Our family has collected several toy brains throughout the years—brain-shaped erasers, tiny brain-shaped sponges that expand in water, even wind-up brains that walk across the coffee table. During childhood, the brain is a source of endless fascination.
But the brain has really come into its own for 21st century parents, who’ve witnessed everything from the growing science behind neural plasticity during early childhood to the growing practice of cognitive rehabilitation for aging parents battling strokes and other neurological conditions.
Is it any wonder that today’s parents, already renowned for their focus on high achievement and maximizing potential, are looking for ways to enhance their children’s cognitive abilities?
We want our children to listen better, to remember better, to behave better. We want them to perform well academically and enjoy high self-esteem. We want to minimize their roadblocks to success.
But how can we make all that happen? More rigorous schools? More family time? More extracurricular activities? For a growing number of parents, the answer lies in one or more types of “brain training.”
Parents turn to brain training (sometimes called cognitive training) for many reasons, according to according to Dan Williams, P.T., CSCS, BCIA-EEG, executive director of SIRRI Developmental Rehabilitation and Learning Center in Tempe. Their children may have been diagnosed with AD/HD, learning disabilities, Asperger’s syndrome or depression. They may be experiencing difficulty with reading or writing, controlling their emotions or expressing their thoughts and feelings. Some struggle to follow directions or focus on classroom lectures. They may have a hard time processing information, keeping schoolwork organized or staying calm in over-stimulating settings like noisy classrooms. Some children complete tasks too slowly, make too many careless errors or have trouble following a series of instructions. Mainstream interventions like after-school tutoring may have proven unsuccessful.
Some parents turn to brain training in search of alternatives to recommended medications they fear may be unsafe or cause troublesome side effects, according to Teri Koby, M.Ed., director of Learning Rx in Scottsdale.
Sometimes, a traumatic experience—a bitter divorce battle, head injuries or frequent moves—can leave a child with cognitive deficits that need attention, according to William Hawkins, J.D., BSCE, president of Learning Skills Unlimited in Tucson.
How does it work?
While individual brain training programs differ, most share a common thread: the idea that the human brain is malleable at many ages and stages of life. Specific programs focus on varying degrees of physical and/or mental exercises believed to build and strengthen neural pathways so participants can improve skills in targeted areas like attention span and information processing.
For most brain-training providers, the formal process begins with an assessment of the child’s current level of functioning and specific aspects of cognitive performance like working memory and auditory processing. Assessments typically last one or two hours. Providers use various tools—including tests like the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities—to assess a child’s strengths and weaknesses. They may check vision and hearing or observe a child’s ability to read and write. Based on the test results, providers design and deliver individualized programs targeting each child’s unique needs.
Most programs feature one-on-one, student-to-professional attention and many include individual coaching to help improve children’s confidence and self-esteem. Some examples:
- At the Attention Deficit Disorder Clinic in Scottsdale, director Robert Gurnee, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to create maps of a child’s brain activity. He then designs neurofeedback sessions targeting areas that need support. During these sessions, brain waves are measured through electrodes on the child’s head. The child watches that brain wave activity on a computer display and learns how to consciously make adjustments that can improve abilities like paying attention, calming anxiety and staying on task.
- John Dye, N.D., who heads the Mind-Body Medicine department at the Southwest Naturopathic Medical Center in Tempe, also offers neurofeedback sessions to help clients facing learning or behavioral challenges modify their own brain wave patterns. Without such intervention, he says, “[it’s] kind of like looking in the mirror when you are putting on eye make-up. If you try to do that without looking, you miss your target.”
- Duffy McMahon of Innovative Therapies, Inc. in Phoenix began using what she calls brain wave conditioning to help her clients with focus, concentration and memory and reduce the effects of ADD/ADHD, anxiety, panic disorders and insomnia, https://ryderclinic.com/ambien-zolpidem/ all of which can interfere with learning. It’s a matter of identifying and then learning how to regulate your brainwaves, McMahon says. “Brain wave training is like going to a spa. You go to a spa to balance your body. Brain wave training balances your brain.”
- The DORE program distinguishes itself with physical exercises that stimulate the cerebellum, the part of the brain that coordinates equilibrium and muscle movement. The DORE program has found that children affected by learning difficulties struggle with skills like balance and coordinated eye movement, which require the continuous involvement of the cerebellum. Specific exercises are drawn from a curriculum of more than 250 options. For example, a child might sit on a large, air-filled ball and bounce straight up and down while tossing a beanbag from one hand to another.
