The war in the Ukraine keeps going on, China is making more noise about Taiwan, the kids aren’t cooperating, and how much did you pay for gas today? Looking back over the decades, it would appear that we need to accept the fact that the world is going to keep throwing challenges our way, and we need to do what we can to deal with the realities and advance in spite of them. Don’t wait for things to get better, do what you can to make your life and that of your family better—now.

As most of you know, there are some things I keep coming back to; and generally at the top of the list are family and being smart. One of the things that good times have in common with the difficult times is that the stronger our family, the better we can get through the tough times and the more we can enjoy the good times. Keep family as the priority, invest in it. The second thing on my list has a direct impact on the first—being smart. Most of us have no idea how smart we can be, or how much easier most things are the smarter we are.

Virtually every NACD family knows about processing, which equals short term memory, working memory and executive function, essentially the pieces that permit us to learn, think, and function well. They are the pieces that determine how smart we are now.

The smarter we make our kids, the better they function; and the smarter we are as adults, the better we function at every time and stage of our lives. Not a great mystery!

As you proceed to work with your kids, reserve the big rewards for advancement in processing and do your best to make it FUN! It’s the atmosphere and attitude that can make things fun for children. You can make most anything fun if it’s your goal. Mom and Dad can make sure that the kids do their processing activities, but where is your mommy to make you work on yours? She probably isn’t going to be there, so you need to step up and assume the responsibility for it and accept the challenge. 

I recently have started using a personal trainer—heck, I’m only 74, there is still time to improve. I’ve made that commitment to myself to preserve and improve the quality of my life. It’s easy as adults to see ourselves as being “fait accompli” a done deal, if you will, but that does not need to be our reality. Please, Mom and Dad, make a commitment to keep working to make yourselves better, to continue to grow, not just for your own sake, but that of your family. The better you function, the better job you can do with your children. Tools can help, and if you haven’t explored Simply Smarter then do—get smarter! It helps! Be one of those who can succeed even in the face of adversity. 

You may not be able to help the world, but you can help yours.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 35 No.4, 2022 ©NACD

The post Keeping Our Heads on Straight & Moving Forward appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

The Simply Smarter® program is built upon the foundation of neuroplasticity, utilizing the science of targeted input, frequency, intensity, and duration.

Targeted

The program constantly modifies itself to keep you right at the sweet spot, the spot that is targeted for you to achieve maximum benefit.

Frequency

To take advantage of neuroplasticity, we need to keep triggering the firing of neurons and reinforcing neural networks. Everyone is encouraged to use the program once or twice a day and preferably four or more days a week.

Intensity

This is an incredibly important piece. The importance of intensity cannot be overstated. How you or your child approach every session is going to determine how much the program impacts, changes, and develops the brain. Just doing it isn’t enough; you must do it with real intensity and with intention. Every activity is very short. It was designed that way so that you could create and maintain maximum attention and intensity for the seconds needed to complete each piece that you are asked to process, to watch, or listen to. Approach every sequence of every activity with the intention of remembering it, of nailing it!

If your children are using the program, sit with them, if you can, and cheer them on. The program has built-in rewards and acknowledgement, but a parent’s power is much greater, and we encourage you to provide very meaningful, big rewards for new high scores or higher digit spans. These changes can be life changing, treat them as such.

We realize that it’s not reasonable for many parents to sit in while their child does Simply Smarter®, so we have built in the means to send email and text alerts so that Mom, Dad, grandparents, coaches, whoever will know when the child did well; and each can provide their own congratulations, making every step forward all that more meaningful. Dad coming home from work and immediately acknowledging Johnny’s new high score or a call from Grandma can be very powerful.

For adults be honest with yourselves. Sitting down with good energy, intensity, and with the intention of knocking it out of the park each time is difficult. You are not only allowed but encouraged to set up your own rewards program—rewards for all new high scores. Set digit span and processing power goals, and when you hit it, reward it. It’s only your life and future that you are changing!

Duration

To change the brain, we need to keep causing those networks of brain cells to keep firing together. The longer we do it, the greater the change. Keep in mind that generally without specific intervention the development of processing, short-term memory and working memory, slows virtually to a halt at about seven years of age, creeps a tiny bit forward from then until we are in our twenties, and then usually begins a slow decline that continues throughout our life unless we target it, address it, and build it!

Simply Smarter® is an invaluable tool that has the potential to change the lives of your children, your parents, and yourselves.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 7, 2020 ©NACD

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These COVID-19 Coronavirus times have certainly turned many of our worlds upside down. We now virtually have a world full of homeschoolers; more parents are at home with their children than at any time in the history of the world. Exceptional times and exceptional circumstances can also result in exceptional opportunities. Many of us are rediscovering and redefining basic things like family, work, school, and our relationship to institutions and society. I would like to talk with you about redefining potential and intellect and how while you are all at home, you have the potential to change the lives of every member of the family.

I would like to share a personal story. I grew up in a family of pioneers in human development. My father, a physician, and my uncle, a physical therapist in the ‘50s, worked with brain injured children and discovered that with the proper stimulation, healthy parts of the brain could learn to carry out the functions of damaged areas of the brain. This was ground breaking work that was originally seen as heretical, but is now after decades universally accepted. Changing perceptions is not an easy task, as I can certainly attest to after fifty years of trying to do it.

When I started studying psychology in the sixties, I had a tremendous advantage over others studying and working in the field. I came to understand that all development was possible through this amazing mechanism called neuroplasticity. If you understood neuroplasticity, development was no longer such a great mystery. The brain changed and developed as a reflection of specific stimulation, not because it just got older. Armed with this understanding, I looked at the brain as dynamic, changing, and most significantly, as changeable.

