For a few years now, what we call ‘cognitive training’ has been the subject of much research in the psychological and neuroscientific field. The purpose of these studies has been, in many cases, to check if working on different aspects of our mental functioning such as attention or working memory can improve these capacities and also, if these improvements could translate into better performance at the school level or better social adjustment. These goals are interesting for anyone, but they are perhaps more relevant when it comes to children with learning disabilities.
A review of scientific studies focused on working memory training with children and adolescents with learning difficulties has recently been published. Janneke CAW Peijnenborgh, first author of the article published in Neuropsychologycal Rehabilitation (2015) and colleagues have reviewed 13 randomized studies that included a total of 307 participants aged between 5 and 17 years. The question to be resolved was to know if working memory training is effective in these kids who have learning problems and therefore have more difficulties in terms of academics.
The results of this analysis are encouraging. According to the authors, the meta-analysis showed short-term improvements in verbal working memory, visuospatial working memory and word decoding, compared to groups of children who did not train and therefore did not improve said skills. Furthermore, these positive changes were maintained over time up to a maximum of 8 months after training.
A curious fact is that the age of the participants seems to be a variable to consider. According to the analyzes, boys and girls over the age of 10 seemed to benefit more from cognitive training in verbal working memory than younger ones, both immediately after the intervention and in terms of maintaining long-term improvement.
This type of study is always useful, allowing us to understand how and why cognitive training programs work in people with difficulties or in the rest of the population. But training your brain and mental abilities doesn’t have to be boring. Today, thanks to new technologies, it is possible to do it playing and comfortably from home, so we have no excuse not to strengthen our mind.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
