What is Brain Training or Brain Fitness and is it Helpful?

Brain Training or Brain Fitness is the act of strengthening deficits in learning or weak areas of cognition.  This is typically done using simple activities that concentrate on areas of difficulty.  Just like a personal trainer or physical therapist can focus exercises on a particular part of the body, many learning specialists, educational therapists and learning coaches can help individuals of all ages to improve memory, visual processing, auditory processing, attention, stamina and more. 

When instruction focuses on the area of difficulty, it’s important for the activities to be engaging and fun.  They need to start at a very simplistic level and increase in difficulty as the participants experience success.  Repeated training clears the hurtles that trip the thought processes and helps the mind run smoothly and efficiently. 

Clearly, the brain is not limited and defined.  It continues to grow, if exercised, throughout our lifetime.  Early intervention can sometimes cure or remediate learning disabilities and even diseases of the elderly such as Alzheimer’s and dementia can be avoided.  The bottom line is that it is never too late.

I am a learning specialist and educational therapist.  However,  I tell many of my clientele that I’m a personal trainer for the brain.  I help people of all ages to improve overall cognition, develop compensatory learning strategies and master optimal study skills.  I also write educational and brain training materials for learning specialists, educational therapists, teachers and coaches.