Not so enthusiastic

As excited as I have been about using CogStateTM to independently baseline A-Ones's cognitive functioning, and getting ready to try him out with C8 - Kids Cognitive Cross Training, I don't exactly have an enthusiastic partner in my venture.

Last night A-One went to bed early.  His sleeping patterns have become more erratic lately because he's been playing WOW on and off both day and night. However, after last night I thought 'You beaudy!  He's had a really good night's sleep.  His brain will be fresh. What a golden opportunity to begin the CogStateTM practice tests!'  I had been 'warming' him up to them over the last couple of days. Waking him up mid-morning:

Mum: Hi A-One. Time to get up. After such a good night's sleep, let's get started with your round of practice tests today.  How about you get up, eat, have a shower (it's been several days), and we can get started.

A-One: OK, I'll get up, but we'll see about the practice tests.

Later on as he was having breakfast ...

Mum: When will we get started? This afternoon sometime?

A-One: No! I'm not doing it today!

Mum: A-One, this is a golden opportunity because you had such a good night's sleep! Your brain will be on fire!

A-One: I'm not doing it today! 

Mum: The scientists have proven that you need adequate sleep, nutrition, physical exercise, as well as mental exercise for your brain to be healthy, so it's important that you've had adequate sleep to do the tests.

A-One: How do they know that? I'll prove that I can be fine without even 5 hours sleep!

Mum: Do you see that this brain training work is about helping you be able to have a job, and not just a job, but a good job? What will you do instead today?

A-One: Other things.

Mum: Do you think your WOW friends would be happy for you to spend some time away from them, improving things for yourself?

A-One: Yes.   

Mum: Well, can we do it tomorrow?

A-One: Yes.

Mum: What time?

A-One: I don't know!

Mum: How about 10am?

A-One: OK.

Mum: It may take about 3 hours all up.

A-One: Three hours! How come?

Mum: The practice will take about an hour or more, so that you get used to what you have to do.  Then we do the real baseline test, which will take just as long.

A-One: No, we're doing only the first part.

Mum: So when will we do the second part?

A-One: The next day, Sunday.

Mum: I can't do it Sunday because Dad and I have something on Sunday morning.

A-One: Well, whenever is the next time!

Mum: You do realise, don't you, that improving things for yourself can start right now?

So instead today, I'm blogging ... and he's WOW'ing.

Under his own steam

Over the last month I have not been overseeing A-One's brain training too closely.  Under his own steam he has averaged training 3 times a week, which I'm very pleased about. 

At 53.6th percentile, his Flexibility has now finally passed the 50th percentile which is great news too! 

His Problem Solving is the only area that still lags under 10th percentile.

Over the last month we have been learning more about his WOW friends because he talks to them frequently, using his headphones and microphone. When playing, he sits in our family room so that he can use the internet cable instead of our unreliable wireless - we can't help overhearing his end of the conversations.  His sitting in our family area helps to include his online life with ours.

He's a Sharpshooter!

I was listening to a 'Founder Story' of Mike Scanlon, Lumosity's Chief Scientific Officer today.  He made reference to a broader cognitive test that Lumosity members can use every few months to see how their cognitive capacity is going as distinct from how well they are performing in the brain exercises.  (Note: It doesn't seem to work with IE 10, but does with Chrome.)  I can't find a link from the Lumosity website, but I had an email record of the URL from my initial inquiry to Lumosity.

I can't recall why I didn't get A-One to do it initially because that had been my plan.  Perhaps I had thought that limited levels of co-operation were better directed to the actual brain training.

Today he was willing enough to do it.  His test results tell him that his strengths are Speed and Attention. Problem Solving is rated above Memory which is his weakest, even though Memory is his area of strength in the actual exercises and Problem Solving his weakest. The report notes that Attention is good for driving. Imagine that! For a boy who had been told all his life that he needs to be kept on task,  had been on ADD medication for a while, and last year told by the neuropsychologist that he shouldn't get his drivers licence.

