Remote Learning Success with Fast ForWord® at Gemm Learning

• Students struggling with reading and learning, many who have tried other programs or school services with little to no success
• Need for remote services for better access to support

Geoff Nixon has witnessed over 1,800 student success stories over the years, and the first was his son’s. He reflects, “It started when I saw Fast ForWord dramatically impact the language and vocabulary of my 7-year-old, who was quite significantly speech-delayed.” Nixon was inspired to find Gemm Learning to help other children make the same improvement.

Although Gemm Learning began as an in-center service, Nixon soon recognized the onerous scheduling and transportation obstacles that made consistent in-person attendance a challenge. He transitioned Gemm Learning into a fully remote provider in 2014. Fortunately, Fast ForWord was already designed to be implemented for remote use, without sacrificing its efficacy, ease of use, or progress reporting.

Fast ForWord’s detailed reports allow coaches to see students’ attendance, time online, participation, gains (based on student performance on the exercises as well as on pre- and post-assessments), and a staff favorite: errors. Nixon says, “We love the error reports, as they help us understand the child. They are generally interesting to parents and can make a good discussion point.”

The reports present vast data on student performance in easy-to-read graphs and tables. Nixon attests,

The Fast ForWord software captures every keystroke and presents a child’s progress in charts and error reports that give remote monitors an amazingly clear idea of how a student is doing—where they are doing well, where they are having difficulty. This interface is the key to our confidence in supporting Fast ForWord remotely.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

“These few months on Fast ForWord build a launching pad—cognitively and emotionally—for a better learning trajectory for many years to come,” Nixon states. “When a child goes from ‘reading is mission impossible’ to ‘I can do this,’ it’s a profound change that impacts self-esteem and a confidence boost that makes a child a learning risk-taker, which is the key to future learning success.”

Ginny, the parent of an 8th grader and a certified elementary educator, raves, "I love ClearFluency. [My son] struggles through the longer passages, but I love this program! He chose super easy passages earlier this week. Today he ‘accidentally’ clicked a passage about skateboarding. I told him he could do it! I really love how this is providing pre-reading, fluency, and comprehension."

ClearFluency™️ is a popular component of Fast ForWord that provides real-time corrective feedback on oral reading. Other Fast ForWord components and exercises also offer immediate corrective feedback, along with built-in, just-in-time interventions that appear when students struggle.

Fast ForWord has also profoundly impacted students who do not have learning challenges. A 14-year-old who was a good reader couldn’t follow the teacher in class, and Fast ForWord built his executive function skills. Another child was reading at grade level, but his mother knew he was under-achieving relative to his potential. A few months after starting the program, he exceeded expectations and scored in the top 1% on the TACHS (Test for Admission into Catholic High Schools).

“I have seen the results firsthand,” Nixon states, “and the robustness of Fast ForWord to help in a range of cases I did not fully expect has been one of the positive surprises from this journey. Many of these kids live in my neighborhood and are now doing great, and their learning issues are a distant memory."

Fast ForWord has been consistently helping students improve their language and reading skills for over 25 years. Learn more at the link below.