Another Lesson from Brain Training

One of the most challenging areas of cognition to improve is processing speed. Processing speed is how fast you are able to do something. It affects everything you do and can seriously impact your academic and functioning abilities.


The other day, we had a staff meeting and received additional training on how to improve a student's processing speed. My boss showed us a technique using one of our procedures. She took the Speed Numbers worksheet- kinda like this but bigger:


 1    4    7    6    9    2    6
 2    9    3    5    1    8    3
 7    2    9    1    6    3    9
 6    2    6    2    9    6    4
 1    6    3    5    9    4    2


and had a mock student come up and told her to circle all of the 5s and cross out all of the 2s as fast as she could. To get through one grid, it took her 22 seconds. Then our boss told the student that she needed to do it faster. She told the student "I want you to do the same thing, but in 10 seconds." 


So the student tried again. She failed. My boss said: "I want you to get to the bottom of the page in 10 seconds. Do it!" Again she failed. Again she tried. However, soon, the student successfully completed the task. 


Although the student was able to double her processing speed pretty quickly, her accuracy decreased. And she said that the whole time she was trying to go faster and faster, she was getting frustrated that she was missing numbers. But accuracy wasn't the goal. Increasing her speed was. Had my boss continued to work with her "student," she would have worked on increasing the accuracy next, but accuracy was not the goal for the moment. She gave her student a ridiculously difficult task to accomplish (double your processing speed in 3 minutes) and it forced her to do things a new way. And that is what changed her.


My boss actually mentioned that she has used this method to improve her business throughout the years. She said that she will set ridiculous goals for her staff and it forces them to work in a new way.

I think that the Lord sometimes gives us ridiculously difficult tasks. They are called trials. Don't our trials seem ironic? I swear, how many times do we say "ANYthing but this!!!" "Give me the trial of X! Give me the trial of Y. But NOT this!"


- I want to be the best mom that I can be. HOW on earth can I do that with this illness?
- I have the righteous desire to provide for my family. Why did I my job get taken away?
- I could do so much if only I weren't alone. All I want is to be with someone. Is that wrong?
- I never, ever expected that my child would be taken from me. Give me anything but this.


And for me personally:
- I know I could be a good mom. I know that JD would be a good dad. It's all I've wanted. Why am I being denied this duty and this blessing? Isn't this what women were divinely called to do? Am I not divine enough?


But God gives us things that He knows we can't deal with on our own. And while we tend to focus on our inadequacies (our accuracy in circling the numbers) God has a different goal for us. All we need to do is try and trust.


What would happen if the student ignored the trainer's instructions to get to the bottom of the page in 10 seconds? What if the student felt that the goal of accuracy was really more important than speed? Or what if the student didn't think she could succeed and didn't attempt it at all? It's easier to decide our way is more important. It's easier to give into the fear of failure and not try at all. But when we try and trust, the Lord will change us. That's what His trials do. They are designed to help us become more- more like Him.


Isn't it amazing? This Gospel is simply amazing.

Out to Lunch with Michelle

Yeah- we're BFF. I've got the fuzzy pictures to prove it (translation- I sat so far away that my zoom could barely do its job). 

I was able to attend the Congressional Club's First Ladies' Luncheon today and it was quite the experience- complete with K9 team, hundreds of Secret Service crawling around, and a helicopter hovering above the hotel. Can I just say it's a whole new world being a Santini? 

Everything was Florida themed because the president of the Congressional Club is from Florida and she's considered the main host of the First Lady.

Gift bags! They were full of beach-y things like flip flops, beach towel, nail polish, etc.

Samantha had the opportunity to be one of the junior hostesses and got to walk down the catwalk with her name being called out to recognize her. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her on the catwalk, but she sure looked beautiful.

Michelle Obama's entrance

Being introduced

Gloria Estefan was the entertainment

Not every day you get to see the First Lady dancing to "Get on Your Feet!"

Catching Up

So I haven't been the best lately at keeping up with blogging. So here's a catch-all post to fill you in on some of the details.

