Both PA and SA are currently available at no cost from the nonprofit, Cognitive First, as a part of the CogRead Literacy Campaign. Building a stronger phonemic awareness skill set in k-1 children is a key element in equipping more children to succeed in phonics and meet 3rd grade reading proficiency standards. Supportive research and application information from Dr. Joseph Torgesen, the community of Kennewick, Washington, and various background studies from the National Science Foundation and Virginia State University as well as the US Department of Health can be found at CogRead.org.

You can be a Cog1st hero. It can happen in one conversation by asking one question.

Reading struggles are a breeding ground for other serious problems including poor self-esteem, disruptive or withdrawn behavior, poor selection of friends, chronically low motivation, academic weakness, and limited educational advancement. While these directly impact life opportunities such as earnings and lifestyle, they do one more thing. They cause pain and loss — great pain and loss — in families and in the community.

A child who starts school already behind will not overcome cognitive-based reading (CogRead) limitations without intense one-on-one training, and most often schools can not adequately address those needs.

CogRead, http://CogRead.org, a campaign of Cognitive First™ (Cog1st), the nation’s nonprofit pioneer in universal access to cognitive skill testing and training is offering free access to Sound Analysis, an online set of exercises that can help make reading readiness a reality for children!

The CogRead Community Tool Kit has what you need to structure and start a campaign in your community.

The activity to be pursued will depend on the level of personal need and personal goals.

The purpose of these materials is to inform you and introduce you to some options.

The following general observations are guidelines related to a BrainPower Profile or report and cognitive skill training. Nothing in this communication is intended for or presented as advice associated with or representing any specific program, product or recommendation of possible actions.

The good news is that having a profile and report is a big first step to help in identifying and overcoming personal learning challenges or needs.

Identifying Needs

A report alerts you to potential areas of relative weakness or need. It should identify problem areas that may need more extensive testing to achieve a proper diagnosis if required.

A profile and report is not intended to be a clinical diagnostic tool but can go beyond IQ as an indicator with a compilation of seven tests that measure eleven core cognitive skills critical for learning. It is not an average but a report on each skill area.

This gives you the Power to Know™ if any weak skills may be holding anyone back from achieving their full potential. Once you know, you can take powerful steps to improve mental skills and the capacity to learn and perform tasks.

Indicating Strengths and Weaknesses

Measurements of individual cognitive and decoding skills are findings that represent current cognitive abilities, not potential cognitive abilities – because cognitive skills are not fixed and can be enhanced.

However, the current level of these cognitive skills will determine the current ease, speed, and quality of an individual’s learning and performance.

The purpose of screening is not to diagnose or label but to:

1) Indicate relative cognitive skill strengths and weaknesses,

2) Understand the reason/cause of a learning problem,

3) Compare change in cognitive skills over time,

4) Measure the effectiveness of skill intervention,

5) Determine the best intervention to bring weaker skills to productive levels,

6) Predict performance,

7) Offer insight to guide future life choices.

It is important to understand that core cognitive skills are not fixed but can be modified with mentally challenging activities and/or appropriate targeted intervention. The place to begin is with a screening tool that can identify whether weak cognitive skills are likely an issue. More detailed testing may be necessary depending upon the need and circumstances. For example, if a medical diagnosis of a learning disability is desired, testing must be obtained from a licensed practitioner.

Weak cognitive skills cause associated learning capacity and performance limitations. While anyone can benefit from stronger core brain skills, the decision to address weak cognitive skills in a comprehensive training program is a highly personal one.

Initiating Guidelines

The percentile of an individual’s measured skill area shows how that skill compares to others in an age group on average. Given 100 individuals that represent a diversified norm group, a skill score of 60 means that there are 40 individuals that are stronger in that skill set and 60 that are weaker in that particular skill set (the individualʼs score is better than 60% of all persons taking the evaluation). The 81 percentile represents the average percentile of college-bound students. When the lowest score in any of the reported areas for an individual is in one of the following four categories a cognitive skill intervention with comprehensive brain skills training exercises should be a consideration:

1. When the lowest single score is not better than 95% of all persons taking the evaluation and the individual wants to attend and compete in a prestigious or superior university for academic excellence.

2. When the lowest single score is not better than 75% of all persons taking the evaluation and the individual wants to attend a college or university.

