Injury Consequences Can't Wait, Drive Safe Now!

By Amy Price PhD

MTBI survivors and families want to know if and when it is safe to drive again. There is computer software and professional treatment that can help many with driving, processing and memory skills. It is important to know if the treatment is effective before going back on the road. Email for more information on what is available. The AMA has released guidelines for physicians on how to test for safe driving and in addition many universities with memory clinics have road testing clinics where driving skills can be practised and tested before heading back on the road.

Abilities like picking out an object against a contrasting background can diminish in TBI in addition to visual processing speed and acuity as well as balance. Attention is important as many accident are caused by Brain fog and this can often be rehabililitated.  The ability to find your way around or handle the stress of adverse driving conditions such as weather, traffic, headaches or bad drivers is critical for safe driving. Often fear can influence driving skills and it is common for those who have sustained a TBI as a driver or a passenger are justifiably concerned. The AMA and Highway Safety comission have partnered to creat a great guide for physicians to test driving ability. You may want to take this to your doctor. It is also a good barometer for you and your loved ones to assess when you are safe for the road!

Save Your neck and the Necks of others rehabilitate driving skills…see you at the Dashboard!

Brain Training You Can do Together

By Amy Price PhD 

    Do you need to get your life back and restore relationships after trauma? It is not only truama survivors that can benefit from training but also family and caregivers who deal with the unexpected pressure of caring for a critically injured loved one. Brain neurons that fire together wire together, families that play together, stay together! Extensive research indicates our brain needs to overcome the negativity bias ingrained through the fight/flight response produced by trauma or social rejection to operate at maximum potential. It is more than positive thinking as the mind has a specific ratio of positive to negative input it accepts plus the input must be genuine to release the feel good chemicals that promote brain learning and healing.  Many people involved in an auto crash must fight for insurance rights and social acceptance during an era of limited capacity and chronic pain. All these aspects take a critical toll on the brain and promote inflammation cascades that lead to long term functional loss. The great news is that with targeted brain training in small manageable steps you can get back the edge taken from you though trauma, bad relationships, or serious illness. Your brain wants to work for you! 

Clicking on Train Your Brain , Save Your Mind here will take you to a fascinating short video on the power of personal brain optimization and contains a clinically validated assessment tool. This video is presented by Dr Evian Gordon of Brain Resource Company  and speaks about the highly acclaimed wellness program My Brain Solutions. It is well worth investigating, in less than 15 days I showed improvement on several measures of cognition. If you would like to sign-up for MyBrainSolutions please email me ….read on for why training your brain matters. 

Our minds and brains become so starved for approval and acceptance that we accept input and relationships that are harmful and not genuine. Your own brain even when it is damaged can pick up emotional cues in 1/20 of a second  which will determine how we respond to others.  I worked for the medical director of an organization for several years following a TBI…it was not until I was past that situation and had embarked on an adventure training positive emotions that I realised that in four years I had never been given a genuine smile. How can you tell? For a smile ask your self if the eyes crinkle slightly and the pupils enlarge, smiling with only the mouth is not genuine expression. Interestingly this insight has been validated by multiple behavioral, FMRI, GSR and QEEG studies, yet like many insights it is rooted in wisdom passed down from successful individuals who are at peace with themselves. Dr David Whitehouse, an eminent Harvard trained Psychiatrist put is this way  ”PEOPLE NOT ONLY SEEK AN EMPOWERING MIND, BUT ONE THAT IS AT PEACE WITH ITSELF”.  My Brain Solutions can help you learn to discern emotion and train your brain from a negative to a positive bias and offers a clinically validated personal assessment with a presonalized prescription to increase your brain function. Dr Evian Gordon states in his book ‘The Brain Revolution’ that  “THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AND EXPERT AND A NOVICE LEARNER IS A MODEL” One critical component of cognitive skill is one’s ability to speedily reframe or re-appraise the circumstances that surround you. People that successfully reframe have better life satisfaction and long term survival rates than those who are fixated on negative events, this ability can be trained. 

Research on cognition that shows transfer of training and increase in quality of life is dependent on carefully assessing individual differences with  clinically accepted tools which provide personalized training to meet these perimeters[1,2,3,4,] 

Learning and novelty are partners yet many brain fitness programs offer rote repetition of weak areas without variation in task or content in a bid to target learning, However research shows us this is not the way meaningful learning occurs. Tasks must be individually challenging to hold engagement and yet structured enough to be doable. Ideally tasks will adapt to changing learning curves to build neuroplasticity. The best learning capitalizes on emotional and intellectual strengths already present while strengthening areas of weakness in a positive atmosphere. For example, teaching a university student mnemonics and concept mapping may make the memory more efficient however teaching an individual with organic damage or early dementia how to remember names and faces with a mnemonic is an exercise in futility. 

