Why did the mother of 9 year old autistic boy, Sullivan, choose the Fast ForWord program for him, when she had a multitude of interventions available?
And did this neuroscience–based program help him?
Sullivan’s mum writes a blog, Rethinkinglearning, where she has documented her journey since he was diagnosed with autism at the age of two.
She writes:
“He has spent his entire childhood in therapy. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy. Applied Behaviour Analysis, Floortime, Relationship Development Intervention. Hippotherapy, sports therapy, music therapy.”
“Every single child with autism is different. And there are about a gazillion different types of interventions available. Some things work. Some things don’t work.”
“He has significant struggles with his expressive language, auditory processing and social skills. Reading comprehension is becoming more and more problematic as the school work gets more difficult. Reading comprehension affects every single subject in school and his general ability to effectively learn.
“Sullivan has a lot of other challenges. So finding a program that could address many of his deficiencies was paramount.”
Sullivan’s mother explains how she learnt about neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. And that led her to the Fast ForWord neuroplasticity program.
“You know these children – the ones who continue to struggle despite repeated intervention. They need an intervention that addresses the root cause of their difficulty, not one that provides accommodations.”
She continues:
“Fast ForWord does what no other intervention can do: it starts with cognitive skills like memory, attention and processing speed and works from the bottom up, using the principles of neuroplasticity.
"Fast ForWord aims to remediate the underlying difficulties. Utilising the principles of neuroplasticity, it addresses the weaknesses of the brain and helps make them strong.”
“This isn’t just about reading comprehension, it is about:
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“The majority of children with autism struggle with everything mentioned above. If we break down the components, the program is very well suited to help a vast number of children on the spectrum."
And finally she said:
“Best of all, the program can be done in the comfort of my own home and only takes 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Having the home based options sure beats sitting in traffic, racing between therapy appointments and shoving dinner down from the back seat.”
So that’s why she had Sullivan participate in this scientifically based and researched validated program for just a few months.
But did it help?
Yes it did!
Sullivan’s mum says, "the progress he’s made in the 3.5 months since starting Fast ForWord has been truly exponential".
Read her article explaining his progress here.
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