I love the encouraging way the report is presented and the smile on A-One's face when he read it: A-One, you are a Sharpshooter! Quick, observant and incisive.  You easily take in information and use penetrating insight to make quick decisions.  With a keen sense of spatial orientation, people with these strengths make natural athletes and navigators.   His overall score also put him in the 'about average' range for people in his age range.

(Would WOW also have something to do with this?)

Mum: See A-One, I think for someone who has your capabilities, it's criminal that you're not out there working or learning an occupation.  And you should be playing to your strengths - get to the gym three times a week!  or Tae Kwon Do or Roller Blading. I'm happy to take you.

A-One: I'd like to go to gym.

Mum: Great.  What time of the day do you want to go - and it should be at least 3 times a week.

He's still thinking about that one.

Mum: For someone who is decisive, it shouldn't take too long for you to make a decision about that.

A-One: I don't think I'd do very well at TAFE, because I struggle with the theory.

Mum: Don't base all your decisions on what you were good at, or not, at school.  Remember all this brain training is to enable you to do those things.  It's not because I'm 'into it' that I'm getting you to do brain training.  It's to make it possible for you to do those things that you are interested in!

A-One: OK.

CogniFit

I've just had a good look at CogniFit.  And it's fun. I saw it referenced in a Friends of SharpBrains LinkedIn discussion.

It's also in SharpBrains list of vendors to watch in 2013/14 and is based on peer reviewed research, although mainly for aging adults. It includes some very interesting features:

• You can register for free and get some free 'neurons' which is like a currency
• You can do an assessment first up to get your profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses as well as how you compare with others in your age range
• Cognitive abilities are described at quite a granular level e.g. not just Memory, but working memory, short-term memory, contextual memory
• You can earn more 'neurons' by training and 'unlock' new games by spending your neurons, or you can purchase more neurons (with real money) to play more
• You can bet your neurons to win more
• You can challenge other players
• The training is tailored based on your assessment
• It's fun

I hadn't investigated this site in depth before because it's pitched to keeping your mind agile as you age, but I think it would be really good for A-One - especially if we can get some other players for him to play with.  It seems to have incorporated the appeal of online multiplayer games e.g. like WOW and the chance of notching up your 'neurons' to play more.

I'm pretty excited about it as it seems to include a number of features that I've been looking for in relation to A-One, in particular the assessments which can be done at any time, the increased granularity of cognitive abilities including planning, the ability to choose specific games for these, and the ability to play with and challenge others.

I've done several training sessions today and have not had to pay any real money. 

(I started using my mouse left-handed several years ago, mainly to ease some tension that had been developing on the right side of my neck from a highly stressful job.  But for these games today I quickly switched to my right hand because the speed challenge sucked me right in!)

Now the hard part is gaining A-One's willingness to try it.

I'm just not that into it Mum

Mum: A-One, I want to get your scores on the last couple of Lumosity games you've played.

A-One: No, not now!

Mum: I told you about an hour ago that I'd be coming to get your scores.

A-One: Not until I've done my games today.

Mum: I'm not waiting until midnight to get your scores for the last couple of days.

A-One: It won't be midnight.

Mum: All you need to do is 'brb' to your WOW mates!  I'm not waiting until tonight! I've given you plenty of notice.

Under sufferance he logged on to get his scores.

Mum: You're now at 40th percentile overall!

A-One (dully): Yes.

Mum: And you are in the 40s for both Attention and Flexibility!  All you need to do is relearn your tables and number facts and your Problem Solving would shoot up too.

A-One: I know what I have to do Mum.

Mum: Sigh.

A Centrelink appointment ... for?

We visited Centrelink this morning to attend an appointment for people on disability pensions who are looking for less than a specified number of hours of work per week. At our last meeting with A-One's Disability Employment Services provider, A-One's target hours per week were recorded as 8-16.  He had received a phone call from Centrelink inviting him to attend an appointment to talk about how he's going; to make sure he's not falling through society's cracks; that he is making progress with his employment goals, and has some engagement with community.

