Tracy Packiam Alloway, PhD

Brain training is a growing and exciting new area in scientific research. In particular, there is a lot of evidence of the brain’s plasticity: that it can actually change-shrink or grow-depending on what we do.  I wanted to investigate whether students with learning disabilities can also benefit from brain training.

I recently completed a study together with Dyslexia Scotland and the Autistic Treatment Trust on the impact of brain training. A group of students aged between 8 to 16 years old took part. They completed some tests of IQ and working memory and then participated in an 8-week training programme called Jungle Memory.
The findings were very exciting! The students who used the Jungle Memory training programme regularly (4x a week for 30 minutes) had higher IQ and working memory scores, compared to those who only trained 1x a week and those who didn’t train at all. By training your brain you will be able to improve your child’s prospects in classroom and beyond.

If you would like further details on this study, please contact me.

Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can display amazing abilities well beyond their age, yet struggle in simple, everyday tasks. A teacher told me of a 13 year boy who loved going to the principal’s office to work on math and science exams for 17 year olds, but could not dress himself. A fascinating aspect of this polarity is the “special abilities” displayed by some autistic individuals. These abilities far exceed expectations based on their IQ, and in some cases, their special ability exceeds the level reached by experts in the same field. Special abilities are generally found in the domains of music, memorization of lists, three-dimensional drawing, reading (hyperlexia), and calendar and mental calculation.

Of interest is whether their working memory reflects their extraordinary skills. It seems that the memory profile of an autistic savant is much like an individual with ASD without special abilities. If a memory test uses material that is related to their area of expertise, then savants outperform individuals with ASD without special abilities. For example, a savant calculator has a much higher score than ASD non-experts in number-based working memory tasks. Both ASD groups perform similarly in other working memory tasks. When compared with experts, we see a similar pattern. Both savants and experts show superior memory skills compared to their peers with the same IQ level when tested using material from their area of expertise. Studies that have compared memory skills for music in savant musicians with typical musicians reveal that they demonstrate the same sensitivity and awareness of musical dimensions such as rhythm and pitch. Their similar performance in a music memory test suggests that autistic savant musicians and typical musicians use the working memory in a comparable way.

Autistic savants have built up a huge knowledge base that can be used to increase working memory performance in the area of their expertise. In some cases, their expertise and training in one area can also enhance their scores in another area. For example, calendar calculators and savant calculators can achieve phenomenal scores in memory tests using nonsense words. They are able to apply their training in remembering one type of abstract material (dates and numbers) to related things. One explanation is that dates, numbers, and nonsense words are all abstract material and we use similar mechanisms to remember information that is not connected to semantic memory. The bottom line is that autistic savants have superior memory in the area of their expertise, and in some cases in related areas. This enhanced memory performance far exceeds what is expected of their IQ levels. We see that working memory is very different from IQ.

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What is working memory like in students with Autistic Spectrum Disoder (ASD)? Let’s first look at verbal short-term memory skills in high functioning ASD students. Their skills in this area can vary, in some cases, students can have above average short-term memory, while others perform at the same level of a student with language impairments. In my own research, I found that high functioning teenagers display a verbal short-term memory problem . The type of material they have to remember provides us with a clue to their memory profile. They struggle in particular with abstract information like nonsense words or new vocabulary. Why? The strategy they use to remember can over-burden them. Studies confirm that even high functioning individuals do not use their long-term memory or visual strategies to support immediate recall. Instead, they rehearse things over and over again to prevent forgetting. While this can be useful in remembering short sequences of information, it is ultimately a time-consuming and inefficient strategy to simply keep repeating things.

Now let’s look at their working memory profile. The majority of individuals with ASD do not have deficits in this area. In visual working memory tasks, they are shown a matrix with dots that appear in random locations and have to recall their location in backwards sequence. Both my own research as well as other studies confirms that their performance is similar to their same-aged typically developing peers, and those with the same IQ level. In the classroom, this means that they won’t have any difficulty with remembering information that is visually presented. The problem arises when they have to use their eyes to track the movements of a teacher as part of a lesson. Even high functioning individuals have trouble shifting their gaze from one thing to another and may misidentify the relevant information to focus on. Remember that one feature of ASD is their ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. In the classroom, they can find it distracting to shift their visual attention from the board to the teacher talking and back again, and as a result struggle to remember the lesson even if it is presented visually.

