Working memory involves holding information in mind and being able to use that information in your thinking. Many classroom activities require the use of this aspect of memory, for example following instructions, comprehension and mathematics. Kate had already identified that there are specific children in her school who regularly struggle with some of these tasks and wanted to find an intervention that could help.

Kate’s key aims for improvement within the classroom for students are attention, staying power (ability to complete a task) and concentration span. The overall philosophy being that the students have freedom from distractions, enhancing their ability to learn. We hope that Cogmed helps Kate with her aims and we will be sure to check back on her progress.

Lloyd Smith met Kate Jones at her school and had a chat about their plans now they have access to Cogmed Working Memory Training. Here is what she said:

What is your current method for dealing with working memory constraints in the classroom?

We offer in-class support through suitably differentiated tasks/methods of recording and also additional teaching assistant or class teacher input. Independent support sessions focus on the use of memory strategies which students can use within the classroom or to help them with homework and revision tasks. Children are asked to remember less by using different forms of memory, for example they are given a visual photocopy to prevent them holding a task in mind. We use many methods like this to support our students however these do tend to be quite labour and time intensive. Initially we will be diverting resources to Cogmed to set-up the scheme and establish working methods. The long term hope is that Cogmed will allow individuals with working memory constraints to be more independent, allowing for less support and ultimately help to free up resources to be used elsewhere.

Do you envisage any barriers to implementing Cogmed?

Anything new, anything involving changing neural pathways in the brain, you’re going to be met with scepticism and resistance. This is always the case until it has proven itself. The research backing up Cogmed is important and provides an objective view of the benefits it can bring in task specific terms. You have to be careful how to present information though, as psychological research can be difficult to explain to those not trained in psychometric methods.

Before now, when we have communicated to pupils and parents about the benefits of Cogmed, we have been reliant on research rather than personal evidence. Hopefully as the program is introduced into the school, we will have clear and simple evidence that will demonstrate to parents how their child is able to transfer strategies learnt through structured working memory tasks in order to apply them independently in classroom activities and thus improve learning.

We look forward to catching up with Kate to see if these ambitions are realised, watch this space…