Speaking of Cogmed

Since the Curmudgeoness asks... yes, we've tried Cogmed. Here's one family's experience:

We decided to try Cogmed for documented issues with working memory. I first heard of Cogmed through reading The Mislabeled Child by the Eides, so I had been watching for it prior to its release in this country. (Full disclosure: I have a favorable bias toward Swedes, and the research behind Cogmed comes from Sweden. I have no stake in the company, aside from a bit of ethnic pride.)

I find it comforting that the research behind Cogmed has been published in peer-reviewed journals. Yes, this costs extra. So does the fact that, unlike other software being sold out there, Cogmed is a package deal that includes a fair bit of personal oversight and coaching.

In our case, this meant an initial meeting with a Cogmed trainer who is also a fairly well-known ADD specialist. It didn't hurt our that this woman is warm, wise, and broadly experienced. She worked well with my daughter, and my daughter took heart in the fact that she would check in with this trainer every week (by phone) to discuss any concerns and to get progress reports and encouragement.

Having the oversight of a psychologist was reassuring during the initial weeks, when the training seems to be making matters worse rather than better. It was quite unnerving, and it underlined the fact that trying to rewire the brain is risky -- especially if you're dealing with brains that are not neurologically typical to begin.

The Cogmed program is not necessarily fun, so you're called upon to offer various bribes.... uh, "incentives" ... for compliance. The bribe for doing the daily work is built into the software -- a silly little Nintendo-style game involving racing robots. For my daughter, the weekly incentive was a favorite meal and the grand prize was a remote control dragonfly -- not too terrible a price. In theory, I was also supposed to "coach" to my daughter during her training, to keep her on task and smooth out any difficulties. The reality was that I was more useful outside the room keeping her younger sister quiet. As a result, I didn't get to watch much of the training.

At the outset, my impression was that software was not that different from some of the other brain-enhancement software on the market. Later, though, I got to watch my daughter's final training session, and I came away impressed with the methodical way the program challenges different aspects of working memory. While there's more to attention than working memory, it seems clear to me that my daughter made real gains. She feels it was extremely valuable.

One particular illustration of a clear take-away is spelling. Prior to working with this software, my daughter couldn't hold more than three letters in mind at a time, which made her spelling a disaster. Her spelling improved immediately, based on the ability to hold five or six letters in mind. There seemed to be similar gains with math computation.

Another sign of significant change emerged during a family conversation shortly after the training. When my daughter opened her mouth to speak, I reflexively assumed she was interrupting yet another conversation with an off-topic remark. But, in fact, she was adding to the conversation with a relevant and useful bit of information, and adding it at an appropriate moment. I was so completely stunned by this new development that I now have zero recollection of what the conversation was about.

My daughter also points out that she has not left the house without shoes since.

These gains have not disappeared after a year. I'm as cynical as anyone about people marketing snake oil to desperate parents, but, for us, Cogmed seemed to perform as advertised. It's worth a look.