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In South Africa our remedial schools are overflowing. Parents, teachers and practitioners are struggling to find effective interventions to assist children with a variety of learning difficulties.
"I needed to do something and something fast...but as I read, I had a hard time concentrating. Fast ForWord helped me put the pieces of the puzzle together and use areas of my brain that evidently lay dormant for a while." Ray King, high school student. “The results we have seen in just 2 months have been absolutely amazing! Our son has made a 2 year reading level gain and showed significant improvement in his comprehension and phonetic awareness. This programme has really changed our lives.” Beverley, mom to 7 year old Brandon.
Indigo Learning's goal is to bring the best of neuroscience research together with good learning practices. This goal lead to becoming South Africa's only accredited provider of the Scientific Learning Corporation's Fast ForWord intervention programmes. These programmes are based on 30 years of neuroscience research into how the brain learns and lead the scientists to develop a programme aimed at leveraging brain plasticity in order to "re-wire" neural connections.
What led to the programmes being made available in SA was the overwhelming evidence from over three thousands studies conducted by reputable universities such as Stanford and Harvard. For example, in a study done in 2002 by Stanford University, functional MRI was performed on 20 children with dyslexia (8-12 years old) during phonological processing before and after remediation with the Fast ForWord programmes. Behaviourally, training improved oral language and reading performance. Physiologically, children with dyslexia showed increased activity in multiple brain areas.
Neural deficits in children with dyslexia ameliorated by behavioral remediation: Evidence from functional MRI. Temple et al. PNAS, March 4, 2003. Vol. 100, no. 5
Other studies focussed on accelerated learning opportunities for gifted children; special education students with ASD, APD, and ADHD showed significant improvements in working memory, attention, processing speed and sequencing; and at-risk populations gained 1 - 2 years in reading and comprehension in 8 - 12 weeks. The programmes are dynamic, adapting to each child's specific strengths and developmental areas - ensuring a customised individual development plan.
Go to the website (www.indigolearning.co.za) for additional information on the programmes and take a look at some of the foundational research, peer reviewed articles and interesting video clips.
