Brain Fitness & Youth

Executive Function in Children’s Academic and Life Outcomes

On September 30, 2020, BrainFutures’ Holly McCormack facilitated a powerful conversation between Goldie Hawn and Bruce Wexler as part of the Aspen Brain Institute’s Expert Series. The conversation explored the current state of education, young student brain development, and brain fitness interventions that can increase executive function (EF), a set of comp...

How COVID-19 Stress Compromises Children’s Brains

By Jude O’Brien It is a strange new world, and we are all doing the best we can to manage and minimize COVID-19. Top of the list: masks and social distancing. For most of us, these steps, and larger ones like self-quarantining and working and learning from home, all can understandably amplify fear and stress. A recent OpEd in the Hechinger Report by Goldie ...

Brain Fitness Could Help Raise NAEP Reading Scores

Last week the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, announced that two out of three children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The average eighth-grade reading score declined in more than half of the states compared with 2017...

Every School Should Adopt a Program that Supports Key Executive Function Skills

Over the past decade, research has shown that brain fitness activities stimulate cognitive development and prime the brain for learning by improving key executive function skills of working memory, self-control and cognitive flexibility. These skills are also inextricably linked to social-emotional learning (SEL). Brain fitness interventions targeti...

FDA Approves Nerve Stimulation Patch to Treat ADHD

A recent study from UCLA led to approval of the first medical device to treat ADHD. Until now, treatments for ADHD have primarily been limited to medications such as stimulants and behavioral therapies. The newly approved device, the Monarch external Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation System (Monarch eTNS) is designed for patients ages 7 to 12 who have been diagno...

Early Exposure to Air Pollution May Impair Cognitive Development in Children

New research supports the growing belief that prenatal and early childhood exposure to air pollution negatively affects cognitive development. The study, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, concludes that exposure to tiny particulate matter — 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller (PM2.5) — during gestation and the first years of life is asso...

Research Links Poverty to Impaired Brain Activity in Early Childhood

A recent study of the brain function of young children in rural India suggests that childhood poverty can adversely affect working memory by weakening brain activity and increasing distractibility. Researchers from the University of East Anglia in Britain found that children from impoverished backgrounds demonstrated low brain activity as well as increased le...

How Exposure to Childhood Adversity Can Reduce Cognitive Control and Alter Key Brain Networks

Exposure to childhood adversity is associated with reduced cognitive control and alterations in key brain networks, according to a study in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience journal. Researchers believe that the findings could help explain the link between childhood adversity and depression as well as help healthcare providers offer higher level...

Neuroscience-based opportunities to improve academic performance of low-income students

The early years of a child’s life are crucial for building the brain’s foundation for future learning, health and success. Healthy brain development depends on several factors, including: proper nutrition starting in pregnancy; limiting exposure to toxins or infections; and the child’s experiences with other people and the world around them. In many cas...

How Social and Emotional Learning Can Prepare Children and Transform Schools

As more and more students are plagued with chronic stress, learning how to manage and understand emotions are essential to promoting student success in school and future employment. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), also called whole child education, is an evidence-based approach that teaches children how to manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, fee...