- Learning Rx creates a program of enjoyable but unfamiliar tasks for children to accomplish, with the goal of creating new connections in the brain. The company’s website uses the analogy of riding a bike: “[T]he more attempts a child makes, the more the brain reinforces the particular skills necessary to stay balanced and in motion. After a short time, [the child] doesn’t have to stop and think about each part of the procedure to stay upright, balanced, and in motion, or how to stop without falling off. Every time the child rides, the skill is reinforced. Even years later, with no additional riding experience, it’s possible for a person to get on a bike and ride because it was so firmly encoded in the brain.” The program emphasizes reinforcement, praising children for progress and rewarding them with “brainy bucks” they can use to buy prizes upon completion of brain training exercises.
- Christopher Nicholls, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Scottsdale, offers a take-home, computer-based brain training program called “Cogmed Working Memory Training” designed to help with attention deficits. Children complete a parent-supervised five-week program at home that is much like a computer game with advancing levels of difficulty. Cogmed’s website claims its program increases working memory capacity and improves a child’s ability to concentrate, control impulsive behavior and utilize complex reasoning skills—all of which can result in better academic performance, especially in math and reading.
- SIRRI’s sensory learning program involves a Trochoidal Motion Table. Children lie on the table as it rises and falls in a circular pattern and rotates 90 degrees. The program, which also uses sounds delivered through headphones and colored lights seen through a computerized light instrument, “helps strengthen balance, gross and fine motor skills, body and special awareness, eye movement, visual tracking, visual fixation, auditory processing skills and midline brain integration”—skills that are important for reading, writing, motor skills and more, according to a SIRRI brochure.
Mesa mom Monette Coyle took her daughter Avalon, then 3½ years old, to SIRRI after she was diagnosed with autism, a condition characterized by repetitive behavior patterns and problems with communication and social interactions. Coyle hoped SIRRI would improve her daughter’s ability to communicate and interact with family members and peers. She recalls lying on the table with Avalon during SIRRI sessions to minimize her daughter’s wiggling as the table rotated. Williams feverishly adjusted the light equipment that provides visual stimulation to keep it within Avalon’s field of vision as she changed positions. Coyle was impressed by the way Williams tailored the program to address Avalon’s unique needs.
Does it work?
There’s no shortage of enthusiasm among those who offer brain training, many of whom use pre- and post-tests of cognitive ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs.
“I know that brain training works because I see it every day in my center,” says Matt Owen, director of Learning Rx in Chandler. He enthusiastically shares success stories, including one about Ariel Winans, a Chandler Unified School District fourth grader who suffered from severe learning disabilities caused by seizures she experienced as a toddler.
“Ariel struggled to learn even the most basic information, such as the letters of the alphabet or the names of her teacher and classmates,” Owens says.
Her parents, Paul and Kathleen Winans, took their daughter to see numerous specialists. She underwent MRIs, EEGs and psychological testing. She received years of tutoring, supplements and special education classes, but nothing helped. The Winans were told to accept that Ariel’s learning disability was permanent.
Then a Chandler reading specialist recommended the family look into cognitive therapy. Despite their skepticism, they decided to try this one last resort.
“It took a few weeks but soon we started seeing small changes,” says Kathleen Winan. “Ariel started remembering things. Next her reading improved. By the time her program was complete, we witnessed a complete transformation. Imagine, one day your daughter can’t remember her best friend’s name and a few weeks later she not only knows her friend’s name but also the names of her friend’s parents, siblings, and pets.”
Ricki Cassutt, the certified cognitive skills trainer who worked with Ariel, says he noticed “significant improvement in Ariel’s memory and attention, as well as a dramatic increase in her self-esteem and confidence.”
Plenty of parents who’ve tried brain training for their children rave about the results. Coyle kept a journal of Avalon’s experiences at SIRRI and the improvements she saw over time. Her personal observations are shored up by pre-program and post-program performance assessments completed by SIRRI. Coyle’s husband, at first a brain-training skeptic, agrees that the program worked well for Avalon. He’s even considering trying it himself.
After her daughter Jackie, 12, was diagnosed with inattentive ADD by a school psychologist, Elena Finelli of Gilbert wanted to give neurofeedback treatment a try. She sought treatment at Southwest Naturopathic Medical Center because she was determined to avoid the use of medications. After completing a series of sessions, the differences in Jackie’s grades, her work in school, and her ability to concentrate on simple day-to-day tasks or simple board games was amazing, Finelli says. “You get out of your kids what you invest in them, and she’s worth it. She’s worth the time, she’s worth the money, she’s worth the effort.”