JD planned a sweet little date night out to see the cherry blossoms on a river boat down the Potomac. Along the way, we discovered a fish market with all kinds of seafood. Gotta love me some spicy crab soup!

The cherry blossoms come out once a year in March and only bloom for a couple of weeks. DC has a whole cherry blossom festival.

JD, me, and my sticking up hair

Remember this post? The one where we discover that home renovations are not for us? We've improved since then. We actually mounted a TV. And did it with NO swearing! 

This is Mark's room. JD and I designed and furnished it so that it would be accessible to him. We pretty much started over from scratch and added everything we thought he'd need to be as independent as possible.

JD got the news that his good friend from freshman year at BYU was going to be in town. Mari, the Stroms (Dave is another freshman buddy), and us met down at The Mall to see the blossoms.

JD, Dave, and Mari

We got the opportunity to go to BYU's Management Dinner. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf was the main speaker because the BYU Management Society awarded him their yearly recognition award. Senator Smith is giving Elder Uchtdorf the award in this very fuzzy picture.

 

Another date- Color Me Mine Ceramics. Here we reenacted one of our first dates. Except this time his our ceramic pieces looked much better!

The way we celebrate every important event in the Santini family- PF Chang's. The cause? Passing the bar. You can now call JD "JD Squared." (There's your math humor for the day).

JD scored a basically free trip to West Virginia to go white water rafting. We stayed overnight in this little cabin that was just big enough for a bed. It was soooo cute!

"Wetsuits strongly recommended." What the HECK was I getting myself into?!

The nerves only increased when we were handed helmets.

"It was nice knowin' ya!"

Don't let that smile fool you. I was terrified.

Stopping for lunch. So far, still alive!

The rapids quickly won me over. So. Much. Fun!

Sign me up again! Total thrill! The highest class rapid we encountered were several class 5 rapids. Good thing I didn't know this before, but class 6 is the highest that you can go.

Carrie- does this picture look familiar? We snagged it off of your blog. We surprised Dave and met the Stroms at a fabulous Italian restaurant for Dave's birthday. Great food, great friends, great times.

Last week, I got to go to the Ambassador's Wives' Luncheon put on by the Church, with Mom Santini in charge. This is at the home (yes, home) of Donna Marriott. Donna is in the first row, second in from the left. Quite an amazing experience.

The entertainment was the country group SheDaisy.

Yes, home.

A Very Happy Day for the Santinis

JD PASSED THE BAR!!!! One of the most difficult bars in the country- just so you know... Woot! Woot!

Brain Training

So, I work for the company LearningRX. I am a brain trainer and I work with students to help them get smarter. We are able to increase a person's IQ by rewiring his/her brain through targeting weak cognitive skills and training them until they become stronger. The program averages an increase of 15 points in a participant's IQ. How do we know? Students are tested before and after the program using the standardized assessment that is used all across the country by clinical and school psychologists. An average of 15 points is quite a claim, but it's been amazing to see with my very own eyes the results of brain training- and our center has seen much higher improvements than 15 points.


Why do I bring this up? Not to brag about my super cool job, but I had an Aha! moment recently. 


The secret sauce to really make lasting and significant improvements in cognitive skills is loading. When a student is working on improving a weak skill through our procedures and games, we load on distractions and mental tasks. We try to throw the student off. We may distract through making obnoxious clicking noises with our pen, singing, insulting the student's favorite sports team, yelling out the wrong answers, etc. We also layer on additional mental tasks. So if a student is working on a difficult procedure, we will ask him/her to perform math facts or call out 5 candy bars (or something like that) at the same time that s/he is working on the procedure. This is effective because it pushes the skill you are trying to improve to an automatic level. It's too difficult to perform the procedure along with the additional mental tasks unless the skill is automatic. It's how we know the student has really conquered the procedure.


Sounds a lot like life to me. Don't we all sometimes feel like the Lord  "loads" on problems and trials? Don't we sometimes say, "when it rains it pours"? Do you ever wonder how on earth you are going to be able come out the other side?


