Fast ForWord

Make fast and lasting reading gains.

Literacy Elementary School (K-5) Middle School (6-8) High School (9-12) Supplemental Learning

Fast ForWord is an adaptive reading program that sets learners up for success with intensive, 1-on-1 instruction in foundational language and literacy skills while also building the cognitive capacities that support strong reading and learning. Fast ForWord doesn’t just build better readers; it builds better learners.

Learn how Fast ForWord makes better readers and lifelong learners

Fast ForWord is an evidence-based, personalized, and adaptive reading and language program that produces 1-2 years gains for any struggling learner in as little as 40-60 hours of use.

How Fast ForWord does it differently

Cognitive skill-building

Fast ForWord’s targeted reading intervention prepares students for core literacy growth by focusing on the cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing, and sequencing (MAPS) to optimize learning readiness.

Thoroughly researched and reviewed

No other reading and language intervention program has been as thoroughly researched and reviewed as Fast ForWord, with more than 55 patents in neuroscience and education and more than 300 research studies verifying its effectiveness.

Rapid student gains that last

Fast ForWord offers precise practice and personalized, targeted support—accelerating student access to core content and grade-level instruction. When used consistently, Fast ForWord can help students attain 1-2 years of reading growth after just 40-60 hours of use.

Fast ForWord (K-12)

I am an adaptive reading intervention program designed by neuroscientists to be highly motivating to K-12 students.

My purpose is to strengthen both literacy and cognitive skills and build better readers and learners.

ClearFluency (K-12)

I am the 1-to-1, individualized reading tutor that trains fluent readers.

My purpose is to enable students to self-monitor and self-correct to become confident, fluent readers.

mySciLEARN

I am a simple-to-use platform where you can access reports, demos, and other resources.

My purpose is to help you to access and manage all of your products in one easy platform.

Teacher Manuals

I am a set of guides to implement each exercise, complete with exercise overview, demo script, intervention suggestions, guidance on how to read reports, and more.

My purpose is to make sure you and your students are getting the most out of each Fast ForWord exercise.

Reading Progress Indicator

I am a pre- and post-assessment that measures phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.

My purpose is to record reading gains.

Reports

I am real-time data on student learning at the individual,class, school, and district level.

My purpose is to provide critical insight that helps you guide improved student outcomes.

Live Monitoring

I am a live facilitation tool that gives you real-time updates on student progress, setbacks, and activity in Fast ForWord.

My purpose is to provide in-the-moment, actionable data to better understand and support your students' specific needs.

The Academy

I am an online training and certification pathway that streamlines the onboarding process, provides on-demand and live training, and offers opportunities to earn CE credit.

My purpose is to make Fast ForWord easy to implement so you and your students get the best results.

Key features

Explore Program Samples

Each student has a personalized learning experience that starts with being placed at their level within the Fast ForWord program. Exercises adapt to students' performance, providing precise and efficient training optimized for students' individual needs.

When working in the ClearFluency component, students receive real-time corrective feedback from a virtual personal tutor as they read aloud. Just imagine the progress students would make if there were enough teachers to work side-by-side with every single student at the same time—now it’s possible.

Administrators see school- and district-level reports to indicate which groups need more support and to highlight dramatic student gains as evidence for investment. Teachers see exercise progression and overall reading gains to know which students need targeted support and which skills their students need to develop the most. Students have easy-to-interpret progress reports of their success, motivating them to continue making gains.

Age-appropriate characters or themes, animated rewards, real-time progress meters, and other features engage students as they work on gamified exercises that adapt to students' performance. Motivated students who work on this personalized and adaptive program make rapid progress, no matter their starting point.

Teacher onboarding has never been easier with on-demand instructional videos and frequent live trainings.Thoughtfully designed instructor manuals minimize prep time and include lesson plans, exercise overviews, and ready-to-use student worksheets.

Explore Our Sample Center

Memory

Strong long-term and working memory help us understand and retain information, build sound/letter correspondence, and support fluency and comprehension.

Fast ForWord exercises build phonological working memory by asking students to remember sounds long enough to identify and match them.

Attention

The ability to focus on specific information, sustain that focus, and ignore distractions while carrying out a task is essential to building strong literacy.

Fast ForWord builds attention by requiring student to attend to directions, phonemes, words, or sentences in every exercise.

Processing

Processing skills allow us to integrate and make sense of auditory and/or visual information. Phonemic awareness (connecting letters to sounds) is critical for reading, but some children struggle to perceive and process sounds.

