Are there specific brain fitness programs for kids? My kids have problems with math.

Here is ques­tion 22 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions.

Question:

Are there spe­cif­ic brain fit­ness pro­grams for kids? My kids have prob­lems with math-why should they do these things that may dis­tract them?

Key Points:
  • Learn­ing stress man­age­ment skills can reduce test anx­i­ety and improve learn­ing readiness.
  • If stress lev­els are too high, con­cen­tra­tion and focus are neg­a­tive­ly impacted.
Answer:


Stress reduc­tion can help not only with math or test anx­i­ety, but also with over­all high lev­els of anx­i­ety that inhib­it learn­ing and high­er-order think­ing. Pro­grams teach­ing relax­ation through breath­ing tech­niques with biofeed­back train­ing are already used in a num­ber of schools with promis­ing research results. (See Take a Deep Breath: Biofeed­back soft­ware is help­ing stu­dents calm down for bet­ter test per­for­mance.)

High lev­els of anx­i­ety pro­voke cor­ti­cal inhi­bi­tion, which is when high emo­tion­al arousal over­whelms high­er-order think­ing or exec­u­tive func­tions in the frontal lobes. For­tu­nate­ly, pos­i­tive emo­tion-focused tools and tech­niques that fos­ter phys­i­o­log­i­cal coher­ence have been shown to sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve key aspects of health, emo­tion­al well­be­ing, and performance.

Edu­ca­tion­al inter­ven­tion stud­ies exam­ine the effects of these pro­grams in school set­tings. Pro­grams and cur­ric­u­la incor­po­rat­ing pos­i­tive emo­tion-focused tools and tech­niques intro­duced at the ele­men­tary, mid­dle school, high school, and col­lege lev­els have been demon­strat­ed to reduce gen­er­al psy­cho­log­i­cal dis­tress, test anx­i­ety, and risky behav­iors, as well as improve test scores, class­room behav­iors, stress resilien­cy, learn­ing, and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. Stud­ies are also under­way to inves­ti­gate the impact of pos­i­tive emo­tion inter­ven­tions for chil­dren with spe­cif­ic learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties as well as with atten­tion-deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD).

You can learn more at Brain fit­ness for Stu­dents

Further Reading

About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

Newsletter

Subscribe to our e-newsletter

* indicates required

Got the book?