The Play Attention team is committed to your success. We have many support systems in place to insure this. Two important aspects of this include customizing everyone’s Play Attention plan to meet your specific needs and unlimited support and guidance from your executive function coach. I recently have had the pleasure to work one of our very special Play Attention families with these two areas.
This is their story…
Rachel is an extremely bright 9 year old. Her family recently decided to start a Play Attention program at home. Not only would Rachel be enrolled in the program, but her mom would also be using Play Attention to improve her own executive function. Both Rachel and Mom took our FOCUS assessment first, so that we could further pinpoint different strengths and weaknesses. We also discussed an appropriate training schedule for each.
Rachel started with a Play Attention training schedule working 3 times per week for 20 minute sessions. This means she would be doing about 4 different cognitive games per session. Rachel started her sessions, and after the honeymoon period wore off, it was getting a bit difficult for her to finish her sessions. Her mom had shared with me that Rachel can sometimes get overwhelmed, and this seemed to be happening during her Play Attention sessions.
This was understandable, as changing the old routine and adding a new program into the schedule can sometimes be a difficult transition.
Her mom wanted to know if we could further customize the plan to help Rachel build up her confidence and make their Play Attention sessions more successful. I was so glad that her mom reached out to us for guidance and support. That is what we are here for. I spoke with Rachel directly, and it seemed that she was truly struggling with our plan.
We talked to about the reasons we were doing Play Attention. Rachel definitely understood and was interested in proceeding however; it was obvious some changes need to be made.
I asked Rachel if she felt she could remain doing Play Attention 3 times per week but for now and then go down to 2 different games per session. Rachel replied, “Yes, thank you. I think that would be much better.”
I have used Play Attention with many adults and children over the past 20 years, and I am quite confident that once Rachel experiences success, we will be able to gradually increase her time with Play Attention. Mom, Rachel, and I agreed to our new plan, and Rachel updated her Sheer Genius profile within Play Attention to reflect this plan.
Rachel called me immediately after her first session with the new plan. She was very happy to report that she was able to do her 2 prescribed games, plus she tried one bonus game! She wasn’t able to finish the entire bonus game, but she tried her best. I was so pleased to hear that all ready she had exceeded our plan. We chatted more about her success and I asked her to call me after her next session.
Sure enough Rachel called me after her next session and left me a voicemail with a report that she had improved even more!
Listen to her voicemail here:
Since then Rachel and I have had great discussions about her progress. She has great questions. She asked me what she could do in order to remember the different sequences in short term memory. We talked about rehearsal. If the sequence is red, green, blue, repeat this to yourself BEFORE responding. This is just like if your mom says, “go to your room, put away your sneakers, and bring down your jacket.” You should repeat all of those instructions to yourself before running to your room. If you just run to your room without processing all the information, you will probably forget the rest of the instructions.
She has asked about techniques to stay focused for longer periods of time, and has shared some things with me that she has been trying.
I am so very proud of Rachel. She is trying her best and learning lots along the ways. We still have a long way to go, and there will be good days and bad. However, I am certain that Rachel will continue to work hard. We will see lots of improvement, successes, and smiles along the way. The entire Play Attention team is so proud to be part of this process.
Posted by: Gwen Sorley (Vice President & COO)