Willie Brown and the Fast ForWord Story
The Fast ForWord-Language program cannot replace SLP’s. Although studies have shown that children have made improvements, the conditions of the study were not realistic, and it won’t be beneficial for carryover. This program can be a great reward after a therapy session, or be instituted into homework, but if children and their families want real solid results, the one on one intensive therapy done by an SLP will always be the best way for these individuals to succeed and make substantial progress.
I can see the other side of the debate however. The program can be enticing to parents because it keeps the child occupied, as most children love computer games, and there are minimal expenses. This program may be beneficial for children with mild impairments. However, I think as communication majors, these children need routine human interaction. Children will not take computer games seriously, or they may not see it as an educational piece to their learning. If kids are with adults and teachers, they are in a more serious situation; therefore, they will pay attention, do their work, and see the importance behind the learning.
Although I strongly believe speech therapy should always be with an SLP, there are stories out there in which individuals have improved because of this program. I found a video on YouTube, about a young boy named Willie Brown who was told he had severe dyslexia, and he would never be able to read. His teachers did not have the patience, time and resources to help him. Willie went to a different school to try the Fast ForWord Program. He showed improvement after the 4th and 5th weeks of listening to sounds, after reading the newspaper to his grandfather, a task he did every week. I liked this video because it shows this program can work. Does it replace speech language pathologists? I still don’t believe so. Clients need to know the methods behind the therapy and they need to be taught the strategies in order to produce the sounds correctly. I don't think the program should be ruled out, however Fast ForWord should not be the only means to speech therapy.
I do think that there is a time and place for this program and I mention that in my own blog. I also agree with you that children may see this as just a game and if not supervised may not put as much focus and effort into it as they should.
ReplyDeleteI work at BOCES as a sub on breaks and have seen computer programs being used, that if utilized correctly, could be very beneficial. However, this is not the case. Children and teens have now grown up with computers and now how to find music to listen to while looking like they are diligently working on something else or playing games while the teacher turns their back. Although this has been proven to be a successful program...it does have its flaws.