Technology helps children

Technology helping childrent with language skills

In line with the recent White House Conference on Early Childhood Development that addressed how children's brains develop language skills, Scientific Learning Corporation recently announced a breakthrough training program, Fast ForWord(TM), that offers as much as eighteen months worth of language skill improvements to children with language impairments in less than seven weeks. This is a dramatic development for the ten percent of all children who struggle with language impairments.

The importance of new brain research that shows us how children acquire the language skills they need to survive and lead productive lives. Research presented by Dr. Patricia Kuhl, a leading researcher from the University of Washington, at the conference shows that six month-old babies have already begun to develop the specialized skills they need to recognize their native language. Research also shows that problems with these basic processes manifest themselves very early in life.

"Parents should learn to recognize certain symptoms that tell if they have a child with a language impairment," says Dr. Bill Jenkins, Director of Development at Scientific Learning Corporation, "because now we can help their children enjoy tremendous skill improvements."

Scientific Learning Corporation's new Fast ForWord(TM) training program, based on two decades of research by the company's founders on how the brain learns, has been rigorously tested with more than 500 children and 60 speech and language professionals at 35 sites, including schools in the U.S. and Canada. Field tests confirm the program's unprecedented skill-improvement results.

Internet and CD-ROM-based, the program features cutting-edge computer exercises, an Internet community that brings professionals, parents, and children with language impairments together with SLC technical and customer support representatives, allowing rapid analysis of continuously updated data to track each child's progress.

According to Jenkins, advances such as Fast ForWord(TM) mean parents need to pay much closer attention to their children's language development and difficulties.

Children with language impairments may demonstrate clear symptoms by age 2 to 3, including:

• few words spoken or understood,
• few combined phrases,
• slowness in learning new words, and
• speech that is very difficult to understand.

By age 4 to 5, symptoms may include:

• the limited vocabulary and sentence structure of a 2 to 3 year-old,
• phonological (how speech sounds) or syntax problems, and
• behavioral problems.

From age 6 on, symptoms may include:

• intensified social and emotional problems,
• reading problems, and
• significant impairments in academic achievement.

Once a child has been diagnosed, Fast ForWord(TM) uses cutting-edge computer exercises that acoustically alter speech sounds so they are more readily distinguishable to them. Unlike their non-language impaired peers, these children are not able to distinguish the rapidly changing sound elements and sequences of normal speech.

"The impact of Fast ForWord on children with language impairments is profound," says Dr. Michael Merzenich, a leading authority on brain plasticity from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and co-founder of SLC. "It's similar to what children with vision impairments experience when they first put on a new pair of glasses. This program is like glasses for the ears."

Wacky farm animals, clowns, and other entertaining animated characters keep the exercises fun and rewarding as the exercises emphasize and dramatize sounds such as "ba" and "da," which allow the brain to grasp the subtle differences. As the children master new skills, the exercises become progressively more advanced, enabling them to continually increase their rate of speech processing, which in turn leads to normal speech perception.

Scientific Learning Corporation is a privately held firm founded last year by Drs. Tallal and Merzenich, along with their colleagues, Dr. William Jenkins from the University of California at San Francisco and Dr. Steve Miller from Rutgers. The company develops unique programs to improve human learning and performance that are based on neuroscience research and scientifically validated results. Headquartered in San Francisco, Scientific Learning Corporation now has a team of 60 professionals with expertise in linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, art and animation, advanced computer technology, business, and marketing.