Specific training alone can lead to plastic changes in the brain as demonstrated by expert Braille readers who show an enlarged hand area and smearing of finger representations in the somatosensory cortex. This result was observed in expert, but not in novice Braille readers suggesting that the training and not the blindness which leads to the changes in cortical representation [5]Similar domain specific results were noted in London taxi drivers and expert violinists. Kramer et al [6] states recruitment of additional brain regions helps performance only if the recruited area complements processing of the task in question. This is likely why rote memorization fails to increase working memory whereas training that targets attentional networks and processing speed increases working memory limits. We are incapable of processing in depth what we have not attended to and our capacity for material attended to is limited by the speed at which we process stimuli. 

References: 

1. Posner, M., & Rothbart M. Educating the human brain. Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association.; 2007:189-208. doi:10.1037/11519-009 

2. Jaeggi SM, Buschkuehl M, Jonides J, Perrig WJ. Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008;105(19):6829-33. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18443283 

3. Willis SL, Tennstedt SL, Marsiske M, et al. Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association. 2006;296(23):2805-14. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17179457 

4. Gordon E, Arns M, Paul RH. Research Report THE INTEGRATE MODEL OF EMOTION, THINKING AND SELF REGULATION: AN APPLICATION TO THE “PARADOX OF AGING”. Thinking. 2008;7(3):367-404. 

5. Greenwood PM. Functional plasticity in cognitive aging: review and hypothesis. Neuropsychology. 2007;21(6):657-73. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17983277 

6. Kramer AF, Bherer L, Colcombe SJ, Dong W, Greenough WT. Environmental influences on cognitive and brain plasticity during aging. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences. 2004;59(9):M940-57.: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15472160

Free Memory Screenings for Brain Optimization

 Boca Raton, FL— Consumers who want a status check on their memory can take advantage of free, confidential screenings on November 17 as part of National Memory Screening Day, an annual initiative of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) designed to promote proper detection of memory problems and strategies for successful aging.

 Memory screenings are a significant first step toward finding out if a person may have a memory problem. Memory problems could be caused by Alzheimer’s disease or other medical conditions.   

 Now in its seventh year, AFA’s National Memory Screening Day coincides with National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, which takes place during November.

    On November 17,  Sparks of Genius Brain Optimization Center will hold memory screenings at 7777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, from 10 am – 3 pm. Please call 561-859-4060 for more information or to make an appointment. You are also welcome to stop by.  Refreshments will be provided.

    At Sparks of Genius we offer cognitive training program which can slow down the progression of memory loss or delay it’s onset.

    AFA suggests memory screenings for adults concerned about memory loss or experiencing warning signs of dementia; whose family and friends have noticed changes in them; or who believe they are at risk due to a family history of Alzheimer’s disease or a related illness. Screenings also are appropriate for those who do not have a concern right now, but who want to see how their memory is now and for future comparisons.

    The event features a face-to-face screening, which takes only about five to ten minutes, and consists of a series of questions and tasks. Screenings will be conducted by Dr. Rohn Kessler, Dr. Amy Price and Ninah Kessler, LCSW. The results do not represent a diagnosis, and AFA advises those individuals with below-normal scores or those who have normal scores but are still concerned to follow up with a qualified healthcare professional.

     Eric J. Hall, AFA’s president and CEO, is urging consumers “to be proactive about brain health.”

    ”We pay so much attention to the health of our bodies, but we should be equally concerned about the health of our brains,” he said. “National Memory Screening Day offers the opportunity to find out how your memory is now and to learn how to protect it in the future.”

        For more information about National Memory Screening Day, visit www.nationalmemoryscreening.org or call 866-AFA-8484.

Let me tell you the story of this documentary.

The parents of three special needs young adults designed a “color guard” program for “developmentally disabled” young adults. Now if you are wondering what a color guard is, modern color guard is defined as “a combination of military drill, also called marching, and the use of flags, sabers, mock rifles, shields and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movement.” It is typically seen in parades or halftime events. Until now it has never been part of the special needs world. Now, thanks to the vision of Jerry and Ellen Kleinert-Cohn, it is.

Anyway, the color guard, now called the Special Needs Color Guard of America, got invited to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the documentary tells the story of that trip.

