So we put headphones on the kids and use the computer to slow words down, emphasizing the components. The kids love it. School computers are connected to the company's network, which analyzes each child's daily performance and flags any problems. Not everyone is raving. Reid Lyon, chief of reading research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, thinks that the intensive practice, rather than any brain retraining, may explain performance gains, so schools might be paying for a needless gimmick.
Computers are extra.
But Waterford contains more exercises focused on fluency, says psychologist Joseph Torgesen, a reading disabilities expert at Florida State University. A child says a word aloud after a computer prompt. It is recorded, played back for comparison, and stored for teacher review. Plus, there's a wide assortment of books and tapes for kids to take home, giving parents more chances to get involved. The program, which focuses on grades K through two, requires kids to practice for 15 to 30 minutes a day for a whole year.