Update on a previous story....

A while ago I posted here and here about our kids' school purchasing the Fast ForWord program to use with some of the kids who have learning difficulties.

I did end up discussing the concerns I had with the school principal. I gave him a copy of the independent systematic literature review I found that suggested it wasn't the cure-all that it claims to be. He agreed with me at the time that it was a lot of money to be spending if it wasn't something that could be proved to work any better than regular remedial programs. I hoped he might pass the information on, and said I was happy to chat to the learning support teachers to find out more about where they were coming from. I've had a good relationship with them both in the past so I didn't think that would be too threatening.

I heard nothing further, although I did wonder what had come out of it all, given that they already had the funding earmarked for it and it didn't seem likely they could just use the money for something different.

Then yesterday the school newsletter came home with a picture of the learning support teacher, a teacher's aide (who is running the program) and five students, all wearing headphones and in front of a laptop computer. Together with a story about the great new Fast ForWord program they are all working on (every day for a 50 minute session) based on years of neuroscience research. They appear to be using it mostly with older kids. I recognised a couple of Year 5s in the photo that accompanied the story. So I'm guessing these are the kids who have been chronic non-responders to more conventional remedial programs for reading difficulties.

At the end of the story, there was this quote which I assume came from the school's policies somewhere:

"We value all of our students' capabilities and strive to support individuals' learning needs by sourcing resources from new and different angles."

Sigh. I guess there was never any way they weren't going to run with it. But I'm a bit disappointed that I never heard anything back after I had screwed up all my courage to raise questions I had about it.

I hope it works for these kids. Fifty minutes a day, five days a week, is a lot of withdrawal time from their regular curriculum. The report from the teacher's aide was that "even though the program is in its early stages, the students are showing upward trends and moving forward successfully." Hard to know what that means. I guess most kids would enjoy getting taken out of class and allowed to play games on the computer for almost an hour each day. The big question that probably can't be answered yet is whether or not that translates to improvements with their reading skills.

Next year, I am going to be working for a couple of days a week on a short term contract supervising a group of Uni students to run occupational therapy groups in a school. Now I am all the more determined to make sure that what I am encouraging them to do is actually based on solid evidence. No dodgy interventions here.

Update from an earlier post...

Re this post.

I haven't said anything yet. I'm going in to meet with someone from the school executive next week to discuss nominating the school for an award for an innovative program they have been doing. So I thought while I was buttering them up about the good things they do, I might be able to slip in a couple of innocent questions about Fast ForWord while I was there.

But I think the horse may have already bolted. Yesterday's school newsletter had an update on how the Fast ForWord fundraising was going. They made a couple of thousand dollars at the school disco last week. We didn't send our kids to that because we were having a busy week last week. (And our kids won't dance when they do go so I'm a bit over taking them down there when I know that all I'll be doing is watching them roam around the school hall and fending off requests to buy junk food for them).

The little item about the fundraising also mentioned that the school has now received a rather substantial donation from the local bowls club to put towards purchasing the program.

Now that has happened, I doubt they can suddenly change plans and use the money for something else. I was going to suss out whether they might consider contracting a sessional speech pathologist to come in and work with some of the kids whose parents couldn't afford (or just wouldn't) take them to see anyone.

Frustrating. I thought Simone's comment the other day was pretty much spot on. Because the school is doing lots of good things and computer programs are working well to improve numeracy and literacy in the school, it's easy to think in terms of that kind of solution for all the kids with difficulties as well. One size fits all. Lots of online testimonies and health professionals (dodgy ones) singing its praises. Costs lots of money, so the assumption is that it must be fantastic.

But I just don't think there's any quick fix or miraculous computer program that's going to be able to cure all those learning difficulties out there. Especially when parental support is minimal for a lot of these kids anyway. Even providing therapy in a school setting is a bit pointless if there's no follow up at home. But at least the program can be individualised, and teachers supported with ideas that might be able to be implemented within the conventional curriculum.