Ellen Kleinert-Cohn put together a program to train these adults to perform at many local events. She even got them a chance to perform at the Winter Guard International (WGI) Color Guard World Championships.

I was invited to speak at the screening of Bridging the Gap. Here are some excerpts from my speech.

“Martin Luther King had a dream of freedom. Ellen Kleinert-Cohn and Jerry Cohn have dream of inclusion, a dream that children and adults with special needs such as developmental disabilities will be fully included as belonging. They understood that we all have special needs.
Lawrence of Arabia said “All men dream, but not all equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act their dreams with open eyes and make things happen”.

Dr. King dreamed with open eyes. So do Ellen and Jerry.

I too dream with open eyes. I dream of taking the best of neuroscience research and combining it with great computer technology to ignite people’s sparks of genius. I dream of brain fitness centers where people of all ages “work out” to improve cognitive and executive function skills.

Today people between the ages of six and eighty-three come to Boca Sparks of Genius. They exercise their minds playing computer “games” specifically designed to improve their mental strength, stamina, speed, flexibility and balance and, of course, to spark their genius. We use the term “brainworksbetter” exercises, and each member receives a customized set of exercises. They are assisted by friendly, highly-skilled personal trainers who are passionately dedicated to the success of each member of our fitness community. Many members of the fitness center also “work out” on home computer to maximize brain functioning and peak performance.

I dream of hearing the sounds of success, joy, confidence and discovery as more people around Florida, the country and the world discover, ignite and express their unique sparks of genius in a fun-filled, challenging, supportive, gym-like environment.

I see them all overcoming limitations, defying labels and breaking boundaries with their awesome accomplishments.”

–Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1777&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Democracy&

The assessment consists of a battery of six to eight tests which measure abstract thinking, analogies, and qualitative thinking and are not culturally-biased.

“Nationally, African American students are identified as educationally mentally retarded twice as often as their white peers; and African Americans are identified as emotionally/behaviorally disordered one and a half times as often as their white peers. The actual number of these “BD” (Behavioral Disorder) diagnoses has increased by 500% between 1974 and 1998.”

Dr. Eric Cooper, President of the National Urban Alliance notes how unfortunate it is that “misdiagnosis of special education status has been used to place a significant number of children of color into programs that doom them to a life of low expectations and low achievement.”

Professor Feuerstein agrees and writes that “Too often we give up on children who are labeled with learning disabilities, but my work has found that using more creative techniques to teach these children will lead them to the same successes that life offers the other children in the classroom. Poverty is not destiny and we can reverse major depression in a child’s cognitive development and realize impressive results.”

Feuerstein’s theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability “views the human organism as open, adaptive and amenable for change. The aim of this approach is to modify the individual, emphasizing autonomous and self-regulated change. Intelligence is viewed as a propensity of the organism to modify itself when confronted with the need to do so. Intelligence is defined as a changeable state rather than an immutable trait.”

Feuerstein’s claim that “poverty is not destiny” and that we can improve a child’s cognitive development and realize impressive results is profoundly important. He asserts that the benefits to all of society cannot be overstated.

Let me give one example. It has been proposed by Dr. Paul Nussbaum that learning may act as a potential vaccine again Alzheimer’s Disease and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases of the brain.

If we begin to think of learning as a process that improves health, like nutrition and exercise, then all students need to maximize their cognitive development. If tens and hundreds of thousands of poor children are placed in programs that doom them to a life of low expectations and low achievement and learning does act as a vaccine against age-related neurodegenerative diseases of the brain, we are accelerating the rate of dementias.

Childhood poverty has already been linked to dementia http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/618356.stm. Author of the research, Dr Moceri, said that “a poor quality childhood environment could prevent the brain from reaching a complete level of maturation.” The areas of the brain that show the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s are the one that take the longest time to mature during childhood and adolescence.

There are more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s. This means that every 72 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s. The indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias amount to more than $148 billion annually. http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_alzheimer_statistics.asp

Feuerstein’s International Center for the Enhancement of Learning works with children throughout the world. Plans are underway to start implementing the partnership in 20 U.S. cities. Educators, policy makers and journalists should follow the story carefully.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

Tonight on NPR I heard an interview with Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize winning music critic for the Washington Post with Aspergers. Robert Siegel was interviewing him because he had written a description of what it was like to grow up with Aspergers in the New Yorker Magazine. He called the article “Parallel Play”. He felt that the Aspergers led to a lifetime of “restless isolation” because he couldn’t connect with others in “normal” ways.

