Abstract
We assessed parents’ experience and satisfaction with the “Brighter Minds” program, a cognitive training for children between 5 and 15 years of age, offered over eight weekends for a total of 30 hours. A cross-sectional, online survey was administered randomly to 100 parents between March and June 2017. 71 parents responded: more than 80% reported improvements in various cognitive traits i.e. focus, planning, emotional stability, memory, comprehension, empathy, expression, self-confidence and calmness. Highest improvements were reported for comprehension (93%) and Planning and Preparation (92.9%). The older children (11 - 15 years) showed greater improvements in focus, planning, emotional stability, self-confidence and calmness than younger ones; similarly, girls performed better than boys in planning, emotional stability and self-confidence. About 50% of parents reported that they were extremely satisfied, and 62% were extremely likely to recommend the program to others. The parents’ feedback from the study provides valuable insights into redesigning and shaping cognitive programs for children.
Highlights
Brain training programs make up a million-dollar industry that aims to enhance, rehabilitate or maintain cognitive function
While several studies show the benefits of brain training in enhancing various cognitive functions following a brief period of training (Rabipour & Davidson, 2015) there is a lack of consistent evidence to support the very claims that these programs are built upon (Rabipour & Raz, 2012), for example on how cognitive training effects transfer to real-life functioning (Jedlicka, 2017)
The training program is offered to children in the age group of five to fifteen years, and aims to enhance cognitive functioning through activities such as relaxation, breathing, brain exercises and music entrainment, etc
Summary
Brain training programs make up a million-dollar industry that aims to enhance, rehabilitate or maintain cognitive function. There still exist mixed views in the scientific community concerning the efficacy of brain training programs (Simons et al, 2016) especially in the case of children (Jedlicka, 2017). While several studies show the benefits of brain training in enhancing various cognitive functions following a brief period of training (Rabipour & Davidson, 2015) there is a lack of consistent evidence to support the very claims that these programs are built upon (Rabipour & Raz, 2012), for example on how cognitive training effects transfer to real-life functioning (Jedlicka, 2017). There are very few studies that look at parent reported changes in behaviour following cognitive training (Jedlicka, 2017)
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