A Randomized Field Trial of the Fast ForWord Language Computer-Based Training Program
- 1 March 2009
- journal article
- Published by American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
- Vol. 31 (1), 82-106
- https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373708328519
Abstract
This article describes an independent assessment of the Fast ForWord Language computer-based training program developed by Scientific Learning Corporation. Previous laboratory research involving children with language-based learning impairments showed strong effects on their abilities to recognize brief and fast sequences of nonspeech and speech stimuli, but generalization of these effects beyond clinical settings and student populations and to broader literacy measures remains unclear. Implementing a randomized field trial in eight urban schools, we generated impact estimates from separate intent-to-treat and treatment-on-the-treated analyses of the literacy outcomes of second- and seventh-grade students who were more generally at risk for poor reading and language outcomes. There were some problems of implementation in the field setting, and the Fast ForWord Language program did not, in general, help students in these eight schools improve their language and reading comprehension test scores.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Fresh Look at Brain-Based EducationPhi Delta Kappan, 2008
- Neural Mechanisms of Language-Based Learning Impairments: Insights from Human Populations and Animal ModelsBehavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 2003
- Experiments for Educational Evaluation and ImprovementPeabody Journal of Education, 2002
- New Evidence on Classroom Computers and Pupil LearningThe Economic Journal, 2002
- The importance of rapid auditory processing abilities to early language development: Evidence from converging methodologiesDevelopmental Psychobiology, 2002
- Computer-Assisted Language Intervention Using Fast ForWord®Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 1999
- Identification of Causal Effects Using Instrumental VariablesJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1996
- Movement into Reading: Is the First Stage of Printed Word Learning Visual or Phonetic?Reading Research Quarterly, 1985
- The influence of orthography on readers' conceptualization of the phonemic structure of wordsApplied Psycholinguistics, 1980
- Acoustic-phonetic skills and reading: Kindergarten through twelfth grade.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1973