Scores below the 50th percentile in a standardized cognitive skills test are considered weak skills. Learning skills can also be considered weak in relationship to individual goals. Skills in the 50th to 75th percentile are weak for the students hoping to attend college, for example.

3. When the lowest single score is not better than 50% of all persons taking the evaluation and the individual wants to complete high school with the potential to attend a college or university.

4. When the lowest single score is not better than 25% of all persons taking the evaluation and the individual wants to at least complete high school.

Intervening Goals

Simply stated, when the lowest skill area is not better than…

95% Taking action to increase brain skills is a preference based upon personal goals.

75% Taking action to increase brain skills is a priority based upon personal goals.

50% Taking action to increase brain skills is a critical need to overcome definite weakness, alter the mind and allow its capabilities to grow.
25% Taking action to increase brain skills is a crisis intervention to not only improve limited capabilities but make higher levels of skill an attainable option.

It is not the purpose of Cognitive First to offer advice associated with or representing a recommendation of possible actions. General observations can be offered related to scores.

Cognitive skills play an essential role in learning and reading. A single significant weakness can lead to reduced or poor proficiency regardless of other skill strengths.

For millions of children in our U.S. school systems today, only a new awareness and comprehensive brain training intervention can unlock their full potential. Until recently there was no effective breakthrough solution available and accessible to help them. Today there is and along with these advances there is hope and that is what Cognitive First™ is introducing – the best hope.

Recent advancements in the field of neuroplasticity as well as myriad of technological advancements present a new opportunity. Scientists have discovered that the human brain can “re-wire” itself to improve cognition through various “brain exercises”. Also, technology has improved and access to personal computers has increased. We are at the point where it is now possible to train cognitive skills via an online program.

The result is that screening (testing) and brain exercises are now available for children who would otherwise be left to struggle. After children have been evaluated they can begin affordable brain training exercises online. Within one semester they can overcome the core cognitive root causes of their personal learning struggles. The change lasts for a lifetime.

Proven programs and digital breakthroughs have made a solution possible. We can now implement a new paradigm in education. The best hope is in our hands!

Intervening with Cognitive Skills Tools

Typical IQ testing provides a composite of several cognitive-skill groups, but can be very misleading because it can mask individual weak cognitive skills. Countless children with average IQ scores are denied much needed assistance when they have one or more weak cognitive skills that make learning difficult or impossible. The first step in education to correct this is to provide a comprehensive cognitive-skill assessment especially for struggling students. Test your child.

However, the current educational paradigm has not been prepared to accomplish this task. The current tools used in evaluation are resource-intensive and limited in use. Testing is primarily offered to determine eligibility for special education resources for only those children who have demonstrated learning difficulties. Unfortunately, most children are not tested, so any weaknesses in their cognitive skills are unlikely to be addressed. Be a Cog1st Hero-Tell our Story.

Cog1st equates cognitive-skill screening to vision and hearing screening. Students should be screened (tested) to determine their learning capacity profile in the same manner they are tested for vision or hearing problems.

Cog1st, through its associations, is providing access to assess each qualified student in partnering programs. Similar to other standardized tests that measure cognitive skills such as the Woodcock Johnson III Cognitive Battery, the assessment being offered has gone through several stages of validation and correlation. Measurements of its ongoing effectiveness are continually conducted.

This assessment is not intended to diagnose, but rather provides a baseline to measure progress and inform parents, teachers, and children. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every student’s cognitive skills, organizations, parents and teachers can then take the next step with qualified, struggling students and employ an exercise program to “train the brain.”

Cog1st is Sponsoring Breakthrough Solutions from the Nation’s Leading Cognitive Testing and Training Innovators.

This list could go on and on but just these four statements are enough to establish that we are beyond a crisis. Practically all efforts at education including education reform have focused on the teaching aspect of the educational crisis.  Certification, professional development, curriculum design and development, and educational services are all related to what teachers (educators) do.  As children have increasingly struggled to learn, education reform has responded by placing a greater focus and emphasis on the teaching process.

What we at Cognitive First are discovering is that the crisis we have now is not primarily a teaching crisis, but our testing and research shows us that it is fundamentally a learning crisis.  Teaching and tutoring alone cannot solve the problem.

This nation has engaged in education reform in earnest since the early eighties and is now spending more on education than at any point in our history.  More of the same will not do!  The current educational paradigm has not adequately addressed the primary reason so many under-resourced and minority children are failing academically. We are introducing a “game-changer” in understanding and approach.

