Persuasion - one step at a time

A week or so ago I broached the subject of attending the Arrowsmith program with A-One.

A-One: Well I'm not going!

Mum: A-One, this program could really help you!  For example, if you wanted to do a course at TAFE, you could find it easier than when you were at school.  It could help you learn better.  You remember that you found writing difficult at school?  It could help you do that better.

A-One: I didn't find writing difficult.  It was what to write.

Mum: Yes, that's right.

A-One: Anyway, I'm not going!

Mum: This is very serious A-One.  When we're gone, what will you do? Where will you live? How will you get your groceries? Who will help you manage your insurances? Health cover? Tax returns? Your pension?  It's not right to those who love you, nor to the Australian public who fund your pension, if you don't take up an opportunity which may help you be able to do those things for yourself!  Surely you'll at least try it?

A-One: No, I'm not doing it!

Mum: This is so serious, we'll have to start thinking about making it a condition of you living in this house.

A-One: You can't do that!

Mum: You are 23 years of age and you need to be thinking about living more independently.

A-One: I'm not going anywhere!

Mum: What are you objecting to so much?

A-One: I don't need it.

Mum: And yet you don't have a job, nor a driver's licence, nor able to take on responsibilities that others your age are already doing.

A-One: That's not my fault! Employers should give me a job!  They should give me a chance!

Mum: Don't you want to give yourself the best chance?

A-One: Yes, but I'm not that bad. I don't need it.

Mum: That's right. You're quite capable of many things. But this program is for people who are already good at some things, but have some blockages in their brain that stop them from doing other things.

A-One: I'm not doing it.

Mum: A-One. Has it been your experience that people often get frustrated with you? That they lose patience with you? For all your life so far?

A-One: Yes.

Mum: Do you want it to be that way for the rest of your life?  Do you think we want it that way? There's a chance your life could be different in a way you don't yet know. Don't you think we'd want your life to be one where people no longer get impatient with you?

He started giggling.  Not because he found it funny. It was his emotive response.

A-One: Stop talking about it.  I'm not doing it.

Mum: Well, you've assessed that you don't need this program.  What about the people who are offering the program?  Don't you think they'd be able to tell whether you're a suitable candidate?  If we put in an expression of interest, that doesn't mean you'd automatically be doing the program.  They might decide that it wouldn't really help you, and you'd be right after all.  Couldn't we at least see what they say?

I can't quite recall if he said anything after that. It seemed to me he was still intransigent, so I thought I'd draw round one to a close.  I knew it would take some time for him to get used to the idea, even if just to agree to an expression of interest.

That evening, his father said to me simply, 'He's doing it.'  He went to A-One's room to talk it over with him.

After about 20 minutes, his father reported that A-One had agreed to the expression of interest.

The chorus (A-One's youngest sister) commented: Gee, I was expecting there to be shouting and tears over this tonight, but it was all very calm and controlled. Wow.

I'm not sure where the magic happened.

A-One may be right.  This program may not be the right one for him.  It's for people with average or above average intelligence, and in the past A-One's tests put him at low average - yet still in the average range.

At least we have a chance to find out now.

CogState

An article on SharpBrains referred to using a battery of online cognitive tests developed by CogStateTM, an Australian company based in Melbourne, listed in the top five in SharpBrains' Market Report.

When I had previously looked at CogStateTM's website I had noted that their target markets were primarily for testing cognitive capacities in the aging (Alzheimer's) and sports (concussions), clinical trials for pharmaceuticals, as well as use by academic researchers. I hadn't pursued it at the time because I hadn't thought that the work I was doing with A-One fitted any of those categories.

However, following on from my thinking in The Challenge blog, I wrote to CogStateTM several weeks back making an enquiry about the use of their tests. I was looking for an economical way to independently assess cognitive progress using Lumosity, or CogniFit, or any other online brain training.

Much to my excitement, CogStateTM has offered me the use of their Research battery of tests for 12 months!  This will enable me to take an independent baseline of A-One's cognitive capacities now, and to periodically check how he's going as he continues his training. I'm hoping that it will also help me better target the training that A-One requires.

I checked with A-One whether he was willing to undertake the tests.

A-One: How long will they take?

Mum: Each test takes between a few to several minutes, and there are about a dozen tests. Doing the tests would take perhaps an hour, but the total time would probably be longer than that as you would need to learn what each test entails.

A-One: OK.

So far, so good. No resistance.

I downloaded the software yesterday.  The software comes with a research manual which I have been reading and I'm now training myself in how to administer the tests.

I'm also putting on my thinking cap about how to gather others similar to A-One so that he has some fellow travellers wishing to improve their cognitive capacities. CogStateTM has told me that I am free to use the tests for such a group.

I hope I can keep A-One as excited about this as I am!

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.