One area of early interest for me was learning and memory. At that time it was just beginning to be understood that there were various components of memory. Memory was being broken down into short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. The focus was on testing it and looking for correlations between these pieces and how people learned and functioned. At that time and for decades, the worlds of psychology and education did not have a perception that you could actually help develop or change memory; and even today, they are not really working to do that. My perception, based on an understanding of neuroplasticity, was that these components of memory didn’t just pop up as adult abilities, but they developed; and what developed changed; and what changed was changeable. I set out to understand all of these pieces and to find ways to change, develop, and accelerate that development.

Decades later I am proud to say that we have developed a great understanding of all of these foundational pieces that we now lump together and refer to as “processing.” Armed with this knowledge and the tools we have developed, we have helped change many thousands of lives. Improving these pieces of auditory and visual short-term memory and working memory is quite simply making people smarter. From our first software that ran on a Commodore Pet computer with a cassette drive in the early eighties, to the Brain Builder software in the nineties, to the present online Simply Smarter program and many dozens of one-to-one activities, we are working to change lives. From brain damaged individuals to those on the autism spectrum, to those with learning and attention issues, to typical children and adults, we can build all of these foundational pieces of memory that literally have the potential to make everyone smarter.

At NACD we work with “whole children,” designing home based comprehensive programs that address everything from a child’s sleep and behavior to how they walk and do algebra, including innovative comprehensive homeschool/home-based educational programs. But there is something that in one way or another is on every child’s program, and that is processing activities.

We are fortunate that we can work via Skype with any family in the world who has Internet access and give them the tools designed to develop and improve their brains. Today everyone doesn’t need to come to NACD to work on their processing. You can take advantage of this expertise and go online and in about fifteen minutes a day put together the pieces that can help you and your children work to become smarter. The tool that is available to you is our Simply Smarter program, a tool that your children can use all by themselves!

Let me help you understand what this all really is and what it can mean for you and your family.

What is “smart?” Can you define it? Do you think you would like your kids to be smarter? How about you?

You can define “smart,” possibly, but even more so, you probably know it when you see it. Smart has to do with being present, being aware, being able to take in and process a lot of information, being able to manipulate that information, think with complexity, put ideas together, focus, and communicate.

Smart doesn’t necessarily mean knowing that the capitol Nevada is Carson City, or that Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded, or that the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, or what your bile duct does, or that “or” is a conjunction. But smart does mean that you are more likely to find such things interesting and you can learn them more easily than most. Knowing “stuff” doesn’t make you smart. (You are going to actually forget most “stuff” unless you are smart enough to make associations and connections between “stuff” and use it.) And smarter also means that it’s easier to understand and learn everything.

What is the foundation of “smart?”

The foundation of smart is the ability to process and take in a lot of information that you see and hear and to manipulate that information and think.

The more you can process and take in what there is to be heard, the stronger your auditory short-term memory. Your auditory short-term memory provides the fuel for the development of your auditory working memory, which is how many pieces or words you can hold together and manipulate, which equals your complexity of thought, or “smart.” How many pieces of visual information you process from what you see, whether from observation of your world or from reading, relates to your visual short-term memory; and as with auditory processing, your visual short-term memory provides the pieces you use to create your visual working memory and visual-spatial abilities. These fundamental, foundational pieces ultimately determine how much information you take in and use, which translates to how much knowledge you gain and your complexity of thought. All this equals “smart.”

How does processing “smart” develop?

Processing develops primarily from birth to about seven years. The rate and degree it develops is a reflection of the targeted stimulation and opportunities that you receive. In general the more quality one-to-one interaction between a child and an involved adult, the faster and the further it develops. The more enriching the environment, the faster and the further it develops. With specific targeted input designed to build processing skills, processing not only can be accelerated, it can be developed to superior levels.

When does the development of processing abilities stop?

Without specific intervention, the development of processing abilities almost comes to a halt at about seven years of age. From seven into our twenties, it typically develops perhaps another ten to fifteen percent; and after our twenties, without specific intervention it goes into a slow decline. You can continue to learn more, but your ability to do so declines, as does your ability to manipulate the information. As you continue to learn, you can become wiser, but not necessarily smarter, unless you are stretching your processing through complex cognitive activities or actively working to preserve or develop it.

How can you build processing ability and get smarter?

Everyone, from infant to geriatric, with input that is targeted to them, can incrementally build and improve processing ability and get smarter. We at NACD have been developing methodologies and improving processing abilities for the full spectrum of children and adults for over forty years. NACD designs specific processing programs for families who are members of NACD and who wish to utilize comprehensive developmental and educational programs designed so that they can be implemented in the home by parents and caregivers. But as mentioned earlier, NACD also has developed a very comprehensive targeted program for all children five years old and older and for adults up to and including seniors—Simply Smarter.

What is Simply Smarter?

The Simply Smarter program is a dynamic online system that constantly develops and modifies itself, adapting to the individual user to help produce maximum change. Specific activities work progressively to address focus, attention, intensity, auditory and visual short-term and working memory, visualization, conceptualization, and visual-spatial abilities, all of the pieces that help make everyone learn, think, and function better. The program first assesses your baseline and then builds from there, tracking and graphing progress. It has the capability of adjusting from basic levels of a child to levels of incredible function.

What can you do with children under five?

Children at or functioning under five years of age generally need specific one-on-one activities that are designed as part of NACD’s individualized programs. But in addition children from toddlers to five years old can use NACD’s Cognition Coach apps to build processing skills.

How long does it take to get smarter?

With motivation and consistent use, measurable changes can occur in a couple of weeks; and with continued use of Simply Smarter, virtually unlimited improvements are possible. Over the course of the present lockdown, you have the potential to produce a significant change.

Who has used Simply Smarter and what have the results been?

The range of those who have used NACD’s processing activities and Simply Smarter is as broad as the population. NACD’s Simply Smarter and other processing programs have been used by thousands of typical and gifted children and adults, those with learning and attention issues, as well as those with significant developmental issues such as autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, and brain injuries. Most everyone working on our comprehensive home based programs not only knows about processing, but is actively working on processing every day and understands the correlation between their child’s processing and global function and abilities. We have seen exceptional changes along the path of many thousands of children’s development and are continually heartened as we see their potential being redefined. Processing is a huge key to success and potential.