A variety of studies have shown that most students who struggle with learning have one of more weak cognitive skills.  Cognitive skills are the underlying mental tools that allow a person to successfully read, hear, think, prioritize, plan, understand, remember, and solve problems.

Most scientists agree that cognitive skills can be grouped into seven major (core) categories that include: Processing Speed, Working Memory, Attention, Long-Term Memory, Visual Processing, Auditory Processing, and Logic and Reasoning.

With the fact that a high percentage of learning problems can be linked to weak cognitive skills, a student who has difficulty learning typically has one or more seriously deficient cognitive skills. Even a student performing fairly well in school may be an inefficient learner spending a lot of extra time doing homework. Nearly all students can benefit from cognitive skill evaluation and training, but those with weaker skills can gain the most.

Under-resourced and minority children are beyond crisis. Assessing and building cognitive skills is the best hope to unlock new learning potential for these children.  If we want all children to have a chance to be self-sufficient and successful, especially those from lower-income and minority families, we must change how we approach education for those children who need to process information better and faster in order to perform and achieve up to their full potential. Our new approach must be Cognitive First™.

The recent Schott Foundation for Public Education’s 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, explicitly exposes the painful awareness that millions of America’s students, especially those from low-income families, have no real hope of achieving their full potential. In this case the focus is on black male students, but the biennial Trial Urban District Assessments (TUDA) reports have been consistently clear that resources, not just race, represent the overriding determining factor in the gap between those who are proficient in math and reading and those who don’t even meet basic proficiency.

Overall, in urban communities, 80% of eighth grade children from low-income families score below proficiency. 50% are below basic proficiency. In the globally competitive information and technology driven world we live in, another phrase for below basic proficiency is ‘functionally illiterate’.

The numbers in the Schott Report are graphic. Nationally only 47% of Black males graduate from high school. In New York state that number is 25%. Texas, the state with the largest number of black males enrolled, 341,219, graduates 52% of those students. A large district in Dallas,Texas with 22,570 Black male students graduates only 39%.

Institutionalizing the comprehensive plans and policies necessary to provide all students an equal opportunity to learn is a daunting challenge. But we can know where to begin — that first step we must take. Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Imagine that we, every parent and educator, could know the individual learning skill abilities that make up a child’s IQ and with that knowledge, not only be informed but empowered to help each child overcome learning limitations. Now we can!

What if an essential element, one or more of the underlying catalytic brain skills that make learning and reading proficiency possible, is either weak, under-developed or basically missing in 80% of our struggling students? There are a variety of reasons that can cause learning and reading difficulties. Drawing from numerous studies determining the prime causes of learning problems in the U.S., approximately 10% are due to poor or inadequate instruction. Another 5% are attributed to one or more sensory defects such as hearing or vision problems. Up to 5% can be blamed on low motivation. The balance — roughly 80% of learning or reading difficulties among U.S. students and adults — are the direct consequence of a cognitive skill weakness3.

What if a weakness in the actual brain skill ability to learn and process information must be strengthened before students, especially under-resourced students, can be smarter, self-sufficient and successful?

Learning and reading struggles are a breeding ground for other serious problems including poor self-esteem, disruptive or withdrawn behavior, poor selection of friends, chronically low motivation, academic weakness, and limited educational advancement. These directly impact life opportunities such as earnings and lifestyle.

Even in an under-resourced environment, a given student may overcome huge barriers to learning such as poverty, language, poor teaching, peer pressure or an unstable home life. Unfortunately, the student will not overcome cognitive limitations without comprehensive brain training, and most often the current educational system can not adequately address those needs.

Cognitive First™(Cog1st) is the nation’s nonprofit pioneer in universal access to learning skill testing and training and is offering good news that can impact the future for every child!

It is now possible for every parent and educator to know the actual brain skill strengths and weaknesses that determine each child’s thinking and processing effectiveness. Any child (age seven and above) can take a 35 minute online screening that will tell parents and educators more about that child’s learning abilities than may otherwise be known in the child’s entire educational experience.

Testing a child’s core cognitive skills is the first step (a “Turning Point”) to lasting changes that can contribute not only to optimal school behavior and performance, but to greater confidence and the life-long ability to maximize that child’s learning potential.

Learn more about evaluating children in an entire school, school district or community.