Brain Training
Typically, kids with SPD (sensory processing disorders) have weekly occupational therapy sessions that focus on gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills for those with dysgraphia.*
The Neuroscape Lab is developing video games to treat a wide range of conditions, including ADHD, Autism, and Sensory Processing Disorders.
Programs that work on cognitive control or attention are also critical for SPD kids who have ADHD in addition. Marco has partnered on this front with Joaquin Anguera, PhD, director of the clinical program at Neuroscape, UCSF’s translational neuroscience center. They are addressing cognitive control deficiencies with a new video gaming platform called Project EVO (developed by Akili Interactive Labs, a UCSF startup). On EVO, kids navigate a character along a winding path, avoiding obstacles and responding to variously colored targets. It’s designed to strengthen the brain’s ability to process and prioritize thoughts and external stimuli, and the game gets harder as a player gets better at it. “Playing EVO actually made a difference in issues of inattention that we measured in the lab and that were reported by parents,” says Anguera, who is also an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry. “We showed a significant change in the kids’ neural activity. These changes were really deep, and they persisted for nine months beyond the eight-week intervention.”
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects handwriting and fine motor skills.
What are your sensory processing disorders? Some examples of mine:
Typically, kids with SPD (sensory processing disorders) have weekly occupational therapy sessions that focus on gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills for those with dysgraphia.*
The Neuroscape Lab is developing video games to treat a wide range of conditions, including ADHD, Autism, and Sensory Processing Disorders.
Programs that work on cognitive control or attention are also critical for SPD kids who have ADHD in addition. Marco has partnered on this front with Joaquin Anguera, PhD, director of the clinical program at Neuroscape, UCSF’s translational neuroscience center. They are addressing cognitive control deficiencies with a new video gaming platform called Project EVO (developed by Akili Interactive Labs, a UCSF startup). On EVO, kids navigate a character along a winding path, avoiding obstacles and responding to variously colored targets. It’s designed to strengthen the brain’s ability to process and prioritize thoughts and external stimuli, and the game gets harder as a player gets better at it. “Playing EVO actually made a difference in issues of inattention that we measured in the lab and that were reported by parents,” says Anguera, who is also an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry. “We showed a significant change in the kids’ neural activity. These changes were really deep, and they persisted for nine months beyond the eight-week intervention.”
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects handwriting and fine motor skills.
- It interferes with spelling, word spacing, and the general ability to put thoughts on paper.
- It makes the process of writing laboriously slow, and the written product difficult to read.
What are your sensory processing disorders? Some examples of mine:
- Hair brushing
- Tight clothes or coarse fabric (✔)
- Loud noises such as fireworks or thunder(✔)
- Bright lights like camera flashes, sunshine, or strobes (✔)
- Strong odors including perfume or scented detergent (✔)
- Swimming in lakes
- Sticky fingers
- Tags on clothes (✔)
- Being touched or hugged
- Wearing shoes (✔)
- Tart or bitter foods
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It seems that at it's extreme it's related to lesions or injuries to areas of the brain.