Verbal working memory is not impaired in individuals with ASD. Students who are low functioning can perform lower than their same-age peers but when they are compared with peers with the same IQ levels, their verbal working memory performance is similar. In some cases, psychologists have observed weaknesses in verbal working memory. However, this is likely the result of having to visually scan material to pick out the relevant information, rather than a working memory deficit per se. Studies of brain activity reveal a very interesting pattern. When a child with ASD is presented with two tasks and has to focus on one while ignoring the other distracting task, their brain activity reveals that they do not actually shift their attention to the more important information. They have a difficult time determining what information is important. In the classroom, some students with ASD might appear to struggle with certain memory-heavy activities. However, this may be connected to their difficulty in knowing what they should focus on, rather than poor working memory.

*Alloway et al (2009). Journal of Learning Disabilities READ

Did you every play Marco Polo as a child? I used to love closing my eyes and spinning around faster and faster when I was ‘It’. Now imagine playing that game in the middle of a busy intersection. Cars are honking, dogs are barking, siren sounds get closer, and people are yelling. You are ‘It’ and are trying to listen to the where ‘Polo’ is coming from. For a student that is hypersensitive to sound, touch, and light, the world is a chaotic place. As a result, new surroundings can be very disorienting for them. Some label such sensory hypersensitivity as sensory integration dysfunction (SID).

The label of sensory integration disorder may come as a welcome relief to some parents who want an explanation for why their child has not reached certain milestones, like walking or talking. As parents, it is instinctive to worry that something may be wrong with our child. We view Bobby obsessively lining up cars in a row as a symptom of Autistic Spectrum, and Daisy mixing up words as dyslexic. Yet, does a label like SID actually help parents? Although it is a ‘condition’ identified by some health practitioners, there are many psychologists and neurologists who think that the label of SID is actually doing a disservice to parents. I will outline several reasons for why this is the case. The first issue is that the difficulties associated with SID reflect a neurodevelopmental immaturity, rather than a distinct disorder. The absence of adults receiving a diagnosis of SID begs the question of whether in some cases, the child might outgrow the symptoms naturally without the need for expensive and unproven treatments. The next point is related to this issue as sensory hypersensitivity is a symptom of other disorders such as dyspraxia, ADHD, and Autistic Spectrum. A label of SID might falsely lead to parent to feel comforted that their child is receiving support, when more serious problems might be going undiagnosed, and as a result, untreated or supported. Finally, there are very few published clinical trials on either the diagnosis of SID or the treatment of it. Those that are published have been criticized as flawed research, due to small samples and heterogeneous samples (ie, including students with ADHD, ASD, in the sample). It appears then while the symptoms of SID are indeed real, they can point to more serious disorders which merit diagnosis and treatment.

Is there a Rain Main hiding in us all? Scientists have used special technology to temporarily immobilize part of the brain in healthy adults. The volunteers showed incredible skills similar to autistic savants, such as naming the day when given a date in history (calendar calculating) and drawing abilities.

An autistic savant is someone who is autistic with a special skill, usually related to memory. For example, they might be able to draw an accurate replication of a scene or location after looking at it for just a few minutes. Another example is an amazing ability to perform complicated maths problems in their head or tell you what day it was on 25 February 1869. A child who has savant abilities would be drawing three-dimensional pictures while their friends are scribbling. They might be able put together a jigsaw puzzle that adults struggle doing, without even looking at the picture. Their exceptional memory helps them to recognize patterns in things that would take us ages to figure out.

In an odd twist of nature, autistic savants have such specialized skills because part of their brain is damaged: the left hemisphere that deals with language and processing information. This damage leads to learning disabilities and difficulty coping in everyday situations. To deal with this damage, their right side of the brain is unlocked, resulting in a ‘spotlight’ on one of the five senses. If there is a spotlight on hearing, then the autistic savant has amazing musical skills.

