Cognitive Skill Booster - BrainWare Safari
About BrainWare Safari
BrainWare is a comprehensive interactive online program designed to
develop cognitive skills – the basic mental skills that enable us to learn --
for students aged 6-18 years of age.
The Reading Lab provides BrainWare Safari with professional direction and
oversight, unavailable with other home versions of this popular program.
It was added to our comprehensive array of program offerings to help our
students reinforce the cognitive skills begun with the required Cognitive
Skill Builder Program and to add more visual processing and thinking skills
to the mix. Our students typically work on home computers (web access
required) for 3-5 days a week, 30-45 minutes a day, for 10-12 weeks or in the
Lab. This program is also part of the Summer Camp experience.
BrainWare Origins
BrainWare incorporates models of brain function that originate in work
published in 1949 by Dr. Donald Hebb of McGill University. Skills build in a
learning pyramid, in which basic skills enable higher-order skills to develop.
If any fundamental skills are missing or deficient, more advanced skills
cannot develop.
The exercises incorporate the current scientific understanding of brain
function to improve basic cognitive skills have been used by learning
clinicians in one-on-one therapies -- often using paper and pencil -- for
decades. Over time, various clinicians gradually assembled and integrated
different regimens of exercises that provided measurable improvement in
cognitive skills. Safari has converted these exercises into a compelling,
interactive digital format.
How It Works
BrainWare Safari develops 41 essential cognitive skills related to attention,
memory, processing and sensory integration.
The exercises place repetitive demands on deficient functions and present
increasing levels of difficulty. Demands are placed in an integrated
approach referred to as “cognitive loading.” This approach drives skills
more quickly to an automatic, subconscious level of processing.
BrainWare Safari Reviews
So far the BrainWare Safari program reviews are positive. Its first scientific
trial resulted in an average improvement of 4 years 8 months in cognitive
skills for 30 students over an 11-week period, as measured by the Woodcock
Johnson Cognitive Battery.
Weak skills can be strengthened, and skills that are already strong can be
further developed. BrainWare is designed so that stronger skills support the
improvement in weaker areas.
Cognitive Skills Targeted by BrainWare Safari
Exercises that incorporate the current scientific understanding of brain
function to improve basic cognitive skills have been used by clinicians in
one-on-one therapies for decades. BrainWare Safari develops 41 cognitive
skills, considered the most critical for fast and effective learning.
BrainWare’s exercises place repetitive demands on deficient functions and
present increasing levels of difficulty. Demands are placed in an integrated
approach referred to as “cognitive loading” -- forcing the brain to automate
a function, do it subconsciously when confronted with two simultaneous
tasks. This approach drives skills more quickly to an automatic,
subconscious level of processing.
The 41 cognitive skills developed by BrainWare are in these broad
categories:
parents and educators:
BrainWare is a comprehensive interactive online program designed to
develop cognitive skills – the basic mental skills that enable us to learn --
for students aged 6-18 years of age.
The Reading Lab provides BrainWare Safari with professional direction and
oversight, unavailable with other home versions of this popular program.
It was added to our comprehensive array of program offerings to help our
students reinforce the cognitive skills begun with the required Cognitive
Skill Builder Program and to add more visual processing and thinking skills
to the mix. Our students typically work on home computers (web access
required) for 3-5 days a week, 30-45 minutes a day, for 10-12 weeks or in the
Lab. This program is also part of the Summer Camp experience.
BrainWare Origins
BrainWare incorporates models of brain function that originate in work
published in 1949 by Dr. Donald Hebb of McGill University. Skills build in a
learning pyramid, in which basic skills enable higher-order skills to develop.
If any fundamental skills are missing or deficient, more advanced skills
cannot develop.
The exercises incorporate the current scientific understanding of brain
function to improve basic cognitive skills have been used by learning
clinicians in one-on-one therapies -- often using paper and pencil -- for
decades. Over time, various clinicians gradually assembled and integrated
different regimens of exercises that provided measurable improvement in
cognitive skills. Safari has converted these exercises into a compelling,
interactive digital format.
How It Works
BrainWare Safari develops 41 essential cognitive skills related to attention,
memory, processing and sensory integration.
The exercises place repetitive demands on deficient functions and present
increasing levels of difficulty. Demands are placed in an integrated
approach referred to as “cognitive loading.” This approach drives skills
more quickly to an automatic, subconscious level of processing.
BrainWare Safari Reviews
So far the BrainWare Safari program reviews are positive. Its first scientific
trial resulted in an average improvement of 4 years 8 months in cognitive
skills for 30 students over an 11-week period, as measured by the Woodcock
Johnson Cognitive Battery.
