A gathering spot for warriors fighting for their special-needs children

If you're one of the many who have come to the realization that your public school system is out to get away with doing the absolute minimum for your special-needs child and is not actually interested in helping or educating your child, join the crowd. Bring some passion and some factual evidence and step into the fray.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Is Fast ForWord right for your child?

With a little persistence and the help of the new PEC overseer Aaron Fernander, who seems to be a guy who's really on the ball, our son, Vance Lockridge, is about to become the first child (so they say) in the PEC to have Scientific Learning's Fast ForWord computer-based instructional software made part of his daily school routine.

If you've never heard of Fast ForWord, you can find more information here. Basically, it's a series of games based on the idea that the brain is very plastic, and weak connections can be improved. The software is used mostly to help kids who aren't reading very well for their age level, but I think an obvious and much higher-impact application is helping autistic kids like our son overcome a spoken-language deficit.

Here's a video of Vance that we made to show our IEP team. I'm very gung-ho about this particular product; it commanded our son's attention in a way that no human teacher or therapist has ever been able to do. Many autistic kids seem to have more of an affinity for computers (and, in Vance's case, the iPhone) than for people. Why not go with that, and ride it as far as you can take it?

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