Counselling

Teacher Assessment Tools Target Student Cognitive Abilities

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/26/16

As neuroscience works its way into the education vernacular, one company wants to help teachers go broader by performing assessments to monitor the cognitive skills of their students. CogniFit already sells cognitive tests to measure dyslexia, ADHD, depression and other "subtle cognitive deficiencies." Now it has launched a technology platform specifically for teachers. CogniFit for Education intends to address those brain activities tied to learning.

The company states on its website that its tools are a "professional instrument" that "may help educators without training in psychopedagogy analyze the learning and childhood developmental processes." The teacher gives students "brain games" intended to identify cognitive strengths and deficits in skills relevant for learning. Using the results, the program builds a "personalized brain training regimen specifically for each student's cognitive needs."

For example, the ADHD offering has a series of tests designed to help measure working memory, short-term memory, focus, inhibition, visual perception, response time and planning.

The dyslexia product includes eight tasks that assess short-term memory, working memory, naming, visual short-term memory, divided attention, visual scanning, response time, planning and processing speed.

In both cases a single license for the software is $20; 25 licenses is $400.

"Every student is different and has unique cognitive strengths and weaknesses. However, the mainstream education system groups students based on their age, rather than cognitive abilities like attention and memory, making it difficult to always ensure that the entire classroom is learning at the same pace," said CEO, Tommy Sagroun, in a statement. "By providing educators with this new...platform, teachers have the opportunity to assess, train and track their students' cognitive skills, and adapt their teaching strategy accordingly for each individual student."