Please take this opportunity to change your child’s life trajectory. My mission in life has been to help change the perception of potential and to help develop the tools to do it. Today with more parents and children at home than ever before, I see this as a unique chance to change many lives and potentially change the perception of what can be.

To read an incredible testimonial from a couple about Simply Smarter and see what incredible things even a child can do, please read the following article and watch the video.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 33 No. 4, 2020 ©NACD

The post My Greatest Discovery – How to Make Everyone Smarter appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

by Bob Doman

In a previous post, I talked about getting unstuck and how to help change the picture and the minds of children who have weak auditory processing and who are strong visualizers. This combination is never more of an issue than it is with children on the autism spectrum, particularly those who are becoming teens.

Before I go any further, let me say that the combination of strong visualization, addictive behaviors (DSAs), low auditory processing, strength, and hormones is a combination you really want to do you very best to prevent.

This is an issue primarily for children who are “autistic” and generally not for others that are included on the spectrum. One of the primary, if not definitive, issues that separate those on the spectrum is auditory processing. The higher the auditory processing, generally the higher the child is on the continuum. The lower the auditory processing, the more likely we are to encounter this behavior management issue.

Let’s begin by talking a bit about auditory processing, maturity, and behavior. Simplistically you can determine auditory processing, which includes auditory short-term memory, working memory, and executive function, by measuring sequential processing. The first step in auditory sequential processing is short-term memory, which is a measure of how many pieces of auditory input (words) the child can process. If I were to test your auditory sequential processing, I could simply have you listen to a sequence of numbers said slowly and repeat them. With children we can do this as well, or have them follow different kinds of sequential verbal directions.

If I were to do a simple assessment of your auditory working memory, I could again say a sequence of numbers, but this time have you repeat them backwards. To some degree this would be a measure of your complexity of thought.

Executive function is a mechanism related to working memory and complexity of thought. Executive function includes those things we would tend to attribute to people who function well, such as the ability to prioritize, problem solve, and have organizational skills and inhibition, which is essentially stopping yourself from doing things that you know you shouldn’t do or that are harmful for you.

The development of these pieces can be looked at relative to the digit spans I mentioned before.* If we look at the typical development of auditory processing correlated with digit spans or their equivalents, we have approximately the following picture (understanding that the range can easily be +/- 12 months or more):

Auditory forward sequence of 1 = 6-18 months

Auditory forward sequence of 2 = 18-30 months

Auditory forward sequence of 3 = 24-40 months

Auditory forward sequence of 4 = 3 yrs-5 yrs

Auditory forward sequence of 5 = 4 yrs +

Working memory starts kicking in when the forward processing is about a 4. Up until this point, working memory is very limited.

Disregarding various personality differences, when we look at the full range of children, we can to a certain degree associate the auditory processing and complexity of thought with level of maturity and behavior.

Babies 12 months and younger, who are just learning to understand and process language, are pretty easy to deal with as long as they feel fine, aren’t tired or hungry or need a diaper change. You can give them something and they can like it, or you can take something away and they might not particularly even miss it.

When processing starts getting into the 2s, life gets interesting; and we hit what has historically and aptly been called “terrible 2s.” At this point the complexity of thought generally permits the child to process/think “I want” or “I don’t want.” The complexity of thought provides no qualifiers; there is no “later” or “after” or “because.” At this level we should expect and get a lot of tantrums.

I have categorized 3s as “lock and block 3s.” The complexity of thought and lack of working memory doesn’t permit children to think through anything with any real complexity. They rely on familiar patterns and the perception of whether something feels good, feels safe, is non-threatening and fun, or if it breaks previous patterns, doesn’t feel good or safe, is in some way threatening, feels like work, or is important, or simply not fun. Children at this stage can be very intractable and react very poorly if pushed out of their comfort zones.

As we start moving into processing 4s and above, we start getting to a point where we can have some negotiating power and the kids start really using working memory. They can think through things or think their way out of things or old patterns.

I encourage everyone who works with child development and education, and particularly with those who work with special needs, to look at individuals through the lens of processing power and not chronological age. Just because a group of children are approximately the same age doesn’t mean that their functions are going to be very similar or that it is appropriate to be working on the same functions or skills. A typical group of 3-year olds could have auditory processing ranging from a two to a four or more and see the world as very different places. Certainly it is not appropriate to treat them all the same and have the same expectations for all of them. (Not to digress, but perhaps we should help all children development their processing skills. What a great idea! I’ve been trying to get the world to understand this for more than 40 years!)

Relating back to the behavior patterns discussed, imagine a six-foot tall, strong, hormone-driven, visualizing two or three year old. Imagine the tantrums your typical two or three year old might have thrown in the grocery store when you refused to buy them the candy they wanted. Now imagine them being this six-foot, hormone driven, thirteen plus year old child throwing that fit. Do you think that many of those typical two and three year olds physically resist and fight you? Yep! Do you think you would be in major trouble if your two year old were six feet tall and strong as an ox? Yep! Then think about throwing hormones into the mix. And now just think about adding the fact that autistic children are almost universally strong visualizers and probably have a very strong video in their heads as to what they want and don’t want and what should and shouldn’t be, and you have a very intractable child. Breaking or changing a low processing child’s mental picture when they lack the processing power to think their way out of a it can be extremely difficult and even dangerous.

For every parent of every young child on the spectrum, it is imperative that you understand that developing your child’s cognitive abilities needs to be at the top of the priority list. It saddens me (and certainly at times when a family brings me one of these low processing, out of control teenagers infuriates me) that millions and millions of hours and dollars are being spent, not addressing the fundamental sensory issues, DSAs/addictions, and processing power of these children, but teaching them isolated skills and to be prompt-dependent, using antiquated programs like ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy).

