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

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Volume

18

Issue

4

Publication Date

2009

First Page

376

Last Page

387

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the efficacy of Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L) and2 other interventions for improving the phonemic awareness andreading skills of children with specific language impairmentwith concurrent poor reading skills.

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

Results: The children in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI conditions made significantlygreater gains in blending sounds in words compared with theAC group at immediate posttest. Long-term gains 6 months aftertreatment were not significant but yielded a medium effect sizefor blending sounds in words. None of the interventions ledto significant changes in reading skills.

Conclusion: The improvement in phonemic awareness, but not reading, in theFFW-L, CALI, and ILI interventions limits their use with childrenwho have language impairment and poor reading skills. Similarresults across treatment conditions suggest that acousticallymodified speech was not a necessary component for improvingphonemic awareness.

Comments

Published by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Publisher PDF is available through link above. Publisher requires a subscription to access article.

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