He said Aspergers was “a different way of processing information.” He was “obsessed with detail, with music and with old photographs. Throughout his life he has possessed an extraordinary memory for facts and data. However, he was oblivious to most social things and had to read Emily Post to learn how other people related to each other. Although he was praised for thinking outside of the box, he admitted that he often couldn’t even find the box.

“Aspergers is something that you never get over, but you learn to live with it.”

Tim Page has lived well and is an inspiration to others.

To hear a podcast of this story please go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12750745

Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

So how can we make it a little easier this year?

How much homework is too much?

Your child, especially a young child, shouldn’t be spending his life on homework. There needs to be a balance. The experts agree that a kindergartener or second grader shouldn’t be spending more than about 20 minutes a day on homework, and even older elementary school kids benefit most from spending an hour at most. After 4th grade, it is important that your child practice math, because since math builds on itself, deficits here can mushroom. When your child is in middle school more homework is appropriate.

If your young child is routinely spending hours completing his work, something needs to be done.

Simple Steps can help

There are some very basic things that we can do to make homework easier. You have probably thought of them but may not have gotten to implement them. Some simple steps from pediatrics.about.com include:

• Provide your child with a quiet, well lit place to do homework with materials such as pens and a dictionary available.
• Establish a set time for doing homework, not right before bedtime. Think about using a weekday morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially those that involve working with others.
• Help your child figure out what is easy homework and what is hard homework. Encourage your child to do the hard homework first when he is most alert.

How much should I help my child with homework?

We all know that it is your child’s homework not yours. You want to give your child as much independence as you possibly can but if the child is floundering, you don’t want him to sink.

Even if your child is doing ok, it’s good to acknowledge him when he is doing his work and to reward any accomplishments. “Johnny, I like the way that you’re concentrating on your math problems.” “Wow, Helen, you worked really hard on your science project. Let’s celebrate with a trip to the park.” As important as acknowledgment and rewards are when your child is doing well, they are ESSENTIAL when your child is struggling

When your child is struggling.

If you child is spending 3 hours on 6 math problems or can’t organize his thoughts to write and essay (see our blog on how to write an essay), then you know there is a problem, and you need to find ways to intervene without taking over.

For example, if difficulty paying attention is the problem with the math, you can cut a whole in a piece of paper so your child only sees one math problem at a time. This is a very low tech solution, but some of the new technology can also be helpful. For example, there is a program called Inspiration (which Dr Rohn used to help teachers teach science) which maps out your thoughts. Once your child’s thoughts are mapped out, it’s much easier for him to write that essay. If writing itself is a problem, your child may benefit from typing his assignments on the computer.

You want to be available for your child, especially when they are having a hard time, because you don’t want them to get so frustrated that they don’t do their homework and then they fall behind in school.

When is the help you do too much? Remember that interference is when you do what the child could do by himself. Additional suggestions can be found at about.com or here.

My child says he finished his homework

Some children who are frustrated with homework will just tell their parents “I already did my homework” or “I don’t have any homework tonight.” In the old days the main way a parent could verify this statement was to work with the teacher to create a homework pad where the teachers would write down the child’s assignments. You could also call a friend.

While there is nothing wrong with this approach, today many teachers will post homework on a web site or will email assignments to parents.

When you need a professional

If there is a problem the first person to go to is your child’s teacher. It is important that parents and teachers can work together on this. The teacher may be able to make accommodations for the child. For example, the teacher may allow you to cut assignments short when the child is having an especially difficult time. If the child does not complete assignments because he can’t write, the teacher may allow you to write down your child’s answers. That relationship with the teacher apprises you of what’s going on, so you don’t get a big surprise at report card time.

The teacher might recommend a tutor, and there are many good ones out there. Sometimes the difficulty doing homework may reflect a deeper problem. For example, if your child just cannot focus or pay attention that could be the issue. Please take the free 39 point learning assessment at our website (SparksofGenius.com) to see if an attention or focusing issue is the problem.

Make sure the homework is in the backpack

My friend would sit down with her son night after night and go over his homework. Then he would forget to put it in his backpack and get an incomplete. She finally helped him organize his backpack and checked to make sure the assignment was there. It must have worked, because now he is going off to college to major in computers. He is a smart kid, just disorganized.

I hope that this makes homework a little easier. If you are frustrated, remember that you are not alone. Another friend of mine thought that having a child was like having a very intense cat. Boy was she wrong. Every problem has a solution, but that doesn’t mean that finding the solution doesn’t require some work. Hang in there and have a great school year.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

Research shows that students do better in school when they are told they can get smarter by training their brains to get stronger— like a muscle.