Steps can be taken, starting from when children are tiny and throughout their lives, to build and develop these basic, indispensable cognitive functions and normalize sensory issues, break addictive patterns, and develop the neurodevelopmental foundation that permits them to communicate, learn, integrate into society, and function well.

For those of you who have the low processing, hormone-driven, difficult teens, all isn’t lost; it’s just difficult, and for some very difficult. Many of you are in survival mode and need to use whatever tools are at your disposal to cope. But ultimately we must utilize all of the tools to build the processing, cognition, and maturity to move them forward.

*Assessing auditory processing with strong visualizers is a bit tricky and requires someone with experience and specific expertise. Visualizers tend to produce inflated scores that don’t necessarily reflect their true processing level.

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 31 No. 5, 2018 ©NACD

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A study out of Simon Frazer University indicates that cognitive-motor function begins to decline at the age of 24.

In this study the researchers analyzed the data derived from 3,305 players, ranging in age from 16 to 44, of a complex computer game called Starcraft 2. According to Joe Thompson, the lead investigator of the study, “After around 24 years of age, players show slowing in a measure of cognitive speed that is known to be important for performance.”

The decline in cognitive performance in the 20s, as demonstrated in the Simon Frazer University study, is similar to the results of NACD’s Simply Smarter Project that evaluated the short-term and working memories of 7125 individuals, ranging in age from 4 to 84. Read more about the project results here. As demonstrated by NACD’s data, both short-term and working memory develop into our 20s and then begin to decline in our middle to late 20s.

Fortunately Bob Doman and NACD’s work over the past 45 years has demonstrated that the development of short-term and working memory can be accelerated, and with specific targeted developmental intervention, retained and even advanced past the point at which it would typically decline. Neuroplasticity has shown that you can continue to improve your brain function at any age.

Even if you use it, you lose it, unless you use very targeted intervention!

More Resources

NACD’s Simply Smarter Program – Work on your processing, cognition and working memory skills!

Get Started with NACD – How to get started with the NACD Program

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A 2012 study of child prodigies conducted by Joanne Ruthsatz and Jourdan B. Urbach found that all the children studied tested in the 99th percentile for working memory.

Each of the child prodigies tested at what was considered a moderately elevated intelligence and exhibited high scores relative to their attention to detail. But the most exciting results were the working memory, with each child testing in the 99th percentile.

This study helps confirm Bob Doman’s and NACD’s 40 years of experience of addressing and developing working memory in children. Having helped develop working memory in many thousands of special needs and “typical” children, NACD has had firsthand knowledge of just how key this vital function is to every aspect of a child’s ability to learn, think, and perform.

NACD’s experience also suggests that the elevated intelligence and attention to detail exhibited in these children is at least in part a reflection of the benefits of their superior working memory.

NACD has been at the forefront of understanding the tremendous importance of working memory and developing tools to aid in its development. The NACD Foundation Simply Smarter Project has been an attempt to heighten awareness of the importance of this essential neurological building block and to bring tools to the world to help take advantage of neuroplasticity and help everyone build their working memory.

Related Links

• Simply Smarter
• NACD’s Simply Smarter Project
• NACD Cognition Coach Apps

The post NACD Science Corner Vol. 11 – Study Links Child Prodigies & Working Memory appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

Years ago, I saw a TV show on Discovery with an organization from England that transformed “typical” children into geniuses using programs close to what NACD is using. I was fascinated but frustrated because I believed that I would never have an opportunity to follow this type of program in Romania. After I registered my son in an NACD personalized program [NACD TDI Program] last year and saw how fast a brain-damaged child can learn to process information, I quickly understood that NACD was the key to success. My dream created by that TV show was about to come true. I read about Simply Smarter and registered immediately. When I first started the Simply Smarter program, I was processing 7 directions. Some studies show that “smart” people are able to process between 7 and 10. NACD said that if you are processing 10, you are doing very well. It has been more than one year since I started Simply Smarter and I can process 15-16 pieces of information at this point. This is huge, folks, very huge. I was in the dark a year ago. I started a discussion and after 2 minutes forgot where I was going with the conversation. I could not remember too many things, nor could I understand many important pieces of information because of my weak auditory processing. There are many of you out there in the same situation that I was experiencing. Now at a processing level of 15-16, things have changed so much. I can think, talk and learn faster, hear more, and write better. I have many good ideas. I can function better. I have improved my life and the life of my family also. I’ve started to remember things from my childhood, memories that I thought were lost!

Thinking gives you strength and you can achieve things that most people find impossible to achieve. For those of you who have children in NACD, you know what going from 7 to 16 means. For those of you who don’t know about NACD, let me try to explain it to you. It is like lifting weights. At the beginning, perhaps you can lift 10 kg. Then you start building your body and after one year you can lift 200 kg. In this case, however, you are building your intelligence which is so much more important. Much like those body builders who become addicted to growing muscle, I am addicted to building intelligence. I now am 36 years old and by the time I am 40 I want to process 25-30 pieces of information.

I love Simply Smarter and I will use it for the rest of my life. If you want to ask me questions about my experience with Simply Smarter, feel free to do so at roviancom@yahoo.com

—Razvan

P.S. My wife started Simply Smarter at a processing level of 8 last year. She can now process 20-21 pieces of information (However, I am still the boss in the house!).

The post Manole Family – A “Discovery” Leads to Success with NACD & Simply Smarter appeared first on NACD International | The National Association for Child Development.

As scientists and researchers continue their work to try to unravel how the various components of cognition function together and develop, NACD has been working to try to ascertain the most effective and efficient ways to positively impact that function. By working with thousands of individuals over many years, ranging in function from severely brain injured to accelerated learners and from newborn to geriatric, the staff of NACD has been able to assess firsthand how various neurological functions impact the whole person.