I was recently invited to write a blog for SharpBrains on a paper I published on this topic. Here is a copy of the blog post.

Working memory is our ability to store and manipulate information for a brief time. It is typically measured by dual-tasks, where the individual has to remember an item while simultaneously processing a sometimes unrelated piece of information. A widely used working memory task is the reading span task where the individual reads a sentence, verifies it, and the recalls the final word. Individual differences in working memory performance are closely related to a range of academic skills such as reading, spelling, comprehension, and mathematics. Crucially, there is emerging research that working memory predicts learning outcomes independently of IQ. One explanation for the importance of working memory in academic attainment is that because it appears to be relatively unaffected by environmental influences, such as parental educational level and financial background, it measures a student’s capacity to acquire knowledge rather than what they have already learned.

However little is known about the consequences of low working memory capacity per se, independent of other associated learning difficulties. In particular, it is not known either what proportion of students with low working memory capacities has significant learning difficulties or what their behavioral characteristics are. The aim of a recent study was to provide the first systematic large-scale examination of the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of school-aged students who have been identified solely on the basis of very low working memory scores.

In screening of over 3000 school-aged students in mainstream schools, 1 in 10 was identified as having working memory difficulties. There were several key findings regarding their cognitive skills. The first is that the majority of them performed below age-expected levels in reading and mathematics. This suggests that low working memory skills constitute a high risk factor for educational underachievement for students. This corresponds with evidence that working memory impacts all areas of learning from kindergarten to college. It is a basic cognitive skill that we need to perform a variety of activities, and we use it in core subjects like reading and maths, as well as general topics like Art and Music. Crucially, this pattern of poor performance in learning outcomes remains even when students’ IQ is statistically accounted. This fits well with evidence suggesting that working memory is even more important to learning than other cognitive skills such as IQ. For example, in typically developing students, I found that their working memory skills, rather than IQ, at 5 years old were the best predictor of predictor of reading, spelling, and math outcomes six years later.

The next major finding from the studies of students with working memory difficulties is that teachers typically judged the students to be highly inattentive, and have short poor attention spans and high levels of distractibility. They were also commonly described as forgetting what they are currently doing and things they have learned, failing to remember instructions, and failing to complete tasks. In everyday classroom activities, they often made careless mistakes, particularly in writing, and had difficulty in solving problems. In contrast, relatively few of the students were judged to exhibit the high levels of hyperactive and impulsive behaviors.

The final key finding is that students with working memory difficulties take a much longer time to process information. They are unable to cope with timed activities and fast presentation of information. As a result, they often end up abandoning the activities all together out of frustration. One way to overcome this difficulty is to provide them with a shorter activity and to allow for more time during tests.

Studies such as these demonstrate that students with working memory difficulties have an extremely high risk of making poor academic progress and are relatively common in the classroom - they represent approximately 10% of their age group in mainstream schooling. Without early intervention, working memory deficits cannot be made up over time and will continue to compromise a child’s likelihood of academic success. How can we support students’ learning? The first crucial step in supporting students with working memory impairments is proper diagnosis, which can be conducted by a school psychologist. However, at present working memory problems often go undetected in students or are misdiagnosed as attentional problems. There are several test batteries that can be used to assess working memory, including the Working Memory Index in the WISC. However, most assessment instruments that are currently available require considerable experience in the administration, scoring and interpretation of cognitive tests. One useful tool to identify and support students with working memory impairments is the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA; Alloway, 2007 published by Pearson) . The benefit of the AWMA is that it is designed to provide a practical and convenient way for non-expert assessors such as teachers to screen their pupils for significant working memory problems, with a user-friendly interface. The automated presentation and scoring of tasks provide consistency in presentation of stimuli across participants, thus reducing experimenter error. The AWMA was used in the study described here, as well as in numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on the role of working memory in learning, anxiety, and development in typical and clinical populations.

