Brain Training for Kids: What Teachers Need to Know
It is a challenging and unfortunate reality, but most children suffering with ADHD exhibit a number of behavioral challenges that are difficult for educators to work around. Through a number of ADHD brain games and other modern neuroscience strategies, brain training for kids with Attention Deficit Disorder has taken a revolutionary path towards reducing most of the symptoms associated with the diagnosis.
Years ago, much of what we now take for granted in brain science was unknown; today, we understand so much more including:
• Our brains have the capacity to adapt and build within the frame of a lifetime, irrespective of the aging process. The human brain is always seeking new and improved methods to reorganize neural pathways (i.e. information highways) and even construct new ones.
• The neural information highways form the basis of our cognitive skills, and cognitive skills not only make up our IQ, they are also responsible for determining how efficiently we’re able to process information in every area of our lives.
• No matter how old we get, our mental capacities – and even IQ – aren’t “set in stone;” because the brain is always adapting and building, our ability to think, recall and learn is never in a static state…it can always be upgraded and improved, like the most powerful of computers.
Brain Training 101:
It All Starts with the Science Behind Brain Training…Neuroplasticity
How does brain training – and, specifically, brain training for kids – work? Whenever we think, learn or remember, groups of neurons in our brain physically work together to accomplish the task. If what we’re attempting to do is difficult or unfamiliar, nearby neurons get involved to guide the process along. Brain training approaches such as those embedded within programs like C8 Sciences’ ACTIVATE™ expose each student to a customized series of intense mental workouts, allowing the brain to strengthen, reorganize and even create new neural pathways.
Essentially, brain training “rewires” the brain to perform more efficiently than ever before.
Many teachers know the answer to this question, but it is still routinely brought up during ADHD roundtables and doctors’ meetings: Just how important is it to get a child’s brain to work hard? According to Dr. John Ratey of Harvard Medical School and author of A User’s Guide to the Brain, using the brain – especially for the young and those suffering with such afflictions as ADHD – keeps it vital and growing while not using it leads to decay. Dr. Ratey actually concluded that, “For the first time, we are learning to see mental weaknesses as physical systems in need of training and practice.”
ADHD brain games teach children to improve focus, ignore distractions and become organized – some programs convert home video or computer games into a neurofeedback device. A number of these include controllers that receive brain wave signals from a headset worn by the player and when a player exhibits low-frequency patterns during, for example, a car race on a track, his or her car slows and other cars pass, the goal being to concentrate in order to produce higher-frequency brain waves to speed up the car.
This is merely scratching the surface of what has become possible for teachers continuing to endure the uphill battle of ADHD in school. Research into brain training for ADHD has progressed to the point that brain training software is now at the nexus of twin revolutions in both technology and neuroscience, and as a result, there is now great promise for children with ADHD.
