“He’s smart. He just needs to try harder.”
“She’s a selective listener. She listens when she wants to.”
Take listening problems seriously.
Children do not choose to have poor listening skills. These children just have trouble processing what they hear so they zone out. It’s a problem in the classroom, since most classroom instruction is verbal.
Auditory processing (listening) problems aren’t related to IQ, and students do not grow out of it.
Just as a child with vision problems needs glasses, it’s important that students with auditory processing difficulties receive evidence-based, auditory training.
Through exercises carefully designed by learning experts, the Fast ForWord programs improve auditory processing accuracy and speed, enabling the brain to “hear” the correct words and process them quickly enough to remember the information.
Fast ForWord exercise examples
Fast ForWord training is active, meaning the child is required to listen carefully and answer questions on the computer. While “passive” music-based programs may claim to improve auditory processing, these are often not backed by research and do not teach the student to pay attention to and remember the things they hear.
Sky Gym (from primary school program)
Students differentiate between sweep sounds that become quicker and more similar. Improves the speed at which the student identifies and understands rapid, successive changes in sound (listening accuracy); and improves the student’s ability to hold sounds in memory.
Lunar Tunes (from high school program)
Students match sounds from a grid with no visual clues to improve auditory processing accuracy, speed and memory.