A-One: I'm nervous about this appointment.  I hope they don't ask me any questions I'm uncomfortable with.

Mum: What type of questions might they be?

A-One: If they ask me what else I'm doing besides looking at emails for work.

Mum: How would you answer?

A-One: That I watch some TV, do some reading, play some X-Box games, play computer games.

From where I stand, he seemed to have reversed the order, but I let it pass. Instead I posed some questions he might get.

Mum: What about friends?

A-One: Yes, I talk to them.

Mum: How do you talk to them - call? email? Facebook?

A-One: Facebook.

Mum: When was the last time you talked to them?

A-One: It's been a little while.

Mum: How long is 'a little while'?  Before? After? Christmas?

A-One: After Christmas was the last time.

He observed the security people in the Centrelink office so we went on to discuss why they might be there, when his name was called.

The Centrelink officers were friendly, but the process for the interview seemed to be very perfunctory.  We were advised that this was a new initiative of the federal government, and that his participation was entirely voluntary; that they had a set list of questions to ask and that the outcome would be a plan which he would sign.  The timeframe for any plan could be long term, for example five years.

My impressions?  Accepting A-One's responses at face value with no insightful questioning as to what might really constitute barriers to employment.  In response to A-One's stated goal of becoming a sound engineer or assistant DJ, there was some brief discussion about a TAFE course, but they simply noted that A-One was not doing it. They stressed to A-One that he share his employment goals with his Disability Employment Services (DES) provider.  They gave A-One a glossy package containing a pen, a notebook, and a copy of his signed 'plan' which stated his employment goal which, as he said, is already on his resume anyway. I came away with the feeling that they could tick off another box in 'assisting' people; it seemed more like a bureaucratic overhead.

Our discussion on the way home seemed to provide more insight that I thought such an interview might have drawn out.

A-One: I don't  mind doing study that is hands on, like making sure that everything is connected properly, but I'd struggle if I had to do assignments that required writing.  Even games testing would be good, but I'd have difficulty writing reports of the tests.  There are problems with WOW, but I don't know if the WOW developers would think they are problems.

Mum: There's a website where you can submit problems with WOW - perhaps you could start small by practising reporting bugs there?

A-One: You see, in WOW my character is at level 90 and I've been trying to get a recipe for food for health - you can restore the health of your character with food.  It's at level 60, which should be really easy for me, but I've been trying for years to get it and still haven't - that's very frustrating. You see I like to collect full sets of things, and ...

... and so on for the rest of our trip home.

Easter holidays

As Easter approached, we told A-One about our plans for family camping, as we often do at Easter.  A-One was not enthusiastic.

A-One: Do I have to go?

Mum: Yes. We can't leave you here for 6 days on your own.  You can't even drive to the supermarket for food.

A-One: Will there be anyone else there?

Mum: Yes.  Some of your cousins will be there.

He likes the company of his cousins but he came along grudgingly nevertheless, leaving his packing until late as usual.  He has two tents of his own, but he elected to sleep in the second room of our two-room family tent because there was less setup.

We are used to his 'help' at setting up camp. It involves a lot of looking on his part, and a lot of doing on ours.

Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves, and tried to allocate washing/wiping up to A-One only when timing wasn't important.

Once A-One's cousins had left he kept asking if we could leave a day early. We didn't. However, when it came to packing up, his level of helpfulness was a notch up on his usual standard.

More remarkable was his ready willingness to come with us the next weekend to stay in a high rise apartment down the coast.  No protests about going.  I told him there'd be free internet (enough for emails, but probably not enough for games), but he decided not to take his laptop! When we arrived, he wanted photos of him with other well known high rises in the background, and was keen to go for a walk to check out the surrounds.  This level of enthusiasm is rare.

We ate in the mall on Saturday night, watching the passing crowds, many of whom were dressed up for clubbing.

