Cognitive Training Games to Increase Attention, Memory and Self-Control

When it comes to doing all that can be done to help students with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), a multitude of cognitive cross training tactics and intuitive brain training games have proven quite effective. With companies such as C8 Sciences leading the way through implementations like its ACTIVATE™ program of cognitive brain training games and physical exercise, ADHD in the classroom has been combated from different angles, providing teachers with real-time progress reporting for each student.
Sophisticated cognitive brain training games, combined with a physical exercise program, helps students with ADHD in several ways:
• Measures and improves executive Function skills
• Measures and improves the brain’s core cognitive capacities
• Delivers real-time data to teachers and professionals
• Helps students focus and makes learning FUN again

What’s the Difference Between the Average Video Game and a Cognitive Brain Training Games Platform Such as C8 Sciences’ ACTIVATE™?

Unbeknownst to most parents, the garden-variety video game their kids are playing on a regular basis actually weakens their ability to sustain attention. Comparatively speaking, cognitive brain training games such as those implemented by C8 Sciences strengthen the child’s own ability to sustain their attention. By starting with dynamic short games with a plethora of visual and auditory feedback, the student can progress to the point those game elements fade and eventually he or she can focus on long work sessions – with very little additional stimulation.
During this time, students perform a wide range of cognitive tasks, from memorizing sequences and completing patterns to task-switching and placing things in categories. Uniquely-designed programs such as C8 Sciences’ ACTIVATE™ not only recognizes when the child makes an error, it figures out why and coaches him or her in real time on how to improve their thinking strategies.

And That’s Merely the Beginning…

Indeed, cognitive brain training games are changing the face of education, especially in the ADHD sector; through classifications such as Dynamic Differentiation, Error Diagnostics, In-Game Corrective Messaging, Learning Database and Attentional Alerts, programs such as ACTIVATE™ present a robust training schedule that is, amongst many other traits, highly flexible. The goal of what is called “the most sophisticated cognitive software ever developed” is to naturally increase the brain’s ability to sustain attention, memory and self-control.
Let’s take a closer look at the elements that comprise the core of C8 Sciences’ games for cognitive brain training:
• Dynamic Differentiation – The brain training games continually monitor performance and adjust difficulty up or down every 10 to 15 seconds, maintaining optimal balance between challenge and success. The graduation criteria moves users forward based on reaching a performance level high enough to challenge stronger students while also determining if a child has stopped improving before reaching graduation (known as “plateau criterion”). They are then moved forward so that they can experience new and different challenges; ACTIVATE™ in particular moves children through exercises quickly in areas of their strength while keeping them working longer in areas of weakness, avoiding working too long after maximum gain has been reached.
• Error Diagnostics – A program such as ACTIVATE™ recognizes 40 different types of errors, with specific variants then related to each of the eight “core capacities.” These assessments have already been proven to identify children with special needs or special talents before teachers were even fully aware of either. Compared to other quantitative assessments, games such as those implemented by ACTIVATE™ boast the advantage of drawing on thousands of responses over many days and months, rendering them less susceptible to the effects of temporary periods of stress, illness, lack of sleep, etc.
• In-Game Corrective Messaging – When a child makes a specific type of error above a criterion frequency, ACTIVATE™ automatically provides a corrective strategy message to the child, as well as an example of how to tackle the problem correctly. Further, for some errors, the program also makes a temporary alteration in the way the stimulus or problem is presented so as to make it easier to see, understand or complete correctly; these performance aids are phased in and out, depending on the child’s performance.
• Learning Database – Using student data to continually improve its programs, C8 Sciences’ reports display performance in percentile rankings, comparing student users to other users their age. Drawing from a continually-growing database, this approach far exceeds the size and detail available from any other cognitive training program.
• Attentional Alerts – ACTIVATE™ programs boast an attention alert function that utilizes multiple methods to provide general pre-target alerts and to increase target salience.
For students with ADHD, there has never been a better time to improve executive Function through cognitive cross training methods like brain games.