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Fast ForWord Language Intervention Program: Four
Case Studies
Tejas -- Texas Journal of Audiology and
Speech Pathology Shannon Turner and Donise W.
Pearson Spring/Summer 1999, Vol 13
Abstract
Children acquire the basic sound units of language
through normal development. English has 44 of the units,
called phonemes, that occur in different transitions -
some fast, some slow. The brain has to distinguish these
transitions to discriminate between phonemes. It has
been hypothesized that a language- impaired child cannot
detect these rapid transitions (Tallal et al., 1993). A
new training program, called Fast ForWord Language, is
thought to be capable of improving the speech and
language comprehension abilities of these children. This
program has been implemented at the Callier Center for
Communication Disorders.
Approximately 13% of all children have some form of
language impairment. Some of the more common causes of
developmental language impairments are hearing loss,
mental retardation, neurological disorders, motor
defects or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. However, 8%
of all children display a significant developmental
language impairment of unknown origin. Children with
Specific Language Impairment (SLI) experience difficulty
producing and understanding spoken language and may
exhibit significant phonological analysis deficits
(Tallal, 1997). For some, these deficits are accompanied
by central auditory processing disorders; difficulties
in auditory attention and serial memory, including
abnormal "detection masking" abilities; abnormal
"recognition masking" abilities; abnormal "frequency
discrimination" abilities; abnormal signal segmentation
and others (Merzenich, l997). Merzenich, et al (1996)
hypothesized that these abnormal processing abilities
will remain with a child throughout life and that they
are highly correlated with difficulties in reading and
spelling.
Recent research has suggested that language
impairments may be caused by "an impairment in the rate
of neural information processing" (Tallal et al., 1993).
In a series of experiments, Tallal and her colleagues
demonstrated that children with these problems need
longer neural processing time than normally developing
children between brief, successive acoustic signals in
order to process them (hundreds of milliseconds instead
of tens of milliseconds). This slower processing rate
causes the child problems when attempting to distinguish
speech sounds within the tens of milliseconds window.
These findings led Tallal and colleagues to posit a
"temporal processing deficit" hypothesis that might
arise in early childhood as a result of abnormal
perceptual learning that then leads to disordered
language learning (Tallal et al., l993).
Neuroplasticity research has shown that sensory maps
in the cortex of the brain can be altered with training.
In 1995, while Merzenich and Jenkins were training
monkeys to discriminate among subtle differences in
rapid sequences of sounds and touches, they found, that
as the animals’ skills improved, the timing of the
responses of neurons in their brains also changed.
Further research showed great improvement in the
recognition of brief stimuli with practice in adult
humans. Thus, researchers began to question if the
deficit in the temporal processing capabilities of
children could also be altered with practice and
training (Merzenich et al., l996). In l996, Merzenich
and Tallal collaborated in the development of two
computer-based audiovisual games with a circus theme
that contained highly repetitive learning tasks. These
two games were begun with stimuli that SLI children
could easily recognize. This program provided each child
modified speech input and altered the input based on the
subject’s response. Then, a computer algorithm was
developed that enhanced the acoustic changes within
normal speech by altering the speech by 50% and
emphasizing rapidly changing speech components, such as
short consonant sounds, by making them louder (which
made them easier for language-impaired children to
comprehend). The children worked these exercises three
hours per day, five days a week, for four weeks. The
results of that training indicated that this intensive,
daily training resulted in meaningful gains in auditory
processing rate (Barinaga, l996).
However, not all speech and language researchers
agree with the general auditory hypothesis proposed by
Tallal and her colleagues. For example, Dr. Michael
Studdert-Kennedy of Hoskins Laboratory proposes that the
deficit is in the phonological representation. This
"speech specific" hypothesis states that poor speech
perception causes "underspecified" lexical and
phonological representations and poor verbal short-term
memory. This, in turn gives rise to deficits in syntax,
listening and reading comprehension. Studdert-Kennedy
believes that no experimental study has ever supported
the main assumptions of the rapid auditory processing
hypothesis, and it is, therefore, scientifically
unsound. Similarly, Studdert-Kennedy interprets any
improvement that the children in the Tallal studies
exhibit to be due to the fact that slowed speech is
naturally easier to perceive than normal speech because
more time is allowed for the language system to form
phonetic representations (Studdert-Kennedy, l997).