Maybe the Lord is using trials to push our weak spiritual skills to become stronger and automatic. Maybe we are just beginning to understand this concept in the context of brain science, yet it's really just a manifestation of universal truth. 


As a brain trainer, I sit across the table from a student and I know that if he will stick with it, he will get smarter. I have no doubt. If my tasks are at the cognitive level where he's falling all over his answers, having to start over, and struggling, I've got him right where I want him. I know that is where growth occurs. It's an incredible experience to see the twinkle in the eye of my students when they can see for themselves their improvement. They change. 


So- note to self: When I feel like the Lord is "loading" on the trials as I work through this earthly "procedure", I can know He's got me where He wants me. He knows I can do it. He knows my potential. And as the ultimate Teacher and Trainer, He can change my soul to be better, stronger, and His teachings will become my automatic response.

Being Vulnerable

I saw this video on a friend's blog and had to post it. I'm curious to hear your reaction. Do you agree with her conclusions? Disagree? It's about 20 minutes long, but well worth the time.

Favorite Websites

As promised, here is the list of websites that you sent me. Not all of them are on the list because I edited for the sisters in our ward, but there's a lot of good stuff here! Maybe you'll find a new favorite!

For Free E-books:

• www.pagebypagebooks.com 
• http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain
• www.classicreader.com
• www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

For Finding Good Deals:

• Mr.Rebates.com
• www.groupon.com
• livingsocial.com
• google.com (before you buy something online, google a promo code for that item...enter that code when you are checking out...its awesome!)

For Recipes:

• http://smittenkitchen.com/
• http://thepioneerwoman.com/
• http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/
• http://allrecipes.com/ (I especially like their ingredients tab...put in the ingredients you do have and see what recipes come up...great for using up miscellaneous ingredients)
• http://www.ourbestbites.com/
• http://www.thecrockpotblog.com/ (a blog devoted to crock pot recipes)
• http://www.elanaspantry.com/ (for gluten-free, refined sugar-free recipes)
• http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/ (gluten-free and refined sugar-free recipes)

For Fun w/ Kids:

• http://familyfun.go.com/
• http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.blogspot.com/

For Family:

• http://ayearoffhe.blogspot.com/2010/12/lesson-plans-for-2011.html (for FHE lesson plans)
• http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/list.page
• http://blogspot.sharedbook.com/blog2print/googleblogger/index.html (easy way to print out your blog into a book)
• http://cleanmama.blogspot.com/ (cleaning and organization tips)
• http://tipnut.com/ (full of tips)

For Church:

• http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/
• http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp (for Family Search Indexing)
• http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/patterns/service-project-guidelines.pdf (for humanitarian guidelines)

 
Food Storage, Gardening and Deals on Food:

• http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ (nationwide deals, great for 3 month supply foods)
• http://thefoodstorageshopper.net/ (tips on buying your food storage for less)
•  http://www.thegrocerygame.com/index-no-hot-deals.cfm (save tons of money on your groceries!)
• http://everydayfoodstorage.net/ (recipes for food storage)
• http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ (for grocery coupons)
• http://www.simplylivingsmart.info/
• http://www.gardengirltv.com/

Crafting:

• http://www.u-createcrafts.com/
• http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/
• http://www.makeit-loveit.com/
• http://www.theidearoom.net/

Miscellaneous:

• http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ (for mapping out runs)
• http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/ (for listening to music for free online- not to download/purchase)
• http://www.pandora.com/ (a radio station that plays music based off of what kind of music you like. You input a song you like and the site designs a station around the properties of the inputted song.)
• http://radio.lds.org/programs/conversations?lang=eng (conversations with interesting members of the Church. Download and listen on ipod)
• http://www.pluggedin.com/ (for rating movies so you know what your kids are watching- or shouldn't watch.)
• http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome (for photo editing)
• craigslist.com (sell/buy items here and look for rentals) 
• http://naturesknockout.com (for learning about personal care and beauty products that don’t contain harm