A-One: There's a real vibe here and I like it. I think I should have worn something better.  I'd really like to stay out - if only I had some friends to go out with.

Perhaps his new Disability Employment Service can help him gain the skills to be more engaged socially.  However, he will need to decide (and follow through) on how much time he plays WOW.  Today, he told us: 'I've just got a mount that I've been trying to get for ages!!!!  I've killed the boss 46 times - it feels like much more than that - but I've finally got the golden Phoenix!  I'm so happy, I'm just shaking!!!'

Real life changes?

So after a good three months actual time brain training (longer in elapsed time), have there been any changes in real life for A-One?

I'm aware that results of non-blind clinical studies can be biased by the 'want it to happen' factor, and that may apply to me too.  That said, here are my observations of some behaviours over the last month that I haven't noticed before:

With his proposed change of Employment Service Provider, A-One needed to go through Centrelink hoops again, one of which was his Employment Service Assessment interview (previously called Job Capability Assessment or JCA).  I attended with him.  I noted how he reported the challenging feedback that he had received from previous jobs i.e. his variable productivity.  I realise that expressing this played to his verbal communication strength, however he articulated it very well. Also, when I was deciding out loud on a route home he suggested one route over an alternative and was able to back up his suggestion with a reasoned argument.  There's more 'connecting' in two-way conversations than when he was little; conversations were always like two games of ping-pong - he'd always say what he wanted to say regardless of whatever we said to him.

Of late, A-One has participated in more family conversations or discussions:

• We were watching the news when he ventured an opinion about a news item.  As far as I can recall, that's a first.  The family continued discussing his opinion, including him.
• 'You're a bit of a nerd' he told his sister amiably one day.  It struck me that he had never made such a comment before.
• One day when I was urging him to do his brain training he said, 'You know Mum, I'm just not into it as you are.'  While he still frequently invokes the 'I'm not doing it' or 'I will do it' (at some deliberately undefined time), this response was a new one.
• 'I play WOW because I enjoy it.' While that may seem obvious, he was responding to his sister's question about why he spends so much time at it.  I think the difference was that his tone was less defensive than other times, instead merely a statement about his position.

Or perhaps he is simply growing in confidence and maturity ...

Coping with a change in disability employment service provider

Even though it was Sunday yesterday, A-One did his Lumosity training.  He had been reminded by his father, and didn't protest that it was the weekend.  However, he hasn't yet done his training today.

He's still plateau'ing in his scores, so no change much yesterday.  No information processing or working memory games, but he gained another PB again for the cafe game (familiar faces). He's really strong on that one.

 

This morning we attended an appointment with a new disability employment service (DES) provider, specialising in intellectual and learning disability, the only one in Queensland.  We have the usual hoops to go through, as we did a couple of years ago, including a Job Capability Assessment (JCA) at Centrelink next Monday. 

 

While his previous DES provider was good too, I was keen to try this new one due to their specialty. This one had been recommended to me by someone at the workshop I attended at University of Queensland last year.

 

A-One: Do you think the other DES people will think badly of me for changing? I don't want them to think badly of me because they were OK.  Sometimes they'd give me a lift to the bus stop, or even drive me home.

Mum: I expect they may be disappointed in losing a client, and I don't want to leave on bad terms either.  We'll give them a courtesy call to thank them for all their help, and tell them that this new service specialises in disabilities like yours, so we'd like to try it.

I'm glad that A-One is tuning into interpersonal aspects. I've seen him make similar comments when contemplating changing guilds in WOW too.

ESCoNS Cognitive Neurotherapeutics - a new field of gaming

A-One seems to have reached a plateau in his Lumosity brain training over the last couple of days, sitting at overall percentile of  31.9.  His games have included information processing and working memory on most of the last three days with several PBs on Wednesday.  However, yesterday (Thursday) he achieved a PB for Penguin Pursuit! This is the speed game where he complains that the penguin is cheating because it goes faster than he can. Nevertheless he completed level 15 of the game, and commented that he hasn't cracked level 16 yet.

