Title

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

DOI

10.1044/1058-0360(2009/08-0067)

Abstract

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.

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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