In l996, Merzenich and Tallal undertook a joint
research project with Dr. William Jenkins of the
University of California at San Francisco and Dr.
Stephen Miller of Rutgers University and formed the
Scientific Learning Corporation to develop remediation
programs for SLI children. The training program was
expanded to include seven computer-based exercises aimed
at training temporal integration rate, attention, serial
memory, phonological identification and discrimination,
language processing and grammatical understanding. This
program is called Fast ForWord Language and has been
tested on 500 children who required language therapy in
the United States and Canada. The children trained for 1
hour and 40 minutes per day, five days a week, for an
average of six to eight weeks. The results of this study
agreed with the previous studies; overall, the children
improved their auditory processing and speech-language
skills on an average by one and one-half years based on
pre-training versus post-training standardized test
scores (Tallal, l997). Headquartered in Berkeley,
California, Scientific Learning Corporation has a team
of over 100 professionals trained in linguistics,
neuroscience, psychology, art, and animation, advanced
computer technology, business and marketing.
The purpose of this paper is to present four case
studies that have completed this innovative language
treatment program. These individual cases were selected
because they exemplify the criteria for selection, model
a variety of abilities and demonstrate a range of
responses experienced by participants completing the
Fast ForWord Language Program.
Method
The Callier Center for Communication Disorders /
University of Texas at Dallas, began utilizing the Fast
ForWord Language program on November 3, l997.
Speech-language pathologists trained and certified by
Scientific Learning Corporation (SLC) administer the
program. Graduate student assistants are utilized as
monitors while the children complete the daily computer
exercises. The participants of Fast ForWord Language at
the Callier Center are children diagnosed with a
language-learning impairment by a certified
speech-language pathologist in one of the following:
receptive phonology, listening comprehension, or general
language abilities. Fast ForWord Language candidates
score below the normal range on standardized language
test(s). Following are some common measures used to
identify these children:
Goldman-Fristoe Test of Auditory Discrimination,
a test that measures a child’s ability to identify
confusable sound parts in words in quiet and in
noise.
Test of Auditory Conceptualization of Language
(TACL-3), an individualized test designed to measure
auditory perception and conceptualization of speech
sounds.
Test of Language Development (TOLD-I:3), a
comprehensive language battery that measures receptive
and expressive syntax, semantics, grammar, and
language-based memory.
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals: 3
(CELF-3) used to identify children K-l2 who lack the
basic foundations of form and content of mature
language: semantics, morphology, syntax, and
memory.
Test of Language Comprehension, a tool to assess
auditory comprehension of word classes and relations,
grammatical morphemes, and elaborated sentences.
Pre-school Language Scale –3 (PLS-3), a
developmental scale which assesses auditory
comprehension and expressive communication through a
variety of stimulus items.
Token Test for Children, a tool designed to
assess receptive language function, auditory processing
and auditory comprehension in children ages 3 to 12
years.
Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills – Revised
(TAPS-R), an assessment tool developed to measure a
child’s functioning in various areas of auditory
perception.
Diagnostic Achievement Battery (DAB), a
standardized individual achievement test used to
assesses children’s abilities in listening, speaking,
reading, writing and mathematics. Generally, only
selected subtests are utilized to determine strengths
and weaknesses and supply supplemental
information.
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – III (PPVT III),
a standardized measure of single-word
comprehension.
The children in these case studies used Fast ForWord
Language for one hour and forty minutes, five days a
week at the Callier Center. The program was generally
administered for a six to eight-week period, with a
minimum required time frame of four weeks. Depending on
the student’s progress, extending days of play was
sometimes necessary.
The Fast ForWord Language training program consists
of seven individual training exercises - three sound and
four word exercises. The sound exercises present
auditory information in a pre-word format using
different frequencies, times, deviations and phonemes.
The task difficulty is modified so that the child is
correct 80% of the time. The sound exercises consist of:
Circus Sequence (CS), Old MacDonald’s Flying Farm
(OMDFF) and Phoneme Identification (PI). A brief
description of each exercise exerpted from the
Scientific Learning Corporation Training Manual may be
found in Appendix A. The four word exercises consist of
words in isolation or within sentences. The words and
sentences used in these exercises have been acoustically
modified to expand and enhance the rapidly changing
phonetic elements within natural speech. As a child’s
performance improves, the degree of speech processing
changes from Level l to Level 5, which is natural,
unmodified speech. The four word exercises consist of:
Phonic Word (PW), Phonic Match (PM), Block Commander
(BC) and Language Comprehension Builder (LCB). A brief
description of each of the word exercises from
Scientific Learning Corporation may be found in Appendix
B.
