The Number One Benefit of Brain Training? Confidence
We’ve talked many times about how brain training improves cognitive skills and the positive effects that can have on school performance. But did you know that brain training can also boost confidence? It’s true—numerous studies report that confidence is the number one benefit of brain training.
LearningRx’s brain training programs help strengthen the cognitive skills we use to think, learn, and remember. But in the process of training these skills, our clients also gain a great deal of self-confidence.
Let’s take a closer look at how brain training helps improve confidence and why confidence is an important factor in learning.
Why Confidence Is Important for Learning
One of the definitions of confidence is “the quality of being certain of your abilities.” And in the book, “Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance,” the National Research Council explains that self-confidence is “one of the most influential motivators and regulators of behavior in people’s everyday lives.”
In essence, being sure of ourselves and our ability to accomplish something is a huge motivating factor.
If you’ve ever struggled with a lack of confidence, you’ll immediately understand how motivating confidence can be (and how unmotivating the lack of it is). It’s difficult to want to attempt to do or learn something new if you don’t believe you’ll be able to do it.
And while believing you’re capable of something doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be successful at it, it does make you more likely to try. And that is a crucial part of learning something new.
How Brain Training With LearningRx Helps Improve Confidence
We know that brain training increases a student’s confidence: numerous studies have confirmed it does so (more on those studies in a moment), and at LearningRx, we see it happen every day.
But how does cognitive skills training improve confidence? Here are just a few ways LearningRx brain training programs accomplish that.
Custom Programming
Every student’s brain is different, so their brain training program should be tailored to their individual cognitive skills.
That’s why we create a custom training program for each of our clients that focuses on the specific skills they need to work on. Narrowing our focus like this allows our clients to see results more quickly.
One-on-One Training
Each client is assigned to a personal brain trainer who guides them through their training program. The brain trainer comes alongside the client, helping them stretch the limits of their abilities. They work to understand each client’s strengths and weaknesses so they know where the client needs to be challenged for further growth.
Our brain trainers also provide the one-on-one attention a struggling student needs to feel supported and encouraged.
Focus on Effort, Rather Than Outcomes
When students struggle in school, they can study for hours and still not earn the grades they’re aiming for. This can lead to frustration and discouragement.
So rather than praising our students solely for their outcomes (i.e., grades), we praise them for the hard work they put in. Acknowledging their effort helps build confidence and encourages them to keep trying.
Celebrating Improvements…Including the Small Ones
We celebrate every improvement a client makes—even the small ones! Our brain trainers note improvements at nearly every session with their clients.
This allows us to get a clear idea of how each client is improving every time we meet with them, rather than waiting for outside factors (like school grades) to determine how much they’ve grown. It also helps clients see how much they are improving, thereby boosting their confidence.
The Most Common Benefit of Brain Training Is Confidence
Over the years, numerous studies have examined the effects of brain training with LearningRx. And the number one qualitative outcome (representing real life benefits) in most of them has been improved confidence. Here are just a few examples:
One study that looked at the effects of clinician-delivered cognitive training on children diagnosed with ADHD found that:
“…targeting multiple cognitive constructs—rather than working memory or attention alone—through human delivery of training tasks has had a significant impact on the trained skills with effects that transferred to everyday functioning, such as reduced oppositional behavior, less academic problems, increased confidence and self-esteem, and more cooperative behavior.” 1
Another study collected responses from participants and their parents regarding not only cognitive and academic changes they noticed as a result of brain training, but behavioral changes as well—including confidence, personal responsibility, social skills, and mood. It found that:
“…the largest percentage of responses were about behavioral changes, with a majority of remarks about confidence such as, ‘Her self-esteem has soared,’ ‘[He] has become much more confident in himself and his abilities,’ ‘She is happier,’ ‘Our son has become more independent in completing his homework,’ and ‘My daughter has shown tremendous growth in her courage to try new things.’” 2
And a 2020 study examining the effects of cognitive skills training on cognition and daily functioning in patients with mild brain injuries found that:
“…the most common post-intervention outcomes were regarding improved cognitive efficiency (including memory, attention, and processing speed), a more positive mood, and enriched social identity (including better relationships and communication skills).” 3
This study went on to note that the quality of life improvements noted in this study were:
“…consistent with our previous research on the same intervention with both children and adults in which we found transfer to improvements in relationships, self-confidence, cognition, work and school performance, and daily life skills.” 3
It’s clear that brain training not only improves cognitive skills related to thinking, learning, and remembering, but also boosts self-confidence in participants…which, in turn, spurs them toward further growth.
Curious if brain training is the right fit for your child? Take our free brain quiz to find out, then contact us to get started.
References:
1 Moore A.L., Ledbetter C, The Promise of Clinician-Delivered Cognitive Training for Children Diagnosed With ADHD, J Ment Health Clin Psychol. (2019); 3(3): 3-8
2 Moore A.L., Miller T.M., Ledbetter C (2021) Remote vs. In-person Delivery of LearningRx One-on-One Cognitive Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Non-inferiority Study, Front. Psychol. 12-749898. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.749898
3 Moore A.L., Carpenter D.M. II, James R.L., Miller T.M., Moore JJ, Disbrow EA and Ledbetter CR (2020) Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Outcomes Following Clinician-Delivered Cognitive Training for Six Patients With Mild Brain Injury: A Multiple Case Study. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 14:229. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00229
