WHAT IS COGMED?

Cogmed Working Memory Training is an evidence-based program for helping children, adolescents, and adults sustainably improve attention and working memory. Cogmed training is a web based program that is completed outside of the office with the assistance of a Landstrom Center certified Cogmed Coach. Cogmed offers three different age specific programs including:

• Cogmed JM - Cogmed JM works to improve working memory and attention in preschool aged children. Younger children use working memory for a number of things such as focusing on an following instructions, remaining seated, and completing independent activities.
• Cogmed RM - Cogmed RM works to improve working memory and attention in school aged children and adolescents. Working memory is crucial to both academic and social success. Reading, solving math problems, planning, and following a conversation all depend on working memory.
• Cogmed QM - Cogmed QM works to improve working memory and attention in adults. Working memory is critical to planning, focusing, resisting distraction, and meeting deadlines.

HOW DOES COGMED WORK?

• Step 1: Cogmed Intake - A Landstrom Center certified Cogmed Coach will meet with the patient to setup the individual user-license access to Cogmed Training Portal, determine goals, and schedule weekly coaching appointments. (Note: If the patient has not completed an evaluation, a consultation appointment will be needed to determine if Cogmed is right for the patient.)
• Start-Up Session
• Five Weeks of Training
• ~~Trainings are web-based and completed outside of the office. Cogmed consists of 25 sessions completed over the course of 5 consecutive weeks.
• ~~Patients will be require to complete eight Cogmed exercises daily taking about 30-40 minutes total.

• ~~Cogmed training sessions use adaptive technology to adjust the complexity of each level to maximize training effect.
• ~~Weekly phone appointments with the patient’s Landstrom Center certified Cogmed Coach to help lead the patient through training, analyze the patient’s results, and provide weekly feedback.
• ~~Patient’s performance is tracked and made viewable to both the patient and the patient’s Landstrom Center certified Cogmed Coach.
• Wrap-Up Meeting
• Six month follow-up interview
• Cogmed Extension Training (12 months)

WHAT IS WORKING MEMORY?

Working memory involves the ability to focus on a task, keep information in mind, and for mental processing of that information to occur. It is a fundamental brain function that underlies most of our conscious mental work. Working memory is required in order to understand the content while reading and it is the brain’s work space when solving a math problem. It is used when following instructions, reading a map or simply carrying on a conversation. It is limited in its capacity and sensitive to distractions. Impairments in working memory are often seen in individuals with ADHD, acquired brain injury, and many other common conditions resulting in difficulties with concentration and learning. This in turn may lead to behaviour issues, feelings of low self-confidence and social problems.

Based on neuroscientific findings indicating plasticity of the areas of the brain that encompass working memory capacity, an innovation from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden was born, demonstrating that working memory could in fact be trained to enable more and better information processing. These discoveries were the foundations on which Cogmed Working Memory Training was created.

WHY CHOOSE COGMED?

Cogmed is an evidence and research based. Over eighty independent, published, peer-reviewed studies show that Cogmed works. The effects demonstrated in those are the basis for the claims that Cogmed currently makes:

• Cogmed leads to sustained improvements in working memory from childhood to adulthood
• Cogmed leads to sustained improvements in attention seen in both subjective and objective measures of attention
• Improvements in working memory following Cogmed are associated with changes in functional brain activity
• Seen as changes in the neurochemistry, functional activity related to working memory, and functional connectivity at rest
• Cogmed lead to improved learning outcomes in reading and math for many students
• In clinical trials Cogmed has been shown to improve attentional problems in many with ADHD as evident in rating scales or measured with objective measures
• Cogmed reports improved cognitive functioning in daily life
• In clinical trials, adults with acquired brain injury report reductions of symptoms after Cogmed
• Improvements on measures of cognitive control have been demonstrated in studies after Cogmed
• 80% of participants experience about a 30% reduction in measures of inattention.
• 80% of participants improve their working memory by about 30%

‍