Short-Term Memory

Decades ago the founder of NACD, Robert J. Doman, Jr., was aware that a strong short-term memory could have a positive impact on the rest of cognitive function. He further discovered that once the short-term memory began to get stronger, higher-level cognitive function was able to expand, and more complex thinking improved. He and his staff began looking at ways to affect short-term memory as well as higher-level function. These strategies have evolved over the decades into a broader set of targeted interventions used to strengthen the generalization of improvement. As we review scientific studies in areas of cognition, we find an expanding vocabulary of neurological functions with a further breaking down of how researchers think these various functions work together and develop. What we find, however, is that the underlying premises upon which NACD was founded continue to be supported by this research into the structures of the brain.

The NACD Model

The NACD model of cognitive function recognizes various components of thinking and learning. Of all of these functions, working memory, including executive function, encompasses the areas that impact simple and complex behavior regulation and problem solving the most. The development of various parts of executive function appears to be a good indicator of future academic success, as well as future life success. Mathematics, reading, and critical thinking are all affected by how well various components of executive function develop and work.

Not only do these neurological functions impact academics, but NACD and researchers also find that they impact social skills, job skills, and the skills needed for a child or adult to navigate daily life independently. Time management, time awareness, goal setting and planning, organizational skills, social awareness, financial planning, running a household, writing a research paper, writing a paragraph, and forming thoughts into conversation are all functions that depend on this higher cognitive level referred to as working memory and executive function. Decades ago, Robert Doman realized that as these higher-level cognitive functions improved, it resulted in generalized functional improvement in the individual. As we investigate specific components of cognition, we need to keep in mind that the scientific community, as well as the NACD staff, is continuing to learn and explore how these various components affect each other.

Inhibition

A key component related to behavior and attention is inhibition. This ability to self-regulate is believed to start to develop in young children as an independent cognitive function that is later a part of working memory. Inhibition refers to the ability to stop a previously learned response or an impulsive response. An example of this might be a child stopping an action they were about to do in response to a parent saying, “no” or “don’t touch.” This very early level of inhibition is not yet working memory developing, but rather the development of inhibition as a separate function. When we think of very young children, individuals with delayed processing, and some individuals with sensory processing difficulties, we see that there is frequently a great deal of impulsivity and lack of sustained attention. Inhibition is the ability to stop that immediate, impulsive response, whether it means not grabbing something that you want or not throwing an object that you are not permitted to throw.

In children the ability to inhibit behavior that would cause errors is based on the strength of their “rule systems”(Zelazo et al 2003). The strength of these neurological processes determines a child’s ability to follow classroom rules, not run away from a parent in public, not scream when frustrated, not get up in the middle of a task or eat off of someone else’s plate. In adults inhibition at a higher level of complexity prevents the adult from failing to complete work tasks, spending the day on social media instead of doing assigned work, or even avoiding watching television when there is housework that needs to be done. Progress in inhibition continues into adulthood. Unlike children, adults become increasingly aware of their errors or inhibition failures. Adults will even slow down the pace of a timed task when they become aware of increased errors (Hogan, Vargha-Khadem, Kirkham, Baldeweg 2005).

Several decades ago NACD developed software and other targeted interventions to engage short-term memory and inhibition, as well as other executive functions. These activities continue to be expanded to include greater levels of varied cognitive functions. From intensity activities to higher level working memory capacity activities, the Simply Smarter System pushes the individual’s inhibition function as well as working memory. Studies have shown that specific computer-based tasks appear to have functional generalization, even with teens and adults, whereas some other forms of inhibition and working memory tasks did not generalize as well (Holmes, Gathercole, Dunning 2009, Klingberg et al 2005, Kraback, Kray2009). Working memory training that demanded a high level of working memory, according to Constantinidis and Klingberg (2016), improved functional conductivity between specific areas of the brain. This improved conductivity is believed to be the basis of plasticity, according to these researchers.

We know that inhibition becomes more complex when we add new rules and more required responses (Best, Miller 2010). Switching, which will be discussed further, and adding more rules to tasks work inhibition as well as other executive function skills (Miyake et al 2000). NACD discovered this several decades ago and added layers and levels of conflicting rules and added required manipulation of short-term memory information that rigorously works this part of cognitive function. In these activities, which are part of the Simply Smarter System, we are asking the individual to set aside, or inhibit, the first set of rules for an activity and apply a set of new rules. This requires greater inhibition and retention of a larger body of information, which is then being applied to specific sets of short-term memory storage. So as we add greater complexity to the inhibition tasks, we call on greater cognitive function (D’Esposito, Postle, Ballard, Lease 1999).

Working Memory & Executive Function

As the brain becomes better able to handle this greater level of complexity, how it functions changes. Studies have shown that as individuals become better able to complete these more complex tasks, the brain becomes more localized, or specific, in how it functions. In other words, as the brain is developing, it first tends to activate larger areas when trying to complete a specific task or respond to specific input. As the brain becomes more adept at completing more complex tasks, it begins to be able to localize the very specific areas of the brain needed to complete those tasks. The brain quite simply becomes more efficient. (Morton, Bosma and Ansari 2009).

NACD has dedicated many targeted activities to working memory due to its enormous neurological role. According to Robert Doman, “Working memory is the foundation for global neurological maturity and function.” It essentially encompasses most of what we think of as “thinking.” Working memory is what we use to put together relationships between new information and previously known information in new and novel ways. It is what we use not only to understand language spoken to us, or language we read, but also to combine our own thoughts into logical units of words to communicate those thoughts to others. Working memory allows us to form limitless new thoughts by allowing new combinations of information to be formed (Oberauer 2009).

In the case of reading, the working memory loads the information in units, which are chunked or condensed for meaning. The units are broken up based on sentences. The chunks are temporarily processed by the short-term memory and then stored and manipulated in the working memory. Pronouns within the text require that the brain rehearse the previous information to locate the subject of that pronoun. At times the working memory pulls in sensory information or visualization to help solidify and support the meaning of a chunk of words (Marchetti 2014).

