Train the brain to get smarter
Welcome!
Thank you for your interest in the Cognitive Skill Online Training Program.
Brain training helps to improve how well the brain processes information (cognitive skills).
Better cognitive skills make learning and performing mental tasks easier.
Brain training can provide a competitive edge.
Train the brain. Acquire more advanced mental processing abilities.
Commitment Required
- This program is hard work!
- Success requires a serious and consistent effort.
- Progress may vary by student.
- Other factors may limit success.
-
Generally, weak cognitive skills are improved through this training.
Training vs. Academic Content
- BrainSkills does not include academic content.
- BrainSkills is not a tutoring program nor does it re-teach content.
- BrainSkills is a series of brain exercises to improve the manner in which a student’s brain processes information.
- Once skills improve, students need time to catch up academically if they are behind.
- Tutoring may be necessary to help a student get caught up.
- If needed, it will take time to rebuild low self-esteem in students who have struggled academically.
-
Academic success is not instantaneous. Allow time for the brain’s new capabilities to grow strong roots. Then, it will blossom.
Why Exercise your Brain?
- Cognitive skills are the tools a person uses to process information and to learn.
- Strong skills make learning easier and faster; weak skills make learning difficult.
- Therefore, cognitive skills are essential tools to enable learning.
- Building a foundation of strong cognitive skills helps students to achieve their full potential.
- The next slide shows a model of how our brains generally process information.
- Seventy cognitive skills have been identified and measured.
-
Skills are generally grouped into seven categories as shown on the next slide.
How We Learn
Model of Processing New & Known Information
Before anyone can respond to a question, task or stimulus, that person’s brain must engage its cognitive skills to process the inputs.
The brain uses the lower skills to process the task and checks to see whether the answer resides in the knowledge bank.
If the answer is not there, the task is passed to higher-level thinking skills to process.
Students process information with the expectation that their knowledge bank will increase. If a student has sufficient cognitive skills to learn properly, cognitive skills will continue to improve until they peak at approximately age 28.
However, weak skills will make processing information difficult or impossible. Without an appropriate intervention, these skills often remain weak.
Most testing in schools determines academic status. Low scores indicate a problem but generally do not convey why a student is under performing. Cognitive skill testing is required to determine if weak skills are an issue.
BrainSkills is similar to equipment for training
BrainSkills is a tool to help achieve better brain fitness.
The exercises are game-like, but the training takes serious effort to see results.
Success comes from challenging the mind.
Students must concentrate on each exercise and work consistently to build their mental skills.
Time Commitment
Plan to work one hour per day, five days a week, for at least 12-15 weeks. Depending upon the status of the student’s skills, the time requirement will vary to achieve results. Some students finish the program in as little as 8 weeks, some need up to a year to obtain the full benefits. Train until most levels have been mastered or until the desired benefits have been obtained based upon how much time is available to devote to the training process.
Training can be divided into two sessions per day. Students can work longer than an hour on a given day with appropriate breaks.
The student homepage provides detailed reports so you can track progress.
The report will display training time by date and training results.
Time is reported as active time doing the exercises.
It does not include the time to read instructions or pauses in between exercises. It also does not record the time for a given exercise if the student hit the reset button. It only records completed rounds.
Perseverance
If a student has any weak cognitive skill(s), the exercises may be difficult for them.
Therefore, they may be resistant to working on the exercises.
Students must not give up. Strengthening weak skills is crucial to their future success.
A parent must find ways to support and to motivate their child to stick with the program.
It is recommended that parents initially work with their children to ensure they understand the purpose and significance of the
program and how it can benefit them personally.
It also is recommended that parents establish some kind of reward system to motivate students.
Supervision
If a parent has purchased the program for a younger student, the parent must provide ongoing supervision and support to ensure success.
Introduce the program and go over each tutorial to make sure the student understands what is expected.
At first, review progress daily. Make sure the student asks for help if they are stuck. Thereafter, review progress at least weekly. Make sure the student understands they will be held accountable for their training success.
Coach the student as needed. Please review the tutorial on how to monitor progress, which is available in the resource section on the student homepage when they first login.
Improving self-esteem
If students have struggled to learn in the past because of weak cognitive skills, they may have low self-esteem and may not believe they can change.
Sometimes, even after students have done the exercises, they will not believe they have changed or that they now can perform better at school.
Remember, it will take time for a student to catch up academically.
So, it especially is important to convince them they can improve and can become smarter.
And, it may take longer-term positive reinforcement to rebuild self- esteem.
Failure is part of the process
Getting wrong answers and failing a round is OK.
Students will advance to higher levels based upon performance.
If a student fails a round, it means the required skills are more advanced than what the student currently possesses.
Repetition of the exercise will build those skills. Concentration and intense training strengthen the brain.
With sufficient effort, the mind will adapt, and in most cases, students will pass that round. They will either move to a faster pace on that level, or to the next level to face a new challenge.
Repetition builds a stronger and smarter brain.
Program Structure
There are ten exercises in the core program. More reading exercises are also in development.
Each exercise has multiple levels.
Each level adds a new degree of complexity.
There are multiple steps/speeds per level which vary by exercise.
Higher steps are faster/harder than lower steps.
The program begins at the lowest level and advances as skills improve.
The program is self guided; advancement is based upon the score for each round.
Students should strive to pass each level at the highest possible step.
