I was just training in BrainHQ this morning. Because I have been working on the development of these exercises over the past several years, I’ve spent many an hour hunched over my computer “trying to get the answer right” on model training programs!! My current goal is to make brain fitness training part of my regular daily routine. I’m already pretty addicted to my daily time spent in BrainHQ, and am looking forward to these visual-skills, attention-skills and executive-skills training programs with considerable anticipation. A key is to put the necessary time for exercise onto your schedule in a realistic way. A second important adjustment is the understanding that if you miss a day or two or ten for a good reason, it is not a big deal, as long as you’re relatively steady over the longer run.
Besides an obvious memory gain, a main benefit for me has been an improvement in verbal fluency. I don’t want to tell you how bad my fluency measures were a few months ago; it would be just a little bit embarassing to post my own self-administered test results! Suffice it to say that I’ve always regarded myself as being quick a-tongue, and the slow loss of the quick retort has been discouraging. There’s nothing quite so discouraging as a “know-it-all” being slowed down in the telling! Now it’s Diane and my three daughters who are discouraged by the fact that — once again — THEY have to struggle to get a word in edgewise! I’m just a little bit worried about them sabotaging my computer!