The exercises emphasize and dramatize sounds such as
"ba" and "da" which allows the brain to grasp the subtle
differences between phonemes. Instead of the natural 40
milliseconds between "b" and "ah," the computer
generates "ba" with 300, 400, or even 500 milliseconds
between "b" and "ah." The computer enhances difficult to
hear phonemes, making them longer and louder and more
salient to the child’s brain. Moreover, the program
targets other speech and language skills, including
phonics, morphology, syntax and grammar. The order of
the training exercises for each day is preset and
controlled by the computer and cannot be altered
(Scientific Learning Corporation, 1996).
Each child is allowed short breaks between computer
exercises. This can include a small snack or trip to the
restroom or water fountain. If necessary, the children
are given reinforcers for completing the exercises
and/or for exhibiting appropriate behavior following a
standard token economy system.
After the child completes the daily exercises, the
results are uploaded to SLC and downloaded back to the
computer used by the child. The data can be viewed in
graphic form or text material for various increments of
time in order to interpret a child’s daily or weekly
progress. SLC recommends 90% or greater achievement on
five of seven games to discontinue treatment. Once a
child reaches criteria for dismissal from Fast ForWord
Language, a post-evaluation is completed. During
post-testing, a variety of different language and
auditory tests are administered. For clinical purposes,
the same tests given in the pre-evaluation are not
always administered in the post-evaluation. When
possible, pre- and post-test standard scores and
percentile ranks are considered for comparison.
Post-test results are compared to the pre-evaluation
tests to determine if the children have improved. After
completion of Fast ForWord Language, parents are also
interviewed to determine if behavioral changes and
improvements experienced in the home or school
environment have occurred. After the minimum four-week
treatment, if a child has not reached criteria for
dismissal and is still demonstrating improvements, the
child is allowed to continue playing until dismissal
criteria is met.
Case Studies
Hearing acuity, articulation skills, voice quality
and fluency skills were assessed for each of these case
studies. These areas were within normal limits for their
chronological age ranges unless otherwise specified.
Only pertinent background information is noted;
otherwise, medical, developmental and family backgrounds
were unremarkable.
Case Study #1
Background Information
Child #1, a 6 year 3 month old Caucasian male, was
the first child enrolled in the Fast ForWord Language
Program at the Callier Center. He was diagnosed with a
severe speech-language delay at three years of age. He
participated in a small group language therapy program
to enhance language facilitation. He also participated
in various language intervention programs after that
time and was being seen for traditional language therapy
through his school. Child #1 was referred to the Callier
Center by his school’s speech-language pathologist and
parents as a possible candidate for Fast ForWord
Language.
Pre-Testing
Child #1’s pre-test results on the CELF-R yielded a
Total Language Score of 73 which is almost two standard
deviations below normal limits for his chronological age
range. (The mean for the total language score is 100
with a standard deviation of 15.) The results for Child
#1’s standard scores and percentile ranks are listed
below for each of the receptive and expressive subtests.
(Each subtest has a standard score mean of 10 and a
standard deviation of 3.)
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Linguistic
Concepts |
6 |
.gif) |
9 |
.gif) |
| Sentence Structure |
6 |
|
9 |
|
| Oral
Directions |
6 |
|
9 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
74 |
|
4 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Word
Structure |
11 |
.gif) |
57 |
.gif) |
| Formulated Sentences |
4 |
|
2 |
|
| Recalling Sentences |
4 |
|
2 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
76 |
|
5 |
|
Total Language
Score |
73 |
.gif) |
4 |
.gif) |
These results suggest that Child #1 exhibited a
moderate to severe receptive and expressive language
disorder.
Further receptive language testing was administered
with the TACL-R which yielded the following results:
| Category |
Percentile.gif) |
Word Classes
and Relations |
52 |
.gif) |
| Grammatical Morphemes |
12 |
|
| Elaborated Sentences |
16 |
|
Total Test Score |
11 |
|
These test scores indicate a mild auditory
comprehension difficulty. Child #1 appeared to have more
difficulty understanding information at the sentence
level where a breakdown of metalinguisitic abilities can
occur.