The executive function related to the process of holding on to relevant information and changing it as needed as new relevant information is acquired is called updating. Updating allows the working memory to keep information in an organized way if it is pertinent and dropping it if it is not. Updating also allows the working memory to replace old information with new. Higher level Simply Smarter activities, which require reorganization of information introduced in the short-term memory, address the working memory so that information is sustained for a longer period of time, allowing for better assimilation of meaning and better recall. The activities work different components of working memory and executive function.

Many people have difficulty planning and setting goals, even simple goals such as what they are doing tomorrow. This too is a working memory function. The working memory allows individuals to think about hypothetical situations and imagine the future (Hill, Emery 2013). A poorly functioning working memory results in an individual who is unable to plan for a future that the brain cannot construct. The impact this has behaviorally is enormous. Our adult lives are so dependent upon our ability to set attainable goals and foresee future obstacles. Without a strong working memory, our ability to do this would be poor.

There are also many people, both children and adults, who have little sense of the passage of time. As a result their ability to manage their responsibilities is poor. For students the strategies needed to handle a timed test or get ready for school in a timely fashion may be severely impaired. Parents complain of their children and young adults having “no sense of time.” The working memory deals with multiple issues when it comes to understanding time. In order to have a sense of time, an individual must be able to compare one length of time with another. This is done by understanding or experiencing the length of time a task or event takes and holding it in recent memory, while experiencing or understanding how long another task or event is taking. This is quite a load for the working memory capacity to handle, as it requires holding on to information about one thing while experiencing another.

In 2011 researchers Broadway and Engle found that individuals with high working memory capacity, or WMC, were, in fact, quite good at comparing relative lengths of time. The better the working memory is at holding larger amounts of information, the easier it becomes to hold the length of time of one event and compare it to the amount of time it is taking to complete another event. So if we think of individuals who appear efficient and well organized, we speak of time-management “skills,” when what we are actually talking about is high working memory capacity with components such as inhibition and updating working well.

Using Simply Smarter for Working Memory

Decades ago as Robert Doman and the NACD staff began addressing short-term and working memory, the need for these functions to be strong was obvious. The fact that working memory capacity was key to a wide variety of day-to-day functions for children and adults was demonstrated over and over again with the individuals who were evaluated. Clearly if these children and adults had limited working memory capacity, the ability to rate how long they were taking to complete a task would be unknown or at least unclear to them. The reprimands of parents and teachers, of employers and co-workers would not be able to improve their function in this area. Broadway and Engle found that individuals with low working memory capacity found it difficult to judge relative times and were often inaccurate when they tried to do so. Many of the Simply Smarter System activities challenge working memory capacity in various ways. All effort has been made to ensure that the activities are not compromised, allowing the brain to turn them into simplistic memory tasks. They have been refined again and again to address the WMC efficiently and effectively.

This is certainly not all that the working memory controls. If you have ever wondered why some people have such an excellent ability to find their way to places with ease and other people get lost quickly, we must again look at the working memory capacity. Those who are excellent at finding their way and recalling a route are using both their visual spatial memory and their verbal working memory. The better those functions work, the more accurate the individuals are at finding their way (Weisberg, Newcombe 2016). Visual spatial activities are a part of the Simply Smarter System’s varied activities designed to address the many components of working memory.

All of the Simply Smarter activities progress to a level that engages the working memory, and the later activities go further in pushing the executive function and full working memory capacity. Some the activities do so by changing visual spatial input and asking for retention of more and more complex information. Some of the activities require reversing input, given visual or auditory input, or a combination of the two. Others require even more complex reorganizing of the information being given. Many of them require a function referred to as switching or shifting. Switching requires that previously used “rules” be set aside so that new rules can be applied in specific situations. This process also requires the use of inhibition to block the old information or rules. Shifting also requires outside information to prompt the shift, which, in the case of Simply Smarter, is triggered by a change within the activity or the introduction of a new activity. These activities each vary in difficulty based on a system that responds to the user’s performance, thereby consistently challenging the individual to use more of his or her working memory capacity, as well as greater levels of executive function.

Research points clearly to the importance of the development of strong working memory and executive function. As research continues to define how various neurological systems develop, work, and function together, we will continue to unravel how these systems impact the day-to-day life of all individuals. We continue to improve our understanding of how the brain responds to stimulation using working memory, short-term memory and visual spatial memory to hold on to and manipulate information, as well as inhibition, updating, and switching to handle new challenges. Simply Smarter is designed to work many different components of cognitive function in a way that continues to engage and challenge all of these areas.

Works Cited

Best, JR, Miller PH. “A developmental perspective on executive function.” Child Development. Nov-Dec.6(2010): 1641-1660. PubMed.gov. print. 4 August 2016.

Broadway, JM. , Engle, RW. “Lapsed attention to elapsed time? Individual differences in working memory capacity and temporal re.” Acta Psychologica. May.1(2011): 115-126. PubMed. print. 26 July 2016.

Constantinidis, Christos and Klingberg, Torkel. “The Neuroscience of Working Memory Capacity and Training.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience. May.17(2016): 438-49. online August 2016.

D’Esposito M, Postle BR, Ballard D, Lease J. “Maintenance versus manipulation of information held in working memory: an event-related fMRI study.” Brain and Cognition. 41.October(1999): 66-86. PubMed. print. 20 July 2016.

Hill PF, Emery LJ. “Episodic future thought: contributions from working memory.” Consciousness and Cognition. 22.Sept.(2013): 677-683. PubMed. print. 27 July 2016.

Hogan AM, Vargha-Khadem F, Kirkham FJ. Baldeweg T. “Maturation of action monitoring from adolescence to adulthood: an ERP study.” Developmental Science. 8.Nov(2005): 525-534. PubMed. print. 15 July 2016.

Holmes J, Gathercole SE, Dunning DL. “Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor working memory in children.” Developmental Science. 12.July(2009): 9-15. PubMed. print. 8 July 2016.

