The Challenge

A few days ago I was reading a SharpBrains article about whether brain training really works, and read with interest my own burning question: 'how to max­i­mize the like­li­hood of trans­fer from train­ing to daily life.'

One of the conditions is that it must target a bottleneck. 'For instance, if you need to train your exec­u­tive func­tions but use a pro­gram designed to enhance speed of pro­cess­ing, you may well con­clude that this pro­gram does not “work.” But this pro­gram may work for some­body whose bot­tle­neck is speed of pro­cess­ing ...'

Bingo.
This is the area where I have been looking lately for some professional assistance.  Where is the user's guide to online brain training, so that someone can pick the right brain training exercise for their specific area of impairment?  Even the jargon for describing cognitive capacities seems to vary between sites, or is too general, so it's not always clear which exercises match A-One's specific deficits.


To this end, I have contacted some organisations to raise the possibility of combining professional expertise with online brain training, not for general brain fitness but specifically to improve cognitive deficits, just as I am trying to do with A-One.

For example, the co-ordinator of a 'brain gym' for brain injured soldiers at Walter Reed Military Hospital in the US presented at SharpBrain's Virtual Summit last year. She described how they use readily available brain exercises based on peer reviewed neuroscience, delivered via various media - online, mobile device apps, Nintendo etc - combined with standardised neuropsych evaluations to help soldiers rehabilitate their cognitive capacities after an injury, so that it is evidence based.

It seems to me that A-One could benefit from working with others seeking to improve capacity in their areas of cognitive deficit, where each person's brain exercises are targeted to their individual bottlenecks.  I think he would benefit from the social aspects of meeting with others, as well as increased motivation to keep working at it.

I keep coming back to the initial assessment phase of the Arrowsmith program and the classroom environment for delivery, and why that has been so successful. Could there be something similar for readily available, and inexpensive, online brain training?

So I'm running a few parallel paths of activity at the moment:

• I'm contacting support organisations for people with learning disabilities or developmental or neurological deficits, with a view to joining with other parents and practitioners who have an interest in brain training to see what we could get happening for group training, especially for adults with average or above average intelligence with cognitive deficits.
• I've contacted TAFE to discuss what would be needed for TAFE to deliver the Arrowsmith program
• I have been raising awareness of the educational implications of developments in neuroscience, and the Arrowsmith program in particular.  For example, Coursera have recently announced their Continuing Professional Development program for Teachers which includes a course called The Brain-Targeted Teaching® Model for 21st Century Schools from Dr. Mariale Hardiman at John Hopkins University. I've alerted the Learning Support teacher at my daughter's school to this, and she is raising it with the school's senior admin. I also sent a link to my contact at TAFE, and the Australian Arrowsmith program as it may be a useful supplementary professional development course for teachers involved in this year's pilot in Sydney.

Not bored. Disappointed.

Over the last few weeks A-One's overall Lumosity BPI has stayed pretty steady at around 1000 or 43rd percentile.  He's been playing on average about three to four times a week.  The exciting part is that he is almost at the 50th percentile for Flexibility, and almost, almost at the 10th percentile for Problem Solving.  I'm still trying to convince him to re-prioritise his training preferences with Problem Solving at the top so that he can give himself a good workout in that area.

I asked him today if he was getting bored with Lumosity, because there are other exercises he could try, for example CogniFit.

A-One: It's not so much that I'm bored, but that only a few of the games have a 'Pause' button.  They flash up things so fast that it doesn't give me time to get it right. And sometimes I get only one thing wrong, and it gives me a low score - which is disappointing.  And the Penguin still goes faster than I can, which is cheating. Do they have a feedback section where I can tell them?

Mum: Some of the games might be testing your speed, just above your current level of skill, so that it's stretching you to get better.  Do you know what happens when you play any game against someone better than you?  Like tennis?

A-One: You lose?

Mum (laughing): Yes, probably.  But you get better!  They help you to lift your game. 

A-One: Sometimes you need to pause to do something else, like answer the door or something, and then for that day, you get a low score.

Mum: Well, after your official training for that day you could always do the game again to see how well you could really do without taking a break.  It wouldn't count in your official score, but you'd know how well you've really done.  And that's what really important isn't it?

A-One: Yes, I could do that.

Mum: If you want to send in some feedback, why don't you and see what they say?

A-One: I will, but not now.