To assess the secondary language skills
(reading/writing) of Child #1, several subtests of the
DAB were administered. With a mean standard score of 10
and a standard deviation of 3 on all subtests, his
results are as follows:
| Subtest |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Story
Comprehension |
8 |
.gif) |
25 |
.gif) |
| Characteristics |
8 |
|
25 |
|
| Synonyms |
11 |
|
63 |
|
| Grammatic Completion |
10 |
|
50 |
|
| Alphabet/Word Knowledge |
14 |
|
91 |
|
| Reading Comprehension |
13 |
|
84 |
|
These results were within normal limits or above
normal limits for Child #1’s chronological age range on
each subtest.
Overall, according to the pre-test evaluation, Child
#1 showed a moderate to severe disorder in his receptive
and expressive language abilities. Recommendations
included participation in the Fast ForWord Language
Treatment Program and post-testing at the completion of
the program.
Fast ForWord Language Performance
Child #1 began the Fast ForWord Language exercises on
November 11, and met the criteria for dismissal on
December 8, 1997. He completed the three designated
games on his first day with scores of 10% on Block
Commander (BC), 12% on Phonic Match (PM), and 3% on
Circus Sequence (CS). During the sessions, Child #1
appeared frustrated during difficult items, sometimes
banging the counter when he missed an answer. He
occasionally commented, "This is too hard," but
verbalized pleasure when completing the games and
watching the graphics. Giving Child #l breaks between
games seemed to improve his attention during the
exercises.
After 13 days of play, Child #1 showed increased
scores of 97% on PI, 94% on PM, 60% on CS, 76% on BC,
68% on LCB, 58% on PW and 95% on OMFF. It was at this
time that Child #1’s mother reported improvements with
social interactions. For example, he agreed to talk on
the telephone, for the first time on his own initiative,
to a family member who had called their house. He was
also reportedly speaking with more cohesive, complete
sentences. As the weeks continued, improvement was seen
in his expressive abilities by the Fast ForWord Language
monitors. He was using complete, complex, spontaneous
explanations to activities during and between games,
instead of asking, "What happened?" or "What was that?"
On his final day of play, his scores were 96% on OMFF,
73% on BC, 95% on CS, 94% on PM, 99% on PW, 99% on PI,
and 98% on LCB.
Child #1 participated in the Fast ForWord Language
Program for almost five weeks. During this time, he
spontaneously began demonstrating compensatory skills by
repeating stimuli out loud to himself in order to retain
information. His mother reported that he made telephone
calls for the first time and created invitations to plan
a slumber party at his house with his friends. By the
last week of play, he used complete, age appropriate
sentences to talk about events happening on the
computer. Prior to completing Fast ForWord Language, he
would generally use sentence fragments or phrases that
required a listener to "fill in" missing information.
These improvements were also seen by his parents outside
the clinical setting.
Post-Testing
During the post-evaluation, the CELF-3 was
administered. The mean for the total language score is
100 with a standard deviation of 15. Child #1’s results
yielded a Total Language Score of 115 which is within
the high average range for children of his chronological
age range. Child #1’s standard scores and percentile
ranks are listed below for each of the receptive and
expressive subtests.
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Sentence
Structure |
14 |
.gif) |
91 |
.gif) |
| Concepts and Directions |
10 |
|
50 |
|
| Word
Classes |
14 |
|
91 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
116 |
|
86 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Word
Structure |
14 |
.gif) |
91 |
.gif) |
| Formulated Sentences |
14 |
|
91 |
|
| Recalling Sentences |
10 |
|
50 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
114 |
|
82 |
|
Total Language
Score |
115 |
.gif) |
84 |
.gif) |
These results suggest that Child #1 now exhibited
normal or above average receptive and expressive
language abilities when compared to other children of
his chronological age range.
According to the tests given during post-evaluation,
Child #1 showed significant improvement in his receptive
and expressive language abilities on the CELF-3
following completion of the Fast ForWord Language
Program. Previously, he was found to have a moderate to
severe receptive and expressive language disorder. Child
#1’s parents also reported great communicative
improvements at home. However, evidence of an expressive
language disorder was still present at the
conversational level in the areas of syntax and
pragmatics. Child #l’s prognosis for continued
improvement of his language skills was considered good
due to progress noted from previous intervention and
parental involvement in his remediation programs.
