!

See her Blog here

 

Where is Superman

By Terri Zezula

Why wait for Superman?  Students across the world 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:

 

Largest average Increase in "words correct per minute"

Students at Discovery Elementary who used the Fast ForWord® program achieved significant gains on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI). As a result, the Title I school now ranks as the top performing school in Bonneville Joint School District No. 93. Distributed by Neuron Learning Fast ForWord is a family of educational software products that accelerate learning by improving the processing efficiency of the brain. 

“I have found the Fast ForWord program to be the difference maker in meeting the ever-growing expectations of student proficiency in reading, language, and math”

Located in Idaho Falls, Discovery Elementary began using the Fast ForWord software in fall 2008 with students in grades 1-6 who were reading below grade level. In fall 2009, the school expanded the program from intervention groups to all students in grades 1-3. Principal Ken Marlowe also made the program available to students in grades 4-6 who scored “below basic” or “basic” on the ISAT in reading or language usage.

According to Marlowe, on the 2010 ISAT, Discovery Elementary students in grades 3-6 made significant gains in reading, language usage, and math, and surpassed district averages in every subject. In addition, thanks to fourth graders’ performance in reading, Discovery was one of only two schools in the district to achieve 100 percent proficiency at a grade level in any core subject area.

Marlowe also stated that Discovery Elementary students in grades 1-3 achieved significant gains on the IRI. From fall 2008 to winter 2010, Fast ForWord participants achieved significantly larger gains from one test to the next in “average words read correct per minute,” than students not participating in the program. From fall 2009 to spring 2010, third grade Fast ForWord participants at Discovery Elementary had the largest average increase in “words read correct per minute” on the IRI, surpassing students’ gains at each of the other 11 elementary schools.

“I have found the Fast ForWord program to be the difference maker in meeting the ever-growing expectations of student proficiency in reading, language, and math,” said Marlowe. “This past school year, we had the same teachers, same curriculum, same school day, same environment — everything was the same. The only thing we added was the Fast ForWord program and it’s had a significant impact on student growth. If you are an administrator interested in meeting AYP, I encourage you to seriously consider implementing the Fast ForWord program in your school. It has made all the difference in the world.”