Welcome Welcome From Calder House School, Wiltshire
The Rationale, Rules-of-Thumb, And Results For Implementing Pearson’s ‘COGMED’ Working-Memory Training Program.
Or . . . A Practical Perspective from the Primary Pit-face On Pearson’s COGMED Working-Memory Program.
A Quick Note About Visual Stress. • How easily can you read this? • How easily can you read this? • How easily can you read this? • How easily can you read this? • How easily can you read this?
It takes us about 10% longer to visually process ‘stripey’ typefaces. - Arnold Wilkins, University of Essex -
Avoid Glare-Spots
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Dyslexic Symptomatology Sometimes Seen In Writing Tasks Dyslexic writers may produce text of lower quality owing to memory deficits. Some of the manifestations of this are . . . • Poor vocabulary-base or word-recall. • Dysfluency and pausing, resulting in writing lacking cohesion.
The Rationale For Calder House Exploring COGMED For a small number of learners, progress is limited, especially those possessing very low working memories. • No matter how much remediation we gave these children, their visual and auditory memory scores remained static. • Those children having low auditory working memory scores proved unresponsive to persistent and regular remediation in other areas of memory-training.
The Working Memory Model was developed by Baddely ddely and d Hitch Hitch . It consists of 3 main stores: the cen centr tral l ex execu ecutiv tive , the phon honologica ological l loop loop and the vis visuo uo-spatia patial l scr cratc tchp hpad .
The Key to good progress in COGMED is having pro pro-active COGMED active COGMED Tuto Tutors who rs who kno know w their children. their children.
So . . . What Does A Pro-active COGMED Tutor ‘Look’ Like? • We create – and print-off – graphical interpretations of this data, so that we might interpret the strengths and weaknesses of each-and-every individual, with with the child the child . TAKE TAKE THE THE TIME TIME to d to discu iscuss ss • progress progress with with individ individuals uals , ‘floating’ possible changes in strategy (for example, ‘hitting’ that particular, more challenging, task early on, thereby getting it ‘over -and- done- with’).
The Importance Of A Warm-Up • I have compared performance data for days where brain-gym was/not given, and found a clear clear, , posit positive ive correla correlation tion bet between ween COGMED COGM ED scores scores an and d th the e admin administ istering ering of a of a shor short t br brain ain- gy gym m warm warm-up. up. What’s more, th the q e qual ualita itative tive • na natu ture re of of th this is br brain ain-gy gym m mat matter ters: s: Try to match the nature of the brain-gym task with the nature of that group of children, or the time that session takes place.
Visual Stress and Brain Oxygenation: Some Facts Pertinent To COGMED • Visual Stress is a clinically-evidenced condition. It is also known as ‘Meares -Irlen Irlen Syndrome’ . • Neuro-imaging shows that the brain consumes 15-20% of all energy used by the body. With With incr increased eased oxy oxygenation genation, , the br the brain ain • becomes becomes less less effi efficien cient. t. • We should be aware of the potential for visual stress to hinder success when using COGMED, an intensive, screen-based, computer program. We need to keep in mind that staring at any computer screen for 40 minutes can prove visually stressful.
Being Aware of the Potential Visual Stress Issues With The Recti-Linear Design of Some COGMED Games
Reducing The Impact Of Visual Stress Upon COGMED Performance IT it is un unhelpfu helpful to ask children • WHO SUFFER FROM VISUAL STRESS to ‘ focu focus s har harde der on r on the the moving patterns’ during COGMED COGMED gam games. es. • This can make visually hyper-sensitive children nauseous. Instead, I s I sugg uggest est that that we we • actua actually exploit lly exploit a c a comm ommon on str strength ength of d of dyslex yslexic le ic lear arners, ners, by by asking them to focus on the ‘Big Picture’ in front of them. If you have have childr children en who who feel feel nauseous, nauseous, give give this a g this a go. o.
Reducing The Impact Of Visual Stress Upon COGMED Performance • We have found potential problems with over- lighting. It is important to educate the children in the very first COGMED session as to ensuring they can see their screen clearly. Over Over-lighti lighting ng of of a r a roo oom m caus causes es scr screen een glar glare. e. • The COGMED tutor must stay alert to visual stress issues, and model for the children the need to tilt screens to the best angles. • Ask the children how they feel about having the room’s lights switched off for their COGMED training. Most Mo st of of our our children children sa say y th they find ey find • COGM COGMED ED visu visually ally eas easier w ier with ith ar artif tificial icial lighti lighting ng swit switched ched off off alt altog ogeth ether. er.
Reducing The Impact Of Visual Stress Upon COGMED Performance • A minority of students found this game very tricky. • On looking more closely at these students there was a commo common-fa facto ctor, r, na namely mely th their lo eir low w form form-con consta tancy cy scores scores (derived from (derived from TVPS tes TVPS testin ting g by by our our oc occupat cupational ional ther therapis apist). t). • We might hypothesise that the issue here is one of visual-perceptual problems – NOT WORKING MEMORY. In this case, man many y of of th the meteor e meteorite ite • shap shapes es co could uld – in in visual visual-percept perceptual ual ter terms ms – be described as being ‘self - similar,’ making success in ident identifyin ifying g th the seq e sequen uence ce more more of of a a visu visual al-per percept ceptual ual iss issue. ue.
Encourage A ‘Hungry Eye’ • A small number of children lack any method or strategy in terms of their visual approach to a screen. • Having some kind of systematic approach to a computer screen is essential for success at COGMED. We have We h ave found found th that at children children weak weak in in • visu visual al lite litera racy cy ten tend d to to per perform form less less well well at COGM at COGMED ED in in compar comparison ison with t with their heir peer peers. s. Both Both st star arting ting scores scores an and d fin finish ishing ing scores scores ten tend d to be l to be low ower. er. • However, where such children have received additiona additional l sup support port in visual literacy from us, th this is dispa disparit rity y is is less lessened ened in in th the n e next ext roun round d of of COGM COGMED ED in input put.
Maintaining Motivation • Children we know to be anxious – and prone to seeking lots of support and Three Uses Only attention – can be given TRAF TRAFFIC FIC This Lesson LIGHT LIG HT CARD CARDS to indicate when they have a question they want to ask. • It is imperative that these children do not distract other children during COGMED. The wo work rkin ing g envi environm ronmen ent must must be be • kept as ‘clean’ and quiet as poss possible ible , so having some kind of visual cue is preferable to having the child raise their hand and ask a question out loud. • Establishing firm rules about calling out is essential.
Expectation Influences Outcome
The Fizz-Factor • That's the feeling a child should get when you point out how close they are to their Red Line (their outer limits). • AWARD LOTS OF MERITS!! • The children love their COGMED tutor to writ write posit e positive ive comment comments ab about out th their progress eir progress in in th their eir Ho Home me- School Dia School Diaries ries to to ack acknowledg nowledge e th their hard eir hard wo work rk. • Our own observations, for example, indicate that sensory over-flow and associated-movements (which can both be indicators of stress) in children increase as COGMED sessions progress with time. Wa Watch tch for for th these. ese.
How Do Our Children Perceive The Challenge of COGMED? ‘ Cogmed is tough. Take a whole bunch of lessons and heat them until all the spare bits have been evaporated off, leaving only the concentrated, gritty, essence behind. It’s tough. That’s what makes it worth doing.’ -Year 6, Calder House Student -
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