Recommendations were made for Child #1 to continue
language therapy through his public school and to
complete a language test battery at the end of the
school year to document language
status.
Case Study #2
Background Information
Child #2 was an 11
year 11 month old Hispanic male. Immediately prior to
completing Fast ForWord Language, he was enrolled in one
hour of speech-language therapy on a weekly basis.
During the past four and one-half months of therapy,
Child #2 showed significant progress in various language
areas targeted. His goals targeted comprehension of
two-step commands where each command contains a
modifier, the ability to label categories, the ability
to utilize irregular past tense verb forms when making
sentences, the ability to explain semantic absurdities
and the ability to express associations between written
stimuli. Even with noted progress, his current
speech-language pathologist referred Child #2 for
participation in the Fast ForWord Language program after
consultation with his parents.
Child #2 has a significant medical history. His
biological mother is suspected of abusing drugs and/or
alcohol during pregnancy and neglect was reported during
the first year of life. Child #2 was placed in foster
care at one year of age and then adopted. He reportedly
had earaches from birth to three years of age, with
pressure equalization tubes placed bilaterally and
adenoids removed at age two. At 20 months of age, he had
surgery for a double hernia. He was diagnosed with
Attention - Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at
age eight and he was taking Dexedrine twice daily to
help reduce hyperactive behavior and increase his
concentration abilities and awareness of "social
boundaries."
During Child #2’s early years of elementary school,
he was in special education classes. However, he has
been home schooled since six years of age, because his
adoptive parents felt that his needs could be better met
at home and his educational programming could be more
individualized by them.
Pre-testing
Child #2’s initial test scores from the CELF-3 are as
follows:
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Concepts and
Directions |
4 |
.gif) |
2 |
.gif) |
| Word
Classes |
3 |
|
1 |
|
| Semantic Relationships |
3 |
|
1 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
50 |
|
1 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Formulated
Sentences |
3 |
.gif) |
1 |
.gif) |
| Recalling Sentences |
3 |
|
1 |
|
| Sentence Assembly |
9 |
|
37 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
65 |
|
1 |
|
Total Language
Score |
55 |
.gif) |
1 |
.gif) |
Fast ForWord Language Performance
Child #2 began the Fast ForWord Language Program
approximately two months after his pre-testing. During
the first week of play, Child #2 immediately made
progress with high scores on all the games. After about
two weeks of play, Child #2 scored 39% on OMFF, 74% on
BC, 0% on CS, 72% on PM, 16% on PW, 34% on PI and 15% on
LCB. He played all of the games straight through without
questions, comments or breaks. Child #2 seemed to have
excellent concentration and his mother commented that he
was exhausted after running Fast ForWord Language each
day. Throughout the next few weeks, he continued to make
excellent progress with his scores seeming to dip
slightly when the game levels increased.
After approximately four weeks of play, Child #2 was
scoring 67% on OMFF, 71% on BC, 91% on PM, 69% on PW,
and 16% on LCB. However, two games were obviously more
difficult for him than the others; CS and PI were both
below 10%. Once Child #2 had completed approximately
five weeks, 15 more days were reinstated to see if he
could increase his percentages on CS and PI. His
percentages were still significantly lower on these two
games. On his final day of play, Child #2 scored 100% on
OMFF, 96% on BC, 94% on PM, 98% on PW, and 97% on LCB.
He did eventually increase his percentages on CS and PI
to above 20%.
Child #2 did not require any type of token
reinforcement system. He seemed to be very
self-motivated. Verbal praise and encouragement appeared
to motivate him to continuing playing without tangible
reinforcers.
Child #2 met the criteria for dismissal from the Fast
ForWord Language Program after almost nine weeks of
play. His mother reported that her son continued to have
difficulty with conversational discourse throughout this
time. However, the speech-language pathologist who had
been treating Child #2, prior to Fast ForWord Language,
reported a significant improvement in his expressive
language and semantic abilities after he had completed
the Fast ForWord Language Program.
Post-Testing
Child #2 was given the WORD Test-R and the CELF - 3
during the post-evaluation. The WORD Test-R revealed a
dramatic improvement in Child #2’s ability to give
single definitions and multiple definitions of words.
