When we say Mind Skills, or Brain Abilities, we mean the skills you require when you are performing a task, especially learning tasks. For example, when you learn Math, you need to be able to visualize geometric forms accurately, listen attentively and understand the teacher’s explanation, pay attention and draw the necessary diagrams accurately and quickly, or comprehend the multi-step problem! These are called Mind Skills – they are the brain functions which need to work hard when an individual performs a task, especially learning.

 

 

Each of the circles in this diagram represents a vital area of Mind Skills essential for learning. A sub-optimal system hinders a child from learning and performing at his or her best ability. Over time, the frustration felt by the child usually leads to a loss of interest or motivation, and in many cases lower confidence levels.

Our Consultants are all professionals in the fields of education, health, therapy and psychology. Above all, we share a common belief which is the awesome power of the human brain to be improved! Our Programme Consultants are all fully trained to conduct our programmes effectively to the highest desired standard.

Our LSE comprises a series of international standardised tests. These carefully selected tests have been designed and tested overseas, in universities, hospitals and well established private institutions all across the United States of America, Europe and Australia.

 

Your child will be assessed comprehensively for their Mind Skills in the areas of : Intellectual Functioning (IQ), Attention and Impulse Control, Eye-Hand Coordination, Movement Coordination and Speed, Visual Processing, Auditory Processing and Memory Skills.

We believe the following are some of the most unique features of KidzGrow, differentiating us from all other enrichment, tutoring, or motivational programmes, giving us the rapid life-transforming results we consistently see in the lives we serve!

Scientific

 

All of our programmes use scientifically proven methods to improve brain abilities to allow your child to perform faster and more accurately. Based on our data & research, 80-90% of parents report improvements in their child during or after each programme, within 6-8weeks. Objective scores also show an average increase of 10 standard score points after each Mind Training programme.

Whether your child has been recommended for Visual-Motor Mind training (REVAMP®), Auditory Mind Training (Fast ForWord®), Attention Mind Training (Play Attention®), strengthening of the brain network is involved. How?

Neuroscience research shows that Specially-Designed exercises must be targeted and specific in order to achieve rapid brain improvement– so, think F.A.S.T.:

Frequency and Intensity: Brain plasticity research demonstrates that completing a set of learning tasks in a frequent, intense timeframe accelerates brain wiring. This explains why at KidzGrow, our programmes tend to demand higher frequency and intensity. We see more rapid improvements in our specific intense programmes than once-a-week type enrichment programmes. Some of our programmes have been scientifically shown to improve the brain by 1-2years in 6-8weeks!

 

Adaptivity : Exercises must be interactive and adjusted to the student’s individual skill levels and responses. This is the reason why we conduct the Learning Skills Evaluation, so that we are able to customize our Mind Training programmes to your child’s individual needs. That is also the reason why we conduct all our Mind Training sessions one-to-one!

 

Simultaneous Development : At KidzGrow, each exercise focuses on a specific set of tasks and simultaneously develops underlying cognitive processes such as memory, attention, processing and sequencing.

 

Timely motivation : Students must be active (not passive), attentive and engaged in order for the brain to strengthen. Hence it is important for us that our students participate actively and enjoy the Mind Training sessions.

 

Adaptivity: Customized One-To-One Training!

 

As mentioned above, all our Mind Training sessions are conducted one-to-one, so that your child gets to work at the level just right for him/her. Customizing to the individual is not possible in a group situation. We believe one of the key reasons why we are able to help our students achieve significant gains in brain abilities within a short period of time is because of this unique customized feature of our programmes. Remember too that each of our minds is totally unique and ‘one-of-a-kind’! We do not believe in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ programme!

We Re-Evaluate Your Child for FREE after Each Programme!

 

While it is common for most educational, enrichment and ‘brain enhancement’ centres to claim that they are able to help their students effectively, at KidzGrow, we make sure of this by using standardized instruments to evaluate every student after they have attended each of our programmes. This way, we use scientific methods to judge the effectiveness of our programmes in helping your child achieve greater Mind Skills. Every parent will receive a formal standardized Progress Report after attending every Mind Training programme. The Progress Report gives the most updated profile of your child’s Mind Skills after the Mind Training sessions.

