PLAY ATTENTION has been helping children and adults thrive and succeed for over 25 years. Their NASA inspired technology and cognitive exercises improve executive function and self-regulation. Play Attention provides a personal executive function coach to assist with your program.
Play Attention is brain exercise with a kick! By wearing the Play Attention BodyWave® armband controller, you can actually control cognitive exercises by mind alone! The Play Attention cognitive exercises improve areas such as attention, short term memory, task completion, social skills, working memory, organization, auditory processing, motor skills, and more! They also have a fully integrated behavioral shaping program to teach personal regulation of disruptive or impulsive behaviors. Play Attention can be used at home or in professional settings.
Play Attention also features a distance learning option called iLab. iLab permits a coach to work with multiple students over the web in real-time.
Play Attention has undergone 3 randomized, controlled studies by the prestigious Tufts University School of Medicine. The outstanding results are published in peer reviewed journals which cite significant increases in executive function, attention, and behavior.
Formats/platforms:
Play Attention can be used with MAC or Windows OS.
Primary URL:
Problem solved:
Play Attention has great success in ADHD, autism, TBI, and weak executive function/self-regulation. It is a complete tool kit for professionals and parents alike to solve cognitive problems associated with ADHD, autism, TBI, and weak executive function.
Grade/age range:
Age 4 through adult.
Core/supplemental/special needs/extracurricular/professional development?
All areas are addressed in Play Attention.
Subject, topic and/or standards:
Play Attention improves the core cognitive skills that lay the foundation for strong executive function. These skills transcend all areas of learning and education.
Lesson time needed:
Suggest an hour per week that can be tailored to your individual schedule; e.g. 3 twenty minute sessions, 2 half hour sessions, etc.
Pricing model:
One time fee of $2495 for the professional unlimited user version with a lifetime membership. One-time fee of $1795 for home use with 2 users and a lifetime membership.
Additional services needed:
Optional services include the BRIEF (executive function assessment) and FOCUS (norm referenced test of attentional control). Additional training modules are also available as well as the iLab version for distance training.
What makes Play Attention unique?
Invented the genre of neurocognitive training back in the early 1990s. This involved the synthesis of neuro training with cognitive exercises. The neuro component allows students to see their attention in real time by controlling screen characters by attention alone! Since attention is no longer abstract but concrete and controllable, we were then able to integrate a behavior shaping program. Students can see how their behavior affects their attentional control in real-time. Thus, self-regulation is easy and fun to learn in a non-punitive environment. Play Attention is the only program available that integrates advanced NASA inspired feedback technology with cognitive skill training and behavior shaping.
Characteristics
They have gamified cognitive skill training by allowing students to use neurotechnology making them seem much like Harry Potter of Luke Skywalker.
All exercises have an educational correlate to ensure transfer and generalization. Students can even use the BodWave® armband to work on homework assignments. This allows students to monitor their attention states in real-time while doing real homework assignments. A 20-minute homework assignment now takes 20 minutes instead of two hours and a fight with mom and dad.
Three critical catalysts are necessary for long-term retention via development of new neural networks. These are attention, challenge, and deliberate practice. Play Attention uses real-time attentional control of its exercises. The algorithm used in Play Attention periodically challenges the student to increase their attention level by a very small delta. If they are successful, they continue to play. If they are unsuccessful, they are returned to their last most successful state of attention thereby ensuring no failure while ensuring the student learns to increase their level of attention progressively. Games also increase in challenge as the student increases in ability. Finally, deliberate practice is incorporated into Play Attention. Deliberate practice differs distinctly from rudimentary practice. Deliberate practice incorporates setting of highly achievable mini-goals realized through a real-time feedback mechanism.
This is what users are saying:
“Since I started using Play Attention with my students, I have had students, under the care of their healthcare provider, that were able to either not increase their medication, stay on a low dose, or not be on medication at all. One of my success stories is about a client, who was on medication. He began middle school. Many middle school and high school students don't want to take their medicine anymore. His parents decided that they wanted to try an alternative to his medication, and so he started training here at my business. His mom gave me a report that he's getting A's B's and C's without his medication...so that's a great success story.”
-- Dr. Trissy Pitkin CEO Academic Advantage, LLC
“We definitely started to see an improvement after a few short weeks. The aide that went to school with him noticed it in the classroom. I noticed it at home when he is doing homework! He is excited to purchase his rewards when he earns enough points!”
-- Julie Clarke, MAEd Parent of Jordan (Story below) Special Eductor in Barbados, WI