If a student passes step 1, but fails a higher step three times in a row during a given session, they will be advanced to the next level, one step back. (See tutorial on advancement logic.)
Introduce Program to Student
Review the exercise tutorials with the student.
Explain the potential value of doing the program.
Make sure they understand the instructions for each exercise.
Depending upon the student’s reading-skill level, the parent or supervising adult may have to read or explain the instructions.
Comprehension Figures has instructions for each question.
When students select an exercise, they must work on that exercise for the preset time until completed in order to advance to the next exercise.
Default time is six minutes of active time, which usually equates to eight-ten (8-10) minutes of elapsed time.
Once an exercise is completed, the program will return to the student’s homepage where he/she can select the next exercise.
That particular exercise will be disabled until all exercises have been completed in that cycle.
Once all the levels have been completed for an exercise, that exercise will be disabled from the cycle automatically.
In extreme cases, a particular exercise can be removed from the rotation if a student is unable to master it. Contact smarter@brainskills.com to request this action.
Students can select another exercise to continue.
Once all the exercises have been completed the cycle will repeat.
Program is geared to track one student per license
Results, advancement, and tracking are unique to each student. If another student were allowed to use the program, it would disrupt these aspects for the primary student.
Once a level is passed, the program does not return to that level. However, a student can manage the training process within limits.
On the student homepage, the student can move up or down a level to optimize the training process.
It is important for a student to consistently work on the program until the desired results are achieved. If the training is not intense and consistent, the desired results may not be achieved.
Each purchase provides a license for one student to access the training program for up to one year or completion of the program, whichever comes first.
Generally, students can complete the training in 8-15 weeks. This depends upon the beginning skill levels and time on task. Some students may need more time to achieved the desired results.
Ten Core Exercises
There are ten exercises in the core program. Below is a list of the exercises and how many levels. Each exercise has a separate tutorial. The major and minor skills trained are also listed.
Attention Arrows, 22 levels, 4 speeds
Major: working memory, sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, visual manipulation, concentration
Minor: processing speed, orientation (reversals) and color discrimination
Comprehension Figures, 25 levels, 4 speeds
Major: comprehension, VP-manipulation, working memory
Minor: selective attention, VP-discrimination, divided attention, processing speed, logic and reasoning
Delayed Calculation, 17 levels, 4 speeds
Major: divided attention, working memory, sustained attention, selective attention, math computations, processing speed
Minor: logic and reasoning, long term memory, VP-discrimination, AP-discrimination, comprehension, sensory-motor integration
Fixation Numbers, 13 levels, 4 speeds
Major: sustained attention, selective attention, divided attention, saccadic fixations, math computations
Minor: working memory, processing speed, logic and reasoning, VP-discrimination, sensory-motor integration
Memory Match, 29 levels, 3 speeds
Major: working memory, sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, visual manipulation, concentration
Minor: processing speed, orientation (reversals) and color discrimination
Pattern Group, 27 levels, 4 speeds
Major: logic and reasoning, VP-discrimination, divided attention, working memory, processing speed
Minor: comprehension, selective attention, long term memory, VP-manipulation, sustained attention, saccadic fixations
Sound Analysis, 41 levels, 1 speed
Major: AP-analysis, AP-discrimination, AP-segmenting
Minor: sustain attention, selective attention, divided attention, working memory, long term memory, processing speed, comprehension
Tap Beat, 8 levels, 3 speeds
Major: sensory-motor integration, sustained attention, selective attention
Minor: visual manipulation, divided attention, AP-discrimination, logic and reasoning, processing speed, working memory, VP-orientation
Visualization Golf, 9 levels, 3 speeds
Major: visualization, working memory, visual span, sensory-motor integration
Minor: logic and reasoning, selective attention, divided attention, processing speed, VP-manipulation, VP-discrimination
Visual Puzzle, 30, levels, 4 speeds
Major: VP-manipulation, VP-discrimination, selective attention, processing speed, working memory
Minor: sustained attention, long term memory, logic and reasoning, comprehension, saccadic fixations
Progress
Merely working on the exercises diligently is beneficial, even if a round is not passed.
However, the goal is to pass as many rounds as possible.
Each higher level is more complex. Passing a level means that the brain has gotten stronger and can process information better.
Every student starts at the lowest level and advances based on performance.
Advancement may be quick at first, but can slow once students reach their threshold of competency.
Gains come from working diligently to advance past a challenging level.
There are detailed reports available on the homepage where a student logs in. Click on the report tab.
There is a separate tutorial on monitoring progress and coaching.
What if my child needs a reading program?
BrainSkills trains the core skills that improve the ability to learn.
Once the core skills are stronger, regular teaching and tutoring should be more effective.
However, if your child struggles with reading, additional reading-based training likely will be required.
Studies strongly indicate that effective reading remediation will require personal instruction due to computer limitations in correcting reading errors. This instruction will need to be supplied through the school or private tutors.
To learn a proper reading strategy, some students need to unlearn old techniques and train intensely to make the new system their primary one.
Over the next year, BrainSkills will add additional reading-based exercises to help.
Hope
The good news is that now there is hope.
Most students can significantly improve their cognitive skills to make learning easier and faster.
It does require hard work, but that is nothing compared to a life of struggling with weak skills.
Working with your child to build their cognitive skills is important.
Progress may vary, but strong effort will be rewarded.
Thank you for letting us help.