Karbach J, Kray J. “How useful is executive control training? Age differences in near and far transfer of task-switchin.” Developmental Science. Nov.6(2009): 978-90. PubMed. print. 16 July 2016.

Klingberg T, Fernell E, Olesen PJ, Johnson M, Gustafsson P, Dahlström K, Gillberg CG, Forssberg H,. “Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD–a randomized, controlled trial.” Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Feb.2(2005): 177-86. PubMed. online. 17 July 2016.

Marchetti G. “Attention and working memory: two basic mechanisms for constructing temporal experiences.” Frontiers in Psychology. August.5(2014): n.pag. PubMed. online. 20 July 2016.

Miyake A, Friedman NP, Emerson MJ, Witzki AH, Howerter A, Wager TD. “The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “Frontal Lobe” ta.” Cognitive Psychology. August.1(2000): 49-100. PubMed. print. 15 July 2016.

Morton JB, Bosma R, Ansari D. “Age-related changes in brain activation associated with dimensional shifts of attention: an fMRI st.” NeuroImage. May.46(2009): 249-56. PubMed. print. 17 July 2016.

Oberauer K. “Declarative and Procedural Working Memory: Comm on Principles, Comm on Capacity Limits?.” Psychologica Belgica. 10.5334(2009): n.pag. google. print. 18 July 2016.

Weisberg SM, Newcombe NS. “How do (some) people make a cognitive map? Routes, places, and working memory.” Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition. May.5(2016): 768-85. PubMed. print. 14 July 2016.

Zelazo PD1, Müller U, Frye D, Marcovitch S, Argitis G, Boseovski J, Chiang JK, Hongwanishkul D, Sch. “The development of executive function in early childhood.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 68.2(2003): n.pag. PubMed. print. 20 July 2016

Reprinted by permission of The NACD Foundation, Volume 29 No. 2, 2016 ©NACD

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I just returned from an outstanding trip to Sydney, Australia. I worked with some great folks and evaluated many kids whose potential I can’t wait to help unlock. I also met with some great open-minded folks at the University of Sydney to discuss a research project with our Simply Smarter System and creating NACD courses for their continuing education programs.

You might surmise from the title of this article that it has something to do with brains; but what is the link to Norfolk pines and what is a Norfolk pine?

I have always thought that the little Norfolk pines that I would see in grocery stores around Christmas, overlooking the glitter they often put on them, were rather exotic and interesting. I had never had the time, opportunity, or actual inclination to investigate them; but I still found them to be curious little 18” plants, particularly since they were a species of pine tree. However, upon recent investigation, I discovered why I thought they were curious pines– they are not actually pine trees at all. Okay, lest you think I am having some kind of senior moment and running off on a tangent, let me start trying to connect some dots.

While visiting Sydney we spent a weekend at Manly Beach, just outside of Sydney. Shortly after arriving, we went out to check out the sights. The beach and the area were really spectacular. We admired the beautiful sandy beach, watched the surfers, and started appraising the dozens of tempting restaurants. But some of the most prominent features of the area were these very spectacular, exotic hundred-plus-foot high evergreens that were everywhere. My son, Laird, wondered aloud what kind of trees they were, and I realized that I recognized them as huge specimens of those little plants with glitter–Norfolk pines. I decided that when I got home I needed to go find one of the 18-inch versions for my house and another for Laird and his wife to commemorate our trip to Australia.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks. I’m back in the mountains of Utah, where we have many “real” pines and evergreens. I was home watching the news and dozing a bit when a commercial came on. I rarely pay any attention to commercials, with the exception of the occasional Jaguar commercial, and I really didn’t pay any attention to this one either, or so I thought. But actually, my brain did. Something in my peripheral vision caught my brain’s attention. I stopped the commercial and rewound it. I still couldn’t tell you what they were trying to sell, or why my brain said, “Hey, there was just something of significance;” but after I rewound the commercial, I discovered that in one very fleeting scene, as they were rapidly flashing across an office, there sitting on a shelf was a little potted Norfolk pine. But why did my brain react to that little piece of apparently-irrelevant data, when my sort-of-conscious brain was trying to contemplate what was behind Hillary Clinton’s missing email? The answer is simple: it could, so it did.

Did you ever buy a new car and suddenly start seeing them everywhere? Did a few hundred thousand of them get produced and sold overnight, or did they just start occupying a more significant place in your brain? Could it be that as our brains add more and more importance to these pieces of information, and as we make more and more associations, particularly personal associations, that our brains, like magnets, gather more and more associated pieces? Could it also be that what we know, what is in our long-term memory, provides relevance and helps to determine what we do and do not perceive? That our short-term and working memories dictate how many of those pieces we can sequence and associate, thus determine how large and meaningful our world is? How connected we are to it? How tuned in we are, how significant it all is? How much we are learning?

Yes it could be, and I believe it does.

There is this great connection and loop between our short-term memory, our working memory, and our long-term memory. Our short-term memory determines how many sequential pieces of information we can process. Starting with a newborn, that number is zero and builds based on input/opportunity. The foundation of our working memory is our short-term memory. Our working memory refers to how many pieces we can manipulate and determines our complexity of thought. Together we call our short-term memory and working memory our processing power. What we process goes toward, and perhaps into, our long-term memory, based on the frequency, intensity and duration of the input and what is already in there. Our knowledge base determines what we actually process. And the more we process and the more we put into our brains, the more we stimulate the brain, the more we trigger neuroplasticity, grow connections, build networks, and literally grow our brains. The more we know, the more relevance new input has, the more our brains pay attention to it, and the more we take in, the better we process–it’s a loop. The brain is really very cool. The more you put into long-term memory, the more it can actually hold and the more it has in it, the more new input it attracts.

The significance of this is that what we teach our child impacts the development of the short-term and working memory. If it is relevant and associated information, then it gets into long-term memory, and then in turn it adds relevance to additional new information and builds everything even further.

