A preliminary evaluation of Fast ForWord-Language as an adjuvant treatment in language intervention.
OBJECTIVE
Fast ForWord-Language (FFW-L) is designed to enhance children's processing of auditory-verbal signals and, thus, their ability to learn language. As a preliminary evaluation of this claim, we examined the effects of a 5-week course of FFW-L as an adjuvant treatment with a subsequent 5-week conventional narrative-based language intervention (NBLI) that targeted narrative comprehension and production and grammatical output.


METHODS
Twenty-three children 6-8 years of age with language impairments were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 intervention sequences: (a) FFW-L/NBLI, (b) NBLI/FFW-L, or (c) wait/NBLI. We predicted that after both treatment periods, the FFW-L/NBLI group would show greater gains on measures of narrative ability, conversational grammar, and nonword repetition than the other groups.


RESULTS
After the first 5-week study period, the intervention groups, taken together (i.e., FFW-L/NBLI and NBLI/FFW-L), significantly outperformed the no-treatment wait/NBLI group on 2 narrative measures. At the final test period, all 3 groups displayed significant time-related effects on measures of narrative ability, but there were no statistically significant between-groups effects of intervention sequence.


CONCLUSIONS
This preliminary study provides no evidence to support the claim that FFW-L enhances children's response to a conventional language intervention.
Fey
Marc E
ME
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160-7605, USA. mfey@kumc.edu
Finestack
Lizbeth H
LH
Gajewski
Byron J
BJ
Popescu
Mihai
M
Lewine
Jeffrey D
JD
D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D007807:Language Tests; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D033262:Narration; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2005 May;14(2):131-43
15989388
J Speech Hear Res. 1996 Aug;39(4):850-9
8844564
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004 Dec;47(6):1363-79
15842016
Neuroreport. 2009 Aug 5;20(12):1104-8
19543130
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005 Jun;48(3):715-29
16197283
Science. 1996 Jan 5;271(5245):77-81
8539603
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2000 Aug;43(4):865-78
11386474
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev. 2007;13(1):70-7
17326112
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 1999 Apr 1;30(2):152-164
27764277
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1998 Oct;41(5):1136-46
9771635
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1997 Jun;40(3):519-25
9210111
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 1998 Oct 1;29(4):197-206
27764372
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2003 Dec;46(6):1283-96
14700355
Psychol Rev. 1998 Jan;105(1):158-73
9450375
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2004 Aug;47(4):924-43
15324296
J Speech Hear Disord. 1981 May;46(2):114-22
7253588
Int J Speech Lang Pathol. 2008;10(3):132-45
20840047
Science. 1996 Jan 5;271(5245):81-4
8539604
Clin Linguist Phon. 2006 Sep-Oct;20(7-8):553-61
17056486
J Speech Hear Res. 1993 Feb;36(1):141-57
7680731
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2008 Jan;39(1):S110-37
18162642
Brain Res. 2008 Apr 18;1205:55-69
18353284
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2002 Dec;45(6):1142-57
12546484
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2008 Feb;51(1):97-119
18230858