Through SharpBrains I was alerted to an exciting symposium happening at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles this month. It's the second annual conference and meeting of The Entertainment Software and Cognitive Neurotherapeutics Society.  The press release states that it fosters collaboration to advance development of video game therapy to diagnose and combat mental disorders and improve cognitive learning, brain capacity and function. 

The society seems to have developed the whole new and exciting field of “cognitive neurotherapeutics.” What got me really excited was that the founder of the society is a past Executive of Activision Blizzard which publishes World of Warcraft!  So that means that there are others who recognise the potential of combining the disciplines of good game design with neuroscientific brain training!  It makes me feel hopeful about the increasing availability of online brain training exercises.  We just need to ensure that it's clear how to assess which games address which cognitive dysfunctions.

It takes time to be handsome

With no WiFi at present, A-One has connected his laptop into the last spare cable internet connection in the study.  As I have been working at my laptop too, we have been spending more time in each other's company.  In fact, I spent several days engrossed in some work of my own, and A-One beat me to bed one night! Or more accurately, one morning.  I well understand the draw of some kinds of work, just to see it completed - as A-One finds with campaigns in WOW.  These days I usually avoid activities that hook me in this way because there are many other things that also need my attention.  So for me, I'm glad my work of last week is over and that I've returned to the land of the living.

A-One played his brain training exercises Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On several days he played in his pyjamas at the eleventh hour, knowing now that if he waits until after midnight, it doesn't count for that day.

• His best score for Speed was on Tuesday, achieving his highest yet, coming in at 56.2nd percentile.  Since then he's been steady at 54.4th percentile, with a slight drop on Friday to 54.1st percentile.

• He has also been steady on Memory at 47.8th percentile with working memory played most days, rising to 48.8th percentile on Friday.

• Very few Attention games were offered this last week, so A-One has been steady there too at 33.4th percentile.

• Of late his program seems to have been exercising mainly his Flexibility, particularly brain shift, which has seen a good improvement last week, rising to 28.2nd percentile. I'm hoping these exercises will help him with his rigidity - in helping formulate options when considering courses of action.

• No change in problem solving (only a couple of games last week), at 9.1st percentile.

• His overall percentile is now 31.2nd percentile - still his highest yet.

A-One and I reviewed his results each day, and if information processing and working memory were not offered, I suggested additional games.  However with my own busy-ness I did not push it, and A-One did not play any additional games last week.

Nevertheless on Friday I felt like celebrating, so on Friday morning I raised the idea of going out for a low key dinner that night.  A-One seemed open to the idea.  I reminded him that he'd need to be ready by 6:30pm so that we could pick up his sister from work on the way.

I was very pleased to see him stop playing WOW at 5pm, with no prompting, to have a shower. At about 5:30pm he came downstairs wrapped in a towel to check with me again about the leaving time.  I told him that he needed to be ready by 6:30pm in case his sister rang for an early pickup, as she sometimes does, but that if she doesn't ring, we'd be leaving at 6:45pm. He then went back upstairs.

At 6:45pm he was still in the bathroom.

Mum: We have to leave now A-One.  Your sister has just called too.

A-One: I'll only be a couple of minutes.

Mum: But we have to leave now - as I told you this morning.  You've had all that notice!

A-One: I won't be long.

At 6:53pm:

Mum: A-One, we have to leave!

A-One: Okay. I'll only be a couple of minutes.

Mum: We have to go!

At 6:55pm, he came out of the bathroom looking very smart - he had shaved and put on nice clothes. I was pleased that he had taken care with his appearance, but I was also very conscious that his (younger) sister was waiting on a city street. At night. On her own.

Mum: I was really looking forward to being able to tell you what a great job you did being ready on time.  You stopped playing WOW at 5 o'clock which was great, but then you were still almost half an hour late!

A-One: If you must know, I was cutting my nails.  I've only done one hand.

