Overview¹

Fast ForWord® is a family of computer-based products. According to the developer's website, the programs help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning. Participants spend 30 to 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for four to 16 weeks with these adaptive exercises. Fast ForWord® Language builds fundamental cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing, and sequencing in the context of key language and reading skills, including listening accuracy, phonological awareness, and language structures. Programs in the Fast ForWord® to Reading series provide the next sequence of cognitive skills designed to help students acquire reading skills.

Research

Five studies of Fast ForWord® met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards and one study met WWC evidence standards with reservations. The six studies included 587 Kindergarten through third-grade students in several school districts across the country.² Intervention students in the studies used either Fast ForWord® Language , Fast ForWord® to Reading Prep , Fast ForWord® to Reading 1 , or Fast ForWord® to Reading 2. The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Fast ForWord® to be small for alphabetics and comprehension. No studies that met WWC evidence standards with or without reservations addressed fluency or general reading achievement.

Effectiveness

Fast ForWord® was found to have positive effects on alphabetics and mixed effects on comprehension.