The degree to which we impact the development of a child’s brain and build their neurological foundation (short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory) is largely a reflection of how targeted our input is.

Targeted input means that it is specific to the child, as reflected by how well it fits their present level of processing and what they already have in their long-term memory. To help you understand this, put yourself into these two different scenarios:

Bad Scenario–You are in college, a freshman English Literature major. Things got screwed up and they placed you in some kind of crazy blow-your-mind advanced math class with a bunch of seniors. You hadn’t taken math since your junior year in high school and then hadn’t gone past Algebra II, which you hated. Saying that everything that went on in this class was over your head is an incredible understatement. The only things you would take from the class were a significantly lowered self-image, verification that you really stink at math, and a lower GPA. In this scenario the odds are that you had no real frame of reference for the material, nothing for your brain to associate/connect with; so what you had in your long-term memory did you no good at all. If you can, imagine a blackboard covered with formulas and figures that you need to process visually. Odds are that being an English Lit Major you are much better at processing auditory sequential information than visual, and that your visual processing probably was not up to the task. Net result: no increase in your auditory or visual short-term or working memory, and nothing added to your long-term memory other than a confirmation of your hatred for math. Neuroplasticity triggered—minimal. Brain change or growth—minimal.

Good Scenario–You are still a freshman English Lit. major. You get invited to a small private dinner party at your favorite professor’s house to meet your favorite author. You have read everything this author has written, and you know your professor’s views on her work. At dinner, in this very intimate evening where you are treated as a peer, you have the opportunity to discuss this author’s novels and short stories and her new project. You take in every word as though it had the intensity of a bolt of lightening. Each bit you take in immediately associates with many hundreds and perhaps thousands of other related and associated bits and chunks of information. This was a targeted educational experience. Because it was so targeted for you, the strong auditory learner and conceptualizer who loves literature and who knew and loved the author and her work, your brain was changed. The experience added to your long-term memory/knowledge base, which in turn would then affect your brain’s ability to process future associated input. The targeted, and thus intense, input would have actually helped build your processing ability as well. Neuroplasticity triggered—immense. Brain change and growth—huge. These are moments you would perhaps recall for a lifetime.

What are the implications of all of this?

What affects, stimulates, and develops our brains is very specific and unique to each of us. We need targeted individualized educational opportunities to encourage neuro-development. The more individualized our education, the more it actually constitutes an opportunity. Random disassociated input does little to really change the brain. Sequential associated information makes an impression on the brain.

How much we take in and learn and what gets into long-term memory is a refection of the strength of our neurological base, our short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. We needed targeted individualized opportunities to build our processing power, utilizing specific processing brain development activities, such as the Simply Smarter System, NACD Cognition Coach apps, and 1:1 processing activities.

What we know of our world affects our processing and memory. It appears that our brain pays attention to what it can identify, what has meaning, and particularly to what it can name and the degree to which it can name it. Observing many thousands of children and trying to crawl into their brains, it appears that our brains do constantly react to, rehearse, and review based on opportunity. Simply being able to name those things that are in our daily world, I believe, helps build and develop our processing and helps keep information in our long-term memory.

The more we learn, the more we can learn. Knowledge, information in long-term memory, produces more knowledge and increases what goes into long-term memory. As we learn and add to our long term memory, the more significant more things become, and the more our brains attention to and learn. Picture your long-term memory as a magnet, a magnet that grows and gets stronger with every new thing that it pulls in. The more you put in, the “smarter” you get, and the easier it is to get even smarter.

What develops changes, and that which changes can be developed. If those involved with child development and education really understood this, this could be a game changer for everyone. What develops changes. Every child begins life not being able to even give meaning to a sound or an image, but learns and changes based on opportunity. Short-term memory develops. Working memory develops. Everything that develops through opportunity can be accelerated with more and better opportunities. And you can teach an old dog new tricks—if you try.

I did find some little Norfolk pines. We have them in our homes, and I have no doubt that our memories of our trip to Australia will remain much longer now that we have our trees.

Just a little P.S.: I’m presently in Los Angeles. I used to live here and I’ve been coming here regularly since the 70s. You will never guess what I was seeing all over the place this evening as I drove through rush hour traffic in Laurel Canyon. Norfolk pines! How amazing it is that during all those years my brain never determined that they were worth acknowledging. Once my brain could put a name to them and had established associations, they became significant. I think that’s very cool.

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“Hello, NACD has stressed the importance and development of short-term and working memory since the inception of the organization in 1979. We have also been developing software to work on these critical skills since the early 80s, including the Simply Smarter program and the Simply Smarter Kids app. Research completed in 2011 and 2012 continues to support the critical role that working memory capacity plays in academic performance and language.

In a study published in August of 2012, “Anxiety and Depression in Academic Performance: An Exploration of the Mediating Factors of Worry and Working Memory,” by Matthew Owens, Jim Stevenson, Julie A. Hadwin, and Roger Norgate, they discussed the interplay of worry and anxiety, working memory issues and academic performance. Higher anxiety was tied to lower academic outcomes. There also appeared to be a connection between higher anxiety and worry and how well the working memory was able to function.

In a study published in Research in Science and Technological Education in 2012, Yu-Chien Chu and Norman Reid found that working memory capacity was a key factor in whether or not students were able to succeed in learning the material in Genetics courses. They recommended reducing the demands on the working memory capacity to improve the students’ learning outcomes.

In February of 2012 a study was published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research that was completed by Patrik Sorqvist and J.Ronnberg. The study was looking at the relationship of working memory capacity and the ability of the individual to sort through speech that was intended to be recalled and speech that should be ignored. They found that working memory capacity was key to the brain’s ability to sort through this confusion in relevant versus irrelevant speech.

We see again and again that working memory capacity plays a critical role in learning and understanding the world. This is why it is so essential to address working memory in daily program activities.

Reprinted from the Journal of The NACD Foundation (formerly The National Academy for Child Development), Volume 26 No. 1, 2013 ©NACD

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