Attention is thought of mostly as a cognitive choice. When teachers and parents say, “Pay Attention!” they imply that the child being inattentive is doing so by choice. What if, like being able to do a cartwheel or a handstand, attention is something that some children do with ease while others require much more training and assistance?
My child can’t stay focused in class.
The past year was difficult. We started the year doing pretty well and then things started to slip. Teachers called to say that assignments were missing, not once or twice but regularly. We tried punishments, no trip to the river if you don’t turn in your homework. There were tears and tantrums and in the end. Nothing short of constant supervision made an impact.
What’s the difference between students who do well in the classroom and those who don’t? In many cases, attention is the underlying difference between classroom success and failure. Students with strong attention skills do markedly better than those with weak attention skills.
Most educators know that attention is important to learning.
BrainLeap Awarded $225k NSF Grant
BrainLeap Technologies, Inc. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $225,000 to continue research and development on BrainLeap’s suite of attention training games. The grant is specifically focused on developing gamified assessments that act as independent measures of attention.
The gamified assessments will be built into the attention training suite to measure improvements in attention similar to what is currently done in a research lab.