The main goal of this article was to explore the link between working memory and academic performance. On the basis of a large-scale screening study of over 3000 student, 10% were found to have working memory impairments that jeopardize their chance of academic success. The majority perform below age-expected levels in all areas of learning and struggle to follow simple instructions in the classroom. These difficulties highlight the need for early assessment to identify those at risk. In a future article, I will discuss ways to help students with working memory problems, inc luding clinical trials demonstrating successful transfer of cognitive training to academic attainments.

REFERENCE:  Alloway et al. (2009). The cognitive and behavioral characteristics of children with low working memory.  Child Development, 80 , 606-621.

READ IT AT SHARPBRAINS

YOU CAN ALSO READ IT HERE AT SCIENTIA PRO PUBLICA (under ‘Psychology’)

Asperger Syndrome (AS) is one of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders and is characterized by a pattern of difficulties. Individuals with Asperger Syndrome tend to have difficulty in social situations, particularly in showing empathy, and also have trouble communicating. Children with AS can be delayed in learning language. This means that it takes them much longer to learn vocabulary and grammar compared to their peers.

What is their working memory like? It is important to remember that some individuals with AS are considered as high-functioning. This means that their IQ is average or above average. I recently published a study on high-functioning teenagers with AS. I tested their working memory by asking them to remember different patterns and word sequences using a computer test

. The findings were very surprising. People usually think that individuals on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder have amazing memory (think ‘Rain Man’ with Dustin Hoffman).

In fact, what this study showed was that the majority of the teenagers with Asperger Syndrome (AS) struggled in verbal memory tasks. They found it very difficult to remember a sequence of numbers or words. What does this mean? The combination of poor verbal memory and social difficulties mean that individuals with AS will have a hard time learning language and remembering words and sounds, much like those with dyslexia.

The good news is that they do have strengths in visual memory, and can even have above average visual memory skills.  Computerized programs that use visual demonstrations to build vocabulary and use language are really effective ways in helping individuals with AS. Some psychologists are also looking at how robots can be used to teach children with autistic spectrum disorders and these individuals prefer interacting with them.

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As a parent of a 10 year old who is struggling in school, even with an Individualized Education Program, what hope is there to catch up our child?  He’s realizing that he is not able, and is now suffering with self-confidence.  In the US this is not well known, what tools are available?

-Cheryl, AZ

The term ‘working memory’ refers to the capacity to store and manipulate information for brief periods of time. It provides a mental workspace that is used in many important activities in learning. Working memory is a pure measure of a child’s learning potential. As it is not influenced by the child’s prior experiences such as pre-school education, or their socio-economic background, it tells us about a child’s capacity to learn. In contrast, school-based assessments or even IQ tests measure knowledge that the child has already learned.

Behaviors in the classroom characteristic of children with working memory impairments include: failing to obey instructions, not listening, being in a world of his own, and not being able to copy sentences from the board. It is very common that students with poor working memory begin to lose their confidence. They feel unmotivated as every time they try, they can’t remember what they are supposed to do.

There are a few options available to you.
1. The first option is to receive a professional psychological report on your child’s working memory profile, ways in which it will impact their learning, and suggested strategies that the classroom teacher can use, as well as additional activities that you can use at home. This professional report will also take into account any other psychological assessments to provide you with a complete picture of your child’s cognitive skills and the link to working memory. This is suitable for 5 to 16 year olds. More details are available here, click on Expert Consultation. This is an online assessment and has been used by parents in the USA and the UK, as well as around the world. Feedback from other parents is available HERE.

3. The next option is a cognitive training program that we are using in schools across the UK, USA, and Australia. In a recent scientific study, JungleMemory© was found to improve not only working memory but IQ, Reading, and Math. The students who used the program increased their grades from a C to a B, and from a B to an A in just 8 weeks. This is very exciting, as other programs have not demonstrated such an improvement. This is suitable for 6 to 16 year olds and is endorsed by the Psychological Corporation.

For more information, go to the homepage and click on each bullet point. You can also try a free demo and watch a short video presentation HERE.