Some Fast ForWord exercises use acoustically modified speech to help students distinguish between similar sounds, such as those made by “P,” “B,” and “D,” so they can retrain their brains to process these sounds effectively.

Sequencing

Sequencing is the ability to track the order of things, such as the sounds in a word, the words in a sentence, the sentences in a paragraph, or the events in a story.

All Fast ForWord exercises incorporate sequencing practice. From understanding the order of directions to building with sound parts in a sequence that creates words, learners practice accurately completing tasks in a desired order.

Who is Fast ForWord for?

The Fast ForWord program is probably the most effective product I have come across in my 36 years of public school work.

Bobby Simma
Principal

Every brain is different, and different learners have different strengths and needs. Fast ForWord offers a personalized and differentiated learning pathway that maximizes achievement for each student struggling to read, including those with dyslexia.

Perkins, OK Second Graders Achieve 1 Year Reading Gain in Only 57 Days View the study

Struggling Readers

The Fast ForWord program is probably the most effective product I have come across in my 36 years of public school work.

Bobby Simma
Principal

Perkins, OK Second Graders Achieve 1 Year Reading Gain in Only 57 Days View the study

Tier 2 or 3 Instruction

Our high school students who struggled to pass the state test were placed in Fast ForWord and ClearFluency, and our graduation rate improved. Our dropout rate decreased as well. It’s now at 3.4 percent, which places us in the top 10 of districts in the state with the lowest dropout rates.

Jody Woodrum
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum And Instruction

Fast ForWord is a proactive and preventative solution that accelerates learning and reduces the likelihood of students requiring more intensive interventions in the future. Individualized evidence-based strategies are combined with cognitive skill development and SEL best practices.

STARKVILLE, MS: K—10 Struggling Readers Achieve 1 Year, 3 Months Gain in Only 68 Days View the study

Special Education

In all my 30 years of education, this is the first program that I think really provides hope for the kids. Everything else was just a stopgap, but this is giving them the gift of ability, which we had thought all along you couldn’t do a lot about. Fast ForWord is the only thing I have seen that actually increases their ability to learn.

Sharon Fouts
Assistant Superintendent of Schools

Endorsed by the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), Fast ForWord is designed to target the root causes of learning and reading difficulty in the brain. By addressing underlying causes of learning disabilities, Fast ForWord allows students to flourish as learners and achieve lifelong improvements.

SWARTZ CREEK, MI: 30 Percent Fewer Special Education Referrals in Swartz Creek, Michigan, Community Schools View the study

English Language Learners

Having the Fast ForWord program is like having an individual tutor for each student. It also provides us with real-time data for each student, which is valuable for me and our teachers.

Joseph Stadalis
Principal

Ranked the top English language development program on What Works Clearinghouse™, Fast ForWord is designed to provide English phonics training, intensive grammar and vocabulary practice, as well as the oral speaking and reading reinforcement necessary to build both basic and academic English proficiency.

AMELIA, LA: Early Intervention Helps Students Improve Performance on State Assessments, Exit LEP Status View the study

Underperforming Schools

Our test scores are proof positive that Fast ForWord works.

Leonard J. Armato
Superintendent

When students struggle across a school or district, the root of learning challenges is often systematic. Fast ForWord targets cognitive skills indispensable to reading - working memory, attention, and processing - enabling children to catch up and improve school and district performance in the process.

CENTERVILLE, LA: St. Mary Parish Public School System Dramatically Improves Student Performance, Moving from the Bottom Half to the Top Quartile in Louisiana View the study

One of the most researched interventions

Fast ForWord is backed by 30+ years of multilevel research on the science of learning and more than 300 research studies on the software. In addition to having the most What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) studies of any reading intervention to meet evidence standards, Fast ForWord has earned the Research-Based Design Product Certification from Digital Promise. Fast ForWord meets ESSA’s highest standard of “Strong Evidence.”

Learn more about Strong Evidence

Looking for an effective tutoring program?

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Implementation support

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Leadership support

If you're interested in Fast ForWord for your school district, private practice, or family, you can explore resources, case studies, and more on our Fast ForWord companion site.

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Fast ForWord

How Fast ForWord does it differently

Cognitive skill-building

Thoroughly researched and reviewed

Rapid student gains that last

Your Fast ForWord experience includes:

Key features

Memory

Attention

Processing

Sequencing

Who is Fast ForWord for?

Looking for an effective tutoring program?

If you're interested in Fast ForWord for your school district, private practice, or family, you can explore resources, case studies, and more on our Fast ForWord companion site.