The results from the CELF - 3 given during the
post-evaluation are as follows:
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Concepts and
Directions |
4 |
.gif) |
2 |
.gif) |
| Word
Classes |
3 |
|
1 |
|
| Semantic Relationships |
5 |
|
5 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
53 |
|
1 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Formulated
Sentences |
9 |
.gif) |
37 |
.gif) |
| Recalling Sentences |
3 |
|
1 |
|
| Sentence Assembly |
9 |
|
37 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
82 |
|
12 |
|
Total Language
Score |
65 |
.gif) |
1 |
.gif) |
The test results for Child #2 did not show
significant improvements in standard scores except for
the Formulated Sentences subtest. However, Child #2’s
Total Language Score increased 10 points from the
pre-evaluation and his receptive score improved by 3
points. Therefore, his expressive language score showed
significant improvement.
Child #2 still exhibited language and semantic
difficulties at a conversational level. It was
recommended that he continue language therapy to address
his conversational discourse and semantic
difficulties.
Case Study #3
Background Information
Child #3 was a 13
year 3 month old Caucasian male. He was identified as an
appropriate candidate for the Fast ForWord Language
Program at age 12 and was referred to the Callier Center
prior to his thirteenth birthday. He was not currently
being seen for language or speech therapy when he began
the Fast ForWord Language Program. However, he was
previously enrolled in speech-language therapy for six
years. Child #3 completed his 6th grade year at a
private school for children with special needs such as
language-learning disabilities and dyslexia. During that
school year, Child #3 had participated in a
multi-sensory phonics based reading program, but was
still demonstrating significant difficulties in reading.
Pre-Testing
Less than one year prior to beginning the Fast
ForWord Language Program, Child #3 was given a speech
and language evaluation by an outside agency. The CELF -
3 was administered and the results were as follows:
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Concepts and
Directions |
16 |
.gif) |
98 |
.gif) |
| Word
Classes |
11 |
|
63 |
|
| Semantic Relationships |
10 |
|
50 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
114 |
|
82 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Formulated
Sentences |
7 |
.gif) |
16 |
.gif) |
| Recalling Sentences |
10 |
|
50 |
|
| Sentence Assembly |
8 |
|
25 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
90 |
|
25 |
|
Total Language
Score |
102 |
.gif) |
55 |
.gif) |
Child #3’s language scores were within the average to
above average range (with the exception of Formulated
Sentences). However, these results indicated a 24-point
difference between his receptive and expressive
language. Admission tests to his private school were
also administered, showing below average scores for
Child #3 on PPVT III and the Goldman-Fristoe Woodcock
Auditory Discrimination Test in both quiet and noise.
When testing for academic skills, reading rate, oral and
written spelling, handwriting and a spontaneous writing
sample were below average.
Fast ForWord Language Performance
Based on these findings, Child #3 immediately began
his first day by completing the three designated
exercises. By the end of the first week, Child #3 scored
96% on BC, 18% on CS, 54% on PM and 42% on PI. Child #3
began complaining about coming to participate in Fast
ForWord Language to his parents after the first day.
Child #3 was allowed to bring snacks daily and was given
one short snack break per day. A reinforcement system
was implemented within the first week allowing Child #3
to pick "prizes" after completing all the games each
day. Child #3 also needed frequent redirection from the
monitor to stay focused on the games. Many times he
would "play" with other things around him such as the
computer wires, scratch papers, or food wrappers.
After two weeks of programming, Child #3 had
increased his percentages to 47% on OMFF, 97% on BC, 28%
on CS, 94% on PM, 36% on PW, 58% on PI, and 41% on LCB.
He still needed redirection, but became interested in
trying to increase his daily percentages. Child #3 met
the criteria for dismissal in four weeks. On his last
day, he scored 95% on OMFF, 96% on BC, 47% on CS, 95% on
PM, 99% on PW, 74% on PI and 99% on LCB. Child #3 began
his post-evaluation two days after completing the Fast
ForWord Language Program.
