We got started today!

A-One and I started today with Lumosity. 

He had asked me to wake him when I woke up.  So I did.  I woke him, went for my shower ... then woke him again.  He was surprised when I told him that I'd woken him once already.

Nevertheless, I took it as a sign that he wanted to start his brain training.  He had a couple of other jobs to do and thought we'd be doing the brain training 'later', but I reminded him that important things get done first.

First we needed to set the priority of areas of training.  I retrieved the neuropsychologist's report and suggested an order.  He accepted 'speed' as top priority.  I wanted to put 'attention' as next priority, but he wanted to put 'memory' second.

Mum: Can you tell me why you want to put 'memory' next?

A-One: I just do.

Mum: Can you tell me what you hope to be able to do if you improve your memory?

A-One: So that I can remember things faster.

Mum: Do you understand what 'memory' means for these exercises?  It's not like 'what was the last movie you saw' or 'when did you last meet up with your friends', it's more like 'tell me your birthdate backwards'.

A-One: We're not changing it.

So ... we didn't change it.

A-One didn't take a lot of time to read all the instructions carefully; he was happy to get into the games.  The things I like about Lumosity are:

• whatever the results, it's affirming - and compares results to personal bests (PBs)
• its look and feel suits adults

While A-One was happy enough to do the games, he wasn't interested in any extension work today.

We looked at his results compared to others in his age range, and I explained to him what that means.  His results today put him in the lowest 1st to 10th percentile in his age range, but I explained to him that what is important is how he tracks against his PB - and he had improved since the trial we'd done a couple of weeks ago!

With a numerical exercise game I wondered whether he was mentally calculating the answers or remembering the number facts.  He said he was doing the counting mentally in his head as fast as he could (as I had suspected). 

I told him another way to do 9+ sums by turning them into 10+ sums, because 10+ sums are often easier.  While I still had his attention, I put out 14 toothpicks: 9 toothpicks, 5 toothpicks.  I moved one toothpick to make 10 toothpicks, 4 toothpicks.  And he said: So if it's 9+3, you can make it 10+2!  I said 'Yes! Had you known about that?' He said 'No'. 

I was thankful for two things today:

• A-One was willing to look at the toothpicks with me, even though he'd finished his 15 minutes of brain training today
• He got it!