Maintaining Brain Power!

 

Our key differences are:

1) Passion to succeed is NOT best developed by attending motivational classes!! - We believe passion to succeed in any task (eg. learning Math) is best developed when one can attain success and pride from the task (ie. doing well in Math) most of the time. Without the necessary mind skills to skillfully complete a task (ie. understand all Math concepts, complete Math homework easily and do well in Math exam), no amount of motivation techniques can help you overcome your lack of confidence and performance in that task. It is like flying. If we do not have wings, no amount of motivational techniques can help us develop the confidence or ability to fly! Hence the key to building passion and success in school is to build strong mind skills so that students can accomplish their learning tasks skillfully and be proud of their achievements! If a student can listen and absorb quickly, pay attention without huge effort, have strong memory power, write fast and draw accurately without being careless, and not need to study 10 hours a day just to get a B+, how much easier is it to be passionate about learning?



2) Scientific Evidence - Unlike motivational strategies, which DO NOT have strong supporting research evidence of its effectiveness, our Mind Training programmes are strongly backed by scientific research in its effectiveness, from positive Brain Scan results in Stanford University to Academic Marks Improvements in Schools.

Our key difference is:

Content vs Foundation Mind Skills - We train your child’s brain on ‘How to Learn’, NOT ‘What to Learn’. as most tuition and enrichment centres offer. We are professionals you should come to IDEALLY BEFORE enrolling your child into tuition or enrichment centres. This is because with stronger mind skills to learn and absorb faster, your child will benefit more in any learning situation, be it learning Math, English, Piano or Golf!

Duration, frequency and type of programmes are recommended based on the needs of your child.

Our programmes are intensive and range from 1-2 times weekly for 45-60 minutes per session (E.g REVAMP™ and Play Attention®) to 5-days weekly for 2 hours per session (E.g.Fast ForWord®). Each block of programme time typically lasts between 6-20 weeks. We usually see visible results after 6-8 weeks on our programmes.

It is a powerful learning system that uses a high-tech helmet to read brain signals indicative of focus or concentration. These brain signals control our computer games. Your mind becomes the mouse or joystick! These games not only teach you to improve focus, but also to ignore distractions, develop memory skills, finish tasks, and become organized. These skills can improve school work, improve self-esteem, and make life at home much happier.

Every months, we offer a free workshop. Our therapist conducts a lively and informative presentation and encourages the audience to interact freely during the discussion.

Scientific research has demonstrated that the brain is adaptable and capable of learning throughout life. This is termed neuroplasticity. Play Attention allows the user to view the attentive state in real-time. Over time, through deliberate practice, Play Attention students can learn to increase focus and concentration. Deliberate practice entails setting goals to improve skill performance. The interactive exercises also challenge Play Attention students to improve memory, finishing tasks, visual tracking, and filtering out distractions. Gradually, the student can retain the skills necessary to be successful in the classroom, work, and home.

Typically within the first 30 days, minor changes will appear. These may include better listening skills, beginning homework on one's own, or staying more organized. It is important to understand that these are significant positive leaps forward for ADHD students and must be rewarded/reinforced so that they are likely to be repeated.

Play Attention is not clinical neuro or bio feedback. Neurofeedback is based on the theory that ADHD persons have abnormal brainwave patterns. Neurofeedback practitioners contend that normalizing these abnormal brainwave patterns can eliminate ADHD symptoms. Play Attention does not strive to change brainwave patterns. Changing brainwave patterns does not insure that one can become more organized, have better short-term memory, ignore distractions, or even balance one's check book in a normal amount of time. These are skills that must be learned and do not readily appear after neurofeedback training. Play Attention teaches these skills and insures transfer to the workplace and classroom.

You decided to place your child on medication with a healthcare provider. Use of medication is a medical decision and must be decided under advisement of your healthcare provider. It is important to realize that medication does not teach skills or behaviors. Play Attention is an educational skill building tool that also teaches students to improve behaviors. Once these skills are learned, frequently the need for medication greatly diminishes. However, you must discuss the matter with your healthcare provider regarding changes to medication or any medical issues.

