None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Learning difficulties are common and can cause school failure and poor self-esteem. They are associated with specific problems with temporarily remembering and using information (‘working memory’). Research suggests that improving working memory might improve academic achievement. We will study this intervention in a large group of primary school children who have poor working memory. If successful, the intervention will provide a way to improve the learning skills of these high-risk children.
Interventions
A brief computerised intervention aimed at improving children’s working memory called Robomemo, manufactured by Cogmed.
The program trains working memory skills using an interactive and motivating, game-format, computerised training program. It runs for 35 minutes a day for 20 sessions over 5-7 weeks. All training is conducted at school in small groups of 4 to 8 students under supervision. Eight tasks are completed every day. The children train on the same tasks for the first 5 days. A new task
A brief computerised intervention aimed at improving children’s working memory called Robomemo, manufactured by Cogmed. The program trains working memory skills using an interactive and motivating, game-format, computerised training program. It runs for 35 minutes a day for 20 sessions over 5-7 weeks. All training is conducted at school in small groups of 4 to 8 students under supervision. Eight tasks are completed every day. The children train on the same tasks for the first 5 days. A new task replaces one of the existing tasks on day 6 and every 5th day after this. Within each task, the adaptive nature of the program matches difficulty to the child’s current working memory skill on a day-by-day basis, with all tasks increasing in complexity according to the child’s current skill. The intervention children will also receive information regarding classroom strategies (as will the control group- see below).
Sponsors
Royal Childrens Hospital, Melbourne
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
6 Years to 8 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Children with working memory difficulties in grade 1: this is defined as children scoring below the 20th percentile on both a verbal and visuo-spatial working memory screening task from the AWMA.
Exclusion criteria
Problems judged by the school or Chief Investigator (CI) Roberts (a developmental-behavioural paediatrician) as severe enough to prevent participation in the assessment and/or intervention, eg cerebral palsy, vision/hearing impairments or pervasive developmental disorders.
Outcome results
None listed