Post-Testing
During post-testing, Child #3 was administered four
different tests to determine his abilities in auditory
processing, reading, picture vocabulary and expressive
and receptive language. The SCAN A - A Test for Auditory
Processing Disorders in Adolescents and Adults, showed
Child #3 to fall within normal limits on all subtests
except one. The results were as follows:
| Subtest |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Filtered
Words |
9 |
.gif) |
37 |
.gif) |
| Auditory Figure Ground |
9 |
|
37 |
|
| Competing Words |
5 |
|
5 |
|
| Competing Sentences |
9 |
|
37 |
|
Total Test
Standard Score |
85 |
.gif) |
|
.gif) |
Child #3’s Total Test Score falls within the low
average range. His results were in the average range on
PPVT - III with a standard score of 104. In a comparison
of Reading Admission Test Scores completed in September
of 1997 to total progress for the 1997-1998 school year,
a less than 1.0 percent improvement in all areas for
reading were reported by his school. However, on the
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, administered during the
post-testing, Child #3 placed within normal limits on
all subtests. The standard scores and percentile ranks
for the CELF -3 are as follows:
| Subtest |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Receptive
Language Score |
100 |
.gif) |
50 |
.gif) |
| Expressive Language Score |
106 |
|
66 |
|
Total Language
Score Score |
103 |
.gif) |
58 |
.gif) |
These results indicate that Child #3 was within
normal limits for both receptive and expressive
language.
According to the post-testing information, Child #3
improved in his auditory processing from below normal
limits on the Goldman -Fristoe Woodcock Auditory
Discrimination Test to within normal limits on the
SCAN-A. Scores on the PPVT-III increased from below
normal limits into the high average range. Reading
skills were also found to be within normal limits during
the post-testing. At this time, Child #3 was not found
to have an expressive or receptive language disorder.
Two recommendations were made.
First it was recommended that the parents of Child #3
pursue tutorial reading services to help their son with
academic success. (At this time, the Fast ForWord
Language Two program, which specifically targets reading
difficulties, had not been released.) Second, Child #3’s
parents were to pursue an evaluation with a child
psychiatrist to rule out ADHD, discuss medication and
other adolescent issues.
Case Study #4
Background Information
Child #4 was a 12
year 4 month old Caucasian male. He was referred to the
Callier Center, specifically for Fast ForWord Language
intervention, by a private school for children with
language-learning disabilities, where he had just
completed the sixth grade. Child #4’s mother described
his difficulties as an "inability to communicate clearly
with difficulty following directions." He was also
reportedly diagnosed with an "attention deficit disorder
(ADD)" and "auditory processing problems."
Child #4 weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces at birth and was
delivered by Cesarean section. At nine weeks of age, he
underwent surgery for hernia repair. As an infant and
preschooler, he had five different sets of pressure
equalization tubes due to chronic otitis media. At age
eight, his mother reported a head injury accident where
he hit his head on a diving board. However, there was no
reported loss of conscienceness.
Child #4’s case history indicated that a problem with
his speech and language was first noticed by his
preschool teacher. In the past, Child #4 received
traditional speech-language therapy to improve his
speech and language skills. At the time of Fast ForWord
Language, Child #4 was taking 10mg of Adderal once a day
for ADD.
Pre-Testing
One month prior to beginning the Fast ForWord
Language Program, Child #4 was given the TAPS - R by an
outside agency. All subtests were within normal limits
except Auditory Sentence Memory and Auditory
Interpretation of Directions. The results for these two
subtests are as follows:
| Subtest |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Auditory
Sentence Memory |
7 |
.gif) |
16 |
.gif) |
Auditory Interpretation of
Directions |
6 |
|
9 |
|
| Sum
of Scaled Scores |
79 |
|
|
|
| Total Percentile Rank |
|
|
73 |
|
These results suggest that Child #4 is delayed in
these two areas, falling significantly below normal
limits. The CELF - R and the TOLD-2:I were also
administered. The results for the CELF-R are as
follows:
| Receptive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Oral
Directions |
5 |
.gif) |
5 |
.gif) |
| Word
Classes |
11 |
|
63 |
|
| Semantic Relationships |
9 |
|
37 |
|
| Receptive Language Score |
89 |
|
23 |
|
| Expressive Task |
Standard
Score.gif) |
Percentile
Rank.gif) |
Formulated
Sentences |
3 |
.gif) |
1 |
.gif) |
| Recalling Sentences |
8 |
|
25 |
|
| Sentence Assembly |
6 |
|
9 |
|
| Expressive Language Score |
72 |
|
3 |
|
Total Language
Score |
78 |
.gif) |
7 |
| | | | |