Article here.

Does your child see intelligence as something fixed or something expandable?

Students who think intelligence is fixed become preoccupied with whether they look smart or dumb. They also tend to avoid difficult tasks. |Not good!

But students who believe they can develop and expand intelligence usually like being challenged. They try harder, are more persistent and worry about making mistakes and looking dumb. This is good.

In one experiment of 12 year old students with similar math achievement scores, those with a fixed mindset did worse in math than those who were taught that the brain is a muscle. And, the gap between the two groups widened over the years.

Carol Dweck, a psychologist and researcher at Stanford University said:

“We taught them that the brain forms new connections every time they applied themselves and learned,” she explained. “It gave them a new model of how their minds worked, and how they had control of their brains and could make it work better. The idea is to free them from the tyranny of fear of looking dumb. The name of the game is learning.”

Students need to understand that their intellectual potential is not fixed. So do parents and educators.

Some games that exercise the brain to get stronger can be found here.

Moreover, there are many ways to be smart that are undervalued in school and at home—so-called multiple intelligences.

Students at Sparks of Genius learn that their brain forms new connections when they work hard to learn and learn. They also learn how to take full responsibility for learning buy controlling their mind and their brain to work better.

Sparks of Genius personal trainers use a high tech (software) high touch (character development) formula to help students train their brain for success

We identify, ignite and nurture many intelligences. It’s a great way to increase student achievement.

To learn more about your child’s learning potential

fill out the FREE 39-Point Learning Assessment now. http://sparksofgenius.com/screens.html.

Dr. Rohn Kessler

In recent weeks, three new brain training games have arrived on store shelves, each one promising to give us neural networks of steel. There’s “Hot Brain” and “Practical Intelligence Quotient 2,” both playable on Sony’s handheld PSP. And then there’s “Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree” for Nintendo’s new Wii console.

Full article here.

But do these games really work?

Like most things in life, the answer is both yes and no. New and stimulating activities, including these video and puzzle games, can help you “use it” in lieu of “losing it.” So in that regard, yes they can help.

But once you’ve played a particular game enough times so that the activity is no longer novel, it loses some of its potency. In part this is addressed by offering a variety of games and puzzles. Ultimately, though, these games are not much better than the typical fare you can play online, often for free, at least as far as brain-training is concerned.

Don’t neglect your 9 IQs

We all have those 9 IQs: spatial, verbal, math, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, naturalist and spiritual. These types of games typically offer spatial, verbal and math style puzzles. That leaves two-thirds of your intelligence untapped.

If you really want to help “train your brain”, learn to play a new instrument!

Make new friends, write an article or life story, take up bird-watching, solve an old-fashioned jigsaw puzzle (or a new-fashioned 3D puzzle), play a sport, read something complicated. To train your brain, you sometimes have to STRAIN your brain. Just like a muscle, you’ve got to push your brain beyond its comfort zone and it will respond by making new connections and strengthening existing neural networks. That’s why most video games, television shows and pulp reading don’t help. Their too easy.

To train your brain, you sometimes have to STRAIN your brain.

Training executive function and attention, two vital higher-order skills, is a different story, and the Nintendo Wii doesn’t have anything to genuinely fit the bill. There are some games that we use here at Sparks of Genius in our Electronic Playground that you can use at home. You’ll find them on this page.

So work your brain hard…and if you’re a teacher or parent, then work your kids’ brains hard, too. They’ll thank you for it later (if they don’t forget)!

Good luck!
Allen Dobkin

Here is how.

Look from a different angle such as how would you see someone else dealing with the issue. Change the structure of your thinking.

For example suppose you were to consider how a man can marry ten women in one month? If you see him as a man this is a challenge but if you see him as a minister, rabbi. priest or imam who performed marriage ceremonies it all makes sense!

Life is like this too. Sometimes a solution is right there on the inside when you see things a different way.

The flexible can be bent but are difficult to break. We can see this by comparing a young branch to an old twig. Flexibility can be learned and practiced. Just do it!

Pay attention to error feedback—ours and other folks. It is OK to ask “How did I get this to work for me? and “What gave me the clue to solve the issue?”

For the memory or spatially impaired this means writing down what did not work and doing it another way next time. When you hit the jackpot and figure it out write down what worked. If you hate writing or typing, say it into any recording device.

–Dr. Amy Price