(A-One's beard and nails get quite long when he plays WOW for weeks on end.)

Mum: Well, that's great too that you want to spruce up for going out - you look very handsome - but if you need more time to do that, then you need to start earlier.  You might say sorry to your sister for being late.

He didn't say sorry when we picked up his sister, but we did have a lovely meal.  With a little encouragement he tried something new to eat - and he finished it all before the rest of us, saying that's what he'll have every time he comes here!

Both a tortoise and a hare

It's been over a week and A-One has had no calls about going back to work. Despite our urging to make contact to show his interest, he has heard nothing and has not been willing to make the phone call.

So I did.

He has been registered with a disability employment service for several years, and they found him his current job.  I spoke to his consultant.  I had wanted to call her anyway to let her know about A-One's brain training work, and to let her know how it has been going.  I also mentioned the Arrowsmith program and how I have joined an advocacy group to bring the program to Australia.  It was not one with which she was familiar.

Of most interest to me was the feedback she gave about A-One's work.  She found that A-One worked really well on some days, but was very slow on others.  He worked best when there was someone there all the time encouraging him with 'You can do it A-One'.  When there wasn't anyone there he was very easily distracted, or would do the same thing over several times when it wasn't really required.  His work buddy was able to complete the whole job sooner on his own than when they worked together and was not returning to the job. So A-One's job is on hold until they can find someone else to be his work buddy.

That certainly consolidated for me the consistency of our experience of A-One:

• at home
• his first job after he left school (Life since school)
• this job (It's all in the timing)

I spoke with A-One about it.

A-One: Why did you phone up? That's not your business!

Mum: Because Dad and I wanted to know what was going on.  We wanted some idea as to when you might be going back to work.

Mum: We're hearing again that even though you know the job very well, it's the inconsistency in your pace that is difficult for employers.  You often tell me 'I know' when I remind you about doing things, and it's clear to me that you can readily learn a job, but you need help in doing it at a consistent pace.

A-One: My work buddy probably got sick of me.

Mum: I don't know anything about that.

A-One resumed playing WOW  as I was speaking to him.

Mum: Could you take your character to a safe place and pause the game while we're talking about this?

A-One: I can listen to you while I do this.  See I'm responding to you?

Mum: That's pretty amazing seeing your auditory processing is somewhat impaired ....

Mum: Remember your cooking plan which includes the times of when to do things (It's all in the timing)?  What if you do that for other jobs so that you can do them at a more consistent pace, and improve your work prospects?  Use the clock as your friend to check things off against the time on the plan. Remember how I tell you to take note of the time when you start and finish jobs? We've been trying to tell you this, but you haven't wanted to know.

A-One: I get it Mum.





Later on A-One came downstairs and asked me which additional games he should play today.

That's a first. 

New priorities for the new year?

A-One's laptop came back from repair on Tuesday (2 days ago), so he has been able to resume his online brain training yesterday and today. We're finally back into the swing of things after a long vacation period.

The most challenging aspects of the vacation period was when I needed A-One to do some jobs by a certain time, especially being ready to go away on holidays. I still haven't struck the magic formula for having him co-operate in that respect, which heightens the stress levels all round. Nevertheless, once we do get away, he is more willing to do as asked by those not from his immediate family.  So I'm thinking I need to more actively pursue brain training alternatives this year which involve people outside his immediate family, who may be more successful in having him give it higher priority.

It has been almost two months since he has logged on for anything. For a while he had access to another PC in the office, but his sister decided to reformat her external hard drive, and it seems she included its C: drive because it no longer boots up.  So A-One occupied his time mostly with X-Box and DVDs while eagerly awaiting his laptop repair.

Happily, when I went into his room yesterday, he was logging in to his Lumosity training (after some reminders).

A-One: Mum, see how the dot in the calendar appears in the middle of the week? Isn't it better to start next Monday so that the calendar shows dots for a full week of exercises?

Mum: No, it doesn't matter.  It's better that you resume your training as soon as possible.

