Cognitive Enhancement Training

Programming is created very specifically for each student

Will cognitive training help my child?

Brain research on neuroplasticity has proven that through targeted and intensive training, the brain can literally change and grow. New and permanent neuropathways or connections can be made that will allow individuals to learn new skills and process information more effectively.

Programming is created very specifically for each student based on assessment results and what it will take to make the needed changes in the quickest and most effective way possible.

We use scientifically based clinically proven programs and techniques.

One to one sessions with trained Learning Clinicians allows us to work intensively and intentionally with targeted focus on each student response. Students enjoy the sessions and feel the changes they are making after every session. Every student response provides information for constant adjustment of pacing and direction for challenge throughout the program.

Parent observations and feedback is an important part of the process so communication is consistent and valuable. While most of the activities within the cognitive training sessions does not appear academically focused, we make direct application to areas of academic weakness throughout the program.

Consistency is key to success with cognitive process training so we show parents what activities they can do at home. Parents report that these activities feel like special times with their child as they feel like game time together.

Students love their one on one sessions! They love the relationships they develop with their Learning Clinicians and they love the success that they feel as they work through the process, even though they are working on their challenging areas!

One to one sessions with trained Learning Clinicians
Cognitive Training with a trained Learning Clinician

Why Cognitive Training with a trained Learning Clinician?

Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason and pay attention. Working together, these skills enable us to take incoming information through our senses to learn, create meaning, communicate and apply knowledge in life.

Each of our cognitive skills plays an important part in processing new information. If even one of these skills is weak, grasping, retaining, or processing that information is impacted. Most learning struggles are caused by one or more weak cognitive skills.

Some of the cognitive processing areas developed are briefly described here:

  • Auditory Discrimination

    Ability to hear differences in sounds such as loudness, pitch, duration, at the word and phoneme level.

  • Auditory Conceptualization

    Ability to identify individual sounds within a word and after determining the number and sequence be able to manipulate the sounds to change or create new words (such as in reading, spelling and developing vocabulary).

  • Auditory-Visual Isolation and Integration

    To be able to link a sound with a letter/number symbol image.

  • Divided Attention

    Ability attend to multiple sources of input at the same time such as taking notes while listening or hold calculation totals while completing the next part of a complex math problem.  This skills is required for handling tasks efficiently and with increased  complexity.

  • Selective Attention

    Ability to stay focused on a task even when a distraction is present.

  • Sustained Attention

    Ability to stay focused on a task for an extended period of time.

  • Executive Functioning

    A constellation of several complex, inter-related mental operations or constructs, including the allocation of attentional resources, working memory, planning, problem solving, response inhibition, self-monitoring and regulation, and the maintenance of mental sets.

  • Logic and Reasoning

    Ability to reason, plan and think – needed for reading comprehension, writing and math skills.

  • Math Computation

    Ability to do math calculations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

  • Processing Speed

    The speed at which the brain processes information. Makes reading faster and less tiring; makes one more aware of his or her surrounding environment; helps with sports such as basketball, football, and soccer and activities such as driving.

  • Sequential Processing

    Ability process pieces of information, put them in chunks in the order necessary for creating meaning.

  • Visualization

    Ability create mental images or pictures and flexibility with the ability to “make movies” as mental images change with new information.

  • Visual Memory for Symbols

    Ability to create mental images with shape and form for letter/numbers.

  • Visual Processing

    Ability to process and make use of visual images. Helps one create mental pictures faster and more vividly; helps one understand and “see” word math problems and read maps; improves reading comprehension skills.

  • Visual Discrimination

    Ability to see differences in size, color, shape, distance, and orientation of objects.

  • Visual Manipulation

    Ability to flip, rotate, move, change color of objects and images in one’s minds.

  • Visual Span

    Ability to see more and in a wider span with a single glance or view. Improves side vision; enables fluid reading and increases the ability to maintain visual memory for letter/number groups for spelling and math.

  • Working Memory

    Ability to retain pieces of information while processing or using it with the goal of creating new knowledge or skills.

  • Short-Term Memory

    Ability to receive and hold information within a few seconds (therefore enabling us to use information and move to long term memory).

  • Long-Term Memory

    Ability to store information and fluently retrieve it later in the process of thinking.

These are a brief outline of how we use these underlying cognitive processes in academic learning:

  • Beginning to read

    Auditory Discrimination, Auditory Processing, Auditory Conceptualization (Segmenting and Blending Sounds), Sequential Processing, Auditory-Visual Isolation and Integration, Visual Processing and Visual Memory for Symbols

  • Spelling

    Auditory Processing, Auditory Conceptualization (Segmenting and Blending Sounds), Sequential Processing, Long-Term Memory, Visualization, and Auditory-Visual Isolation and Integration

  • Math

    Working Memory, Processing Speed, Long Term Memory, Divided Attention, Logic and Reasoning, Sequential Processing, Visualization

  • Word math problems

    Computation, Logic and Reasoning, Visualization, Divided Attention, Comprehension, Sequential Processing, Working Memory

  • Problem solving

    Logic and Reasoning, Visualization, Divided Attention, Comprehension, Sequential Processing

  • Reading comprehension

    Auditory Processing, Visual Processing and Memory for Symbols, Visualization, Sequential Processing, Vocabulary, Auditory-Visual Isolation and Integration

  • Listening comprehension

    Auditory Processing, Working Memory, Sustained Attention, Auditory-Visual Association, Visualization

  • Knowledge needed for test taking

    Long-Term Memory, Comprehension

  • Speed of completing a task

    Processing Speed, Working Memory, Sustained Attention, Divided Attention

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