Eric
Eric
- Name: Eric
- Age: 10
Cognition & Learning
Eric is a shy boy who enjoys playing basketball and watching superhero movies in his downtime. Eric’s mom reports that he struggles to work quickly and is very disorganized. Things like getting dressed for school in the morning or completing homework is an arduous process.
Eric loved to be challenged, had a positive attitude and was eager to learn. His program focused on improving his speed and working memory, coaching him on executive functioning behaviors, including organization, and teaching evidence-based memory techniques and strategies.
Processing speed and working memory were targeted with intense drill and practice using a variety of exercises. Eric’s speed consistently improved throughout the program and he was able to complete activities at faster speeds on the metronome, perform more challenging prompts, and complete tasks within a shorter time.
Eric also learned basic memory techniques and strategies, such as association-making and peg systems, including pegs for numbers, months and years. As he improved, he began applying these to learn state capitals, historical dates, and vocabulary terms from class. He eventually went on to learn more complex techniques, such as the method of loci, which he used to memorize the Bill of Rights, the Articles of the Constitution, and the elements on the periodic table.
Eric particularly practiced the technique of visualization, which helped him with remembering information, organizing information, and predicting/planning for events in the future.
Eric was given plenty of opportunities to practice goal-setting for his exercises as well as provide judgements of learning, which helped foster metacognition or awareness regarding his learning process.
His program also included tasks that required him to articulate information, describe pictures, or demonstrate specific phrases. Eric’s accuracy and flexibility gradually improved with these tasks as well.
Towards the end of sessions, Eric incorporated schoolwork primarily through the use of vocabulary terms and worksheets. He utilized his school worksheets to discuss finding text evidence, point of view, and describe the information he read, as well as using associations to learn his weekly vocabulary terms.
By the end of our sessions, Eric’s ability to quickly and individually use memory techniques improved greatly. He was eager to build on the techniques and extend their application to his schoolwork.