American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.18 376-387 November 2009. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2009/08-0067)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Research

The Effects of Fast ForWord Language on the Phonemic Awareness and Reading Skills of School-Age Children With Language Impairments and Poor Reading Skills

Diane Frome Loeb
The University of Kansas, Lawrence

Ronald B. Gillam
Utah State University, Logan

LaVae Hoffman
The University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Jayne Brandel
Janet Marquis
The University of Kansas

Contact author: Diane Loeb, University of Kansas, Department of Speech-Language-Hearing, 3042 Dole Building, Lawrence, KA 66045-2181. E-mail: dianelo{at}ku.edu.

Purpose: To examine the efficacy of Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L) and 2 other interventions for improving the phonemic awareness and reading skills of children with specific language impairment with concurrent poor reading skills.

Method: A total of 103 children (age 6;0 to 8;11 [years;months]) with language impairment and poor reading skills participated. The children received either FFW-L computerized intervention, a computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), an individualized language intervention (ILI), or an attention control (AC) computer program.

Results: The children in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI conditions made significantly greater gains in blending sounds in words compared with the AC group at immediate posttest. Long-term gains 6 months after treatment were not significant but yielded a medium effect size for blending sounds in words. None of the interventions led to significant changes in reading skills.

Conclusion: The improvement in phonemic awareness, but not reading, in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI interventions limits their use with children who have language impairment and poor reading skills. Similar results across treatment conditions suggest that acoustically modified speech was not a necessary component for improving phonemic awareness.

Key Words: Fast ForWord Language, specific language impairment, phonological awareness, word reading, evidence-based intervention


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