Parents often clearly understand that ADHD impairs their child's ability to make lasting friendships. Poor social skills are closely intertwined with attention problems. By increasing attention to social cues and increasing self-esteem, Play Attention is a wonderful tool to help build lasting friendships.

Conservatively, 5% to 7% of all children have ADHD. Roughly 60% to 70% of those children will carry their attention problems into adulthood. The inability to finish assignments, stay organized, remember things, or become easily distracted follow children into adulthood where it's estimated billions of dollars are lost due to these problems. Play Attention can teach organization, improve memory, train you to complete tasks and become less distracted. These skills are vitally important success at either school or the workplace.

Your child works on a computer five days a week at a center or at home.

By improving processing speed, Fast ForWord improves your child’s ability to hear the phonemes needed for sounding out when reading – this directly impacts reading fluency and comprehension.  Fast ForWord also exercises working memory, attention stamina and sequencing, essential cognitive skills for successful reading.  The Reading series builds on these skills with comprehensive instruction ranging from spelling and syntax to reading accuracy and higher level comprehension and thinking.

By speeding up the ability to process sound and language, i.e., auditory processing, Fast ForWord essentially slows the world down for a child.  This improves the ability to follow multi-step directions, to attend in class, and to participate more in class and in conversation, amongst other things.

After every session the student's data is uploaded through the Internet to our server.  We track errors, rate of progress, work-rate and many other items.  We are in constant contact by phone and email, reacting to progress and making changes to the work assignments in accordance with that student's individualized plan.

Fast ForWord is a learning-intervention program. It is going after the glitch that is causing the learning difficulties. Tutoring is more about providing content, providing more of the same material your child is already seeing at school.  Tutoring is useful to meet short term goals, preparing for the next test, etc. but most often it's a band aid and an expense that does not bear long term fruit.  Fast ForWord programs are more profound and far-reaching than that.  They are an investment in the future, laying a foundation that will lead to higher achievement in all future years.  And in the end, it is a much better use of financial resources.

After about three weeks most parents start to notice signs of change.  Language gains and better confidence in younger children, more confidence in reading in older students.  Everyone is different though, and for some children the gains come more slowly.

Continuous research.  Since its origins in university labs, scientists have continuously tracked the gains resulting from students using Fast ForWord.  To date there are over 90 school based research studies tracking over 40,000 students. In addition, independent research conducted by Stanford University has imaged the brain before and after the use Fast ForWord to show that areas of the brain are activated after product use.

At present, the majority of children benefiting from Fast ForWord are children ages 5 to adult.  Other programs are being formulated which will help the older and younger populations.  Children must be able to sit in a chair and attend to the computer for various lengths of time.

The child with language concerns will benefit from training, especially if the problem areas are receptive phonology, listening comprehension and complex grammar and syntax.

The child with central auditory processing weakness will benefit from training, especially if the problem areas are phonemic synthesis, listening in the presence of background noise, auditory sequencing, slow processing of auditory information, attending and focusing.

No. Because it is designed by targeting what the brain needs in order to change. When using the recommended schedule (protocol), you will see positive results in 6-8 weeks.  Because the brain is strengthening the cognitive skills, these benefits continue to last a lifetime.

Fast ForWord Basics develops basic learning skills for 4-7 year olds, including:

• Color, shape and size identification
• Letter-name and letter-sound association
• Phonological awareness

Fast ForWord Language uses patented technology to clarify sounds and rapidly develop the oral language skills that provide the foundation for reading, for 5-7 year olds, including:

• Phonological awareness
• Working memory
• Listening accuracy
• Language structures

Fast ForWord Language to Reading targets the skills that help students ages 5-12 years old make the link between spoken and written language including:

• Organization and focus
• Listening comprehension
• Word analysis
• English language conventions

Fast ForWord Reading rapidly and systematically builds reading skills that correlate to school curriculum standards, including:

• Word recognition and decoding
• Spelling and phonology
• Passage comprehension
• Sentence comprehension

Fast ForWord Middle and High School rapidly reinforces the skills critical for fluent reading and communication for adolescents and adults including:

• Phonological awareness
• Working memory
• Language structures
• Listening accuracy

There are no known side effects to the treatment.  Each child may react differently.  Some irritability may occur as improvement is taking place but this is not the norm.