I had to go out, and when I returned, he was happy to show me how he'd gone.  He was given all new games to do, so all were personal bests (PBs). He had dropped 43 in his overall Brain Performance Index (BPI) from 737 in December, mainly due to a drop in speed.  I wondered how long it would take him to recover his former scores.

His conversation however was all about a slight glitch he had encounted while playing World of Warcraft (WOW). He was keen to describe, at length, the glitch and his attempts to fix it including posting a question to a game master.  Today he received a reply, and spent many hours following the tips, which resulted in his now being unable to log on (hooray!).

Mum: How has your brain training gone today?

A-One: Fixing this is more important!

Mum: ... a repeat of a conversation we've had many times ... my patience is waning ...

I wish!

Nevertheless, by the time I came back to 'remind' him again, he had logged on.

Several hours later when I was free again to see how he went, he had almost recovered his former BPI score!  He had again gained PBs for all games, including the old 'cafe' game where he had to remember people's names from way back in December!  He was also keen to show me how to play the new games, so I was happy to see his willingness to play them again.

Lumosity has games specifically for working memory, so I've started encouraging him to add in some additional games each day, just for that.  Now I have to think about how I'll get him to do it ...





 

Patience!

My regular physical exercise includes cardio and weight/resistance work.  I wonder if negotiating with A-One also gives my mind a mental workout.  My father-in-law commented once after A-One spent some holidays with them, "A-One is such a blessing. He really teaches you patience!"

After feeling despondent on Friday, I stepped back a little for A-One to choose his own time for brain training over the weekend (only Lumosity, no clocks).  In the context of WOW, we had some discussions about agreeing with others to do things at or by a certain time.  A-One understands the concept, ably articulating the courtesies about time commitments when playing WOW with others.

So how do we help him translate that to real life! I am endeavouring to incorporate some sense of timing/planning in our work together.  That is probably the most disabling of his cognitive impairments when it comes to his employability.

Anyway, he completed his brain training on his own for both days, again improving his overall Brain Performance Index (BPI).

This morning, he arose, completed his morning jobs and went straight to his brain training - again on his own.  I was on the treadmill when he came out beaming, "I've just unlocked the next level in the cafe game!"  We looked at his results, and his BPI chart rose more steeply today - yay!

Before we took up the clocks again:

Mum: I'll be finished my exercise in about 20 minutes, then we can get on to the clocks again.  This time we'll add a second hand.

A-One: Why do I need to do that?  Second hands aren't important to telling the time!

Mum: Mostly, that's true.  The clocks exercise isn't just about telling the time.  It's about exercising that part of your brain so that you can understand concepts and ideas better.  When you read something, you can read it very well, but you don't always understand what you are reading.  This exercise will help you understand what you read better.


I'm basing this on Barbara Arrowsmith-Young's experience where, after 3 months of doing increasingly complex clock exercises, she was able to read philosophy and understand it!

I had added seconds to the same exercises that he had done with just 2 hands, but kept the old exercises out of sight.  We started by looking at the second hand of a clock, so that he could count the 60 seconds around the clock for a minute.  Once he got the hang of that, he managed the first page of clocks pretty well.  I observed that for every clock he counted in fives around the clock for the second hand.

A-One: That's all I'm doing today!

What A-One doesn't know yet is that I plan to incorporate some comprehension testing into our program.  I may use a book of short stories, and start with a single paragraph, asking him what he thinks the key point is and what the story may be about.

Isn't there more?

My son, A-One, completed high school a few years ago, gaining his senior certificate. For A-One's father and me, it had been a bit of a hard slog trying to help him.

While A-One could read and spell well, his comprehension was poor.  He had a good memory for facts, but was unable to apply himself to any kind of analysis.  Maths had always been a challenge.  He could not grasp the concept of planning his time.

Today, he is on a disability pension and has some part-time unskilled work.  He is nocturnal, and loves to play World of Warcraft.

I  believe there can be more in life for him.