But skeptics abound. “Testimonials are the lowest form of proof for scientific endeavors,” observes Daniel Kessler, M.D., developmental pediatrician and director of the Arizona Child Study Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Kessler urges parents to adopt a “buyer beware” stance with brain training and goes so far as to say he suspects several techniques are merely “smoke and mirrors.” Still, he understands the appeal for parents eager to find help for struggling children and says he respects their right to explore a multitude of options.
Others suspect that rave reviews reflect a natural tendency to believe things we do are making a difference, especially when we are heavily invested emotionally or financially. “The more expensive the treatment, the more effective the placebo effect,” reflects Raun Melmed, M.D., developmental pediatrician and medical director of the Melmed Center in Scottsdale.
Many providers cite research studies to support the efficacy of their programs, which means parents have to become pretty savvy in distinguishing reliable and objective studies from less rigorous or independent ones.
If you’re considering brain training for your child, take time to research several providers. Each offers a unique perspective on the workings of the brain and how their programs achieve particular results.
Talk with other parents who’ve tried brain training. Ask your pediatrician and your child’s teacher or advisor if they know of providers that other parents have found helpful. Do preliminary research by visiting provider websites and calling to request brochures and copies of supporting research or studies. Ask providers if they offer open houses for prospective clients so you can meet their professionals and ask questions. Ask about touring their facilities and watching some of the techniques being used with other children.
Look for studies that are double-blind, in which those who measure the outcomes do not know who is receiving which intervention, suggests Eric Benjamin, M.D., medical section chief of the Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and division chief of psychiatry at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The best studies include a placebo group, control for other variables that can impact results and are published in scientific journals.
Many providers admit that research into various types of brain training is still in the initial stages, citing lack of funding and the relatively young science of neuroplasticity. Most providers welcome additional research studies—confident these studies will bear out the value of their work.
Still, it’s difficult to generalize individual experiences and results to all children, according to Robert Crawford, CEO of Life Development Institute in Glendale and president of the Arizona chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association of Arizona. “Children’s brains are all so different.”
What about cost and time factors?
Time and cost are important considerations, says Nicholls, who notes that families have different values when weighing how to divide their energies between competing opportunities and demands. Intense once- or twice-a-day sessions over the course of several weeks might feel manageable for some families, while others would struggle to get to just one or two sessions a week over the course of several months. Most individual sessions last from 30 minutes to an hour and are offered either every day over a shorter period of time or several times each week for a longer duration. Learning Rx clients usually have three to five one-hour sessions per week for 12 to 20 weeks, says Owen. The longest program takes six months to complete. The home-based program Nicholls uses involves five sessions a week for five weeks, with sessions lasting 30 to 40 minutes each.
Coyle took Avalon to SIRRI for half hour sessions over 12 consecutive days, then continued working with Avalon at home for many weeks afterward, setting up the SIRRI light equipment in a dark, roomy closet.
Rates also vary widely. Some providers charge for individual sessions while others offer per-program rates. Neurofeedback sessions at the Attention Deficit Disorder Clinic in Scottsdale run approximately one hour in length and cost between $60 and $75 each, according to Gurnee. A child with mild ADD/HD might need 25 to 30 sessions, he says, while a child with severe learning disabilities or depression might need 80 to 100 sessions.
The cost of completing brain training with Learning Skills Unlimited in Tucson generally runs in the “upper $2,000s,” according to Hawkins.
Two years of appointments with the DORE program costs about $5,000, according to the company’s California-based medical consultant, Danielle Harwood, M.D., who adds that the cost is comparable to that of tutoring or other interventions.
Initial brain mapping services run $550 at the Southwest Naturopathic Medical Center. Sessions can run anywhere from $50 to $100.
Providers point out that proper brain training can have lasting results—making for a great return on investment.
Making the choice
While there’s plenty of buzz about brain training, only you can decide whether it may have something to offer the children in your life. Most local experts agree that the risk of brain training doing any real harm to a child is slim unless it causes undue stress on the child and family involved.
It is crucial, however, to assure that brain training not replace or delay your child’s access to other interventions, says Benjamin. When brain training is used in place of needed medications, counseling, tutoring or other elements of a comprehensive treatment and support plan, it can have serious consequences on a child’s ability to learn and function in the world.
A child whose difficulty concentrating stems from depression, for example, will continue to struggle until treatments like medication and therapy are in place. And the longer something like depression goes untreated, the more likely it is that the affected child will experience difficulties with friendships, family life and academic life that can having lasting effects on growth and development. If brain training appeals to you, get to know your options. Ask tough questions. Do your homework. Who knows? You, too, might join Paul Beljan, Psy.D., ABPdN, founder of the Learning Enrichment Center in Phoenix, in embracing brain training as the “wave of the future.”