Weak skills can be strengthened, and skills that are already strong can be
further developed. BrainWare is designed so that stronger skills support the
improvement in weaker areas.
Cognitive Skills Targeted by BrainWare Safari
Exercises that incorporate the current scientific understanding of brain
function to improve basic cognitive skills have been used by clinicians in
one-on-one therapies for decades. BrainWare Safari develops 41 cognitive
skills, considered the most critical for fast and effective learning.
BrainWare’s exercises place repetitive demands on deficient functions and
present increasing levels of difficulty. Demands are placed in an integrated
approach referred to as “cognitive loading” -- forcing the brain to automate
a function, do it subconsciously when confronted with two simultaneous
tasks. This approach drives skills more quickly to an automatic,
subconscious level of processing.
The 41 cognitive skills developed by BrainWare are in these broad
categories:
- Attention Skills Helped
- • Sustained Attention -- staying engaged.
• Selective Attention -- ability to avoid distractions.
• Divided Attention -- the ability to focus on two skills at
once, such as listening to the teacher and writing down
notes.
- Visual Processing Help
- • Visual Discrimination and Processing Speed
• Visual Sequential Processing
• Visualization, Figure Ground, Span, Directionality
- Auditory Processing Skills
- • Auditory Discrimination and Processing Speed
• Auditory Sequential Processing
- Sensory Integration Skills
- • Hand to eye integration -- for writing
• Auditory-motor and auditory-visual integration
• Timing -- sensory integration
- Memory Skills
- • Short-Term and Working Memory
• Visual Spatial Memory
• Long-Term Memory
• Sequential Memory
- Thinking Skills
- • Logic and Reasoning
• Planning and Conceptual Thinking
• Problem Solving and Strategic Thinking
• Decision Speed
parents and educators:
- Improved attention span and focus
Attention stamina is a learned skill in BrainWare Safari. By helping
the brain to do subconsciously what previously required
concentration and effort, BrainWare Safari helps make staying
engaged less exhausting and therefore easier to maintain.
Improved focus
Being able to avoid distractions and stay on task is an increasingly
important learning skill as your child progresses through the grades.
Learning how to tune out so-called "distractors" is a major exercise
theme in Safari. Improved cognitive skills that school-work more
interesting and less exhausting, also helps focus and the ability to stay
engaged.
Faster and more accurate task completion
Faster processing, better retention (reducing the need for repetition)
and improved focus skills combine to improve learning productivity,
another major target area of this learning software.
Increased retention of learned materials
BrainWare Safari improves visual and auditory processing to improve
the quantity and accuracy of information taken in, either in class or
when reading, and it strengthens all the memory skills required to
store this information.
More positive overall attitude to learning and life
Students tend to feel better about themselves, that they are
performing close to their potential. It's a positive development that
generally leads to a more confident and positive learner. Each
individual starts with different strengths and weaknesses in cognitive
skills. As cognitive skills are not the only factors that can impact
behaviors such as the above; individual experiences and results will
vary.
- BrainWare Safari is a ground-breaking software that works on a
wide range of cognitive skills providing many opportunities to
help children. Here are some examples of students who benefit
from BrainWare Safari:
- Slow worker
Many students spend much too much time on their homework and
other studies. They are often also slow test takers. While Cognitive
Skill Builder is a better choice if slow reading or having to constantly
re-read for reading comprehension, BrainWare Safari improves
retention the first time through, processing speed and efficiency,
focus and logic, and all critical to good homework productivity.
Lack of Focus -- Easily Distracted
BrainWare Safari helps students avoid distraction with specific
exercises that include distractors -- to this extent, focus is a learned
skill. But it goes beyond this, by improving processing speed and
retention skills so that students find the material more manageable
and interesting, thereby holding their interest without the normal
exhaustion.
Poor Organization Skills
Being organized requires an integrated intellect. If you struggle to
pull things together in your head, it is hard to be organized outside it.
Safari's memory and attention skills dramatically improve
organizations skills also.
Visual Processing Issues
A small number of children have eye tracking, peripheral vision and
other visual processing issues that impede their development as
readers. BrainWare Safari has a large number of visual processing
exercises.
Grades Not Matching Intellect
Test taking skills are learning skills. To do well on a test you need to
process efficiently, stay on task, retain what you are reading the first
time, and have decent long term memory for fact recall. BrainWare
Safari addresses all of these issues.
Weak Memory
"It goes in one ear and out the other!" There are lots of reasons for
this. It could be a data capture problem -- the student cannot process
fast enough to take the information in accurately. Or it could be a
retention issue -- one captured it is not held. BrainWare Safari devotes
a large portion of its exercise time to these two functions.
