In an online interview at Sharpbrains.com, Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Posner shares about some new research on ways to train self-regulation and attentions skills. From the interview: Dr. Posner, many thanks for your time today. I really enjoyed the James Arthur Lecture monograph on Evolution and Development of Self-Regulation that you delivered last year. Could you…
Category: Sites and Blogs on Mental Health
New Media Therapy: Self-Help Video Games
Now that we’ve gotten that pesky election out of the way, we can talk about really important things like Self Help Video Games! Seriously, though, there is interesting news for therapists and gamers out there — a whole new fleet of video games are being developed to help people combat problems such as smoking and being…
Edutopia June 2008: New Media Helps Learning
Edutopia has a fantastic June issue with a focus on using new media in education. In particular, they have a video about Albano Berberi, a blind high school student who uses assistive technology to do things like computer programming, video-game playing, and composing musical scores that he then performs on violin. Here is a link…
Shaffer and Gee Talk Video Games and Education
This is a wonderfully illuminating discussion about video games and education. The discussion is between David Williamson Shaffer, author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn and James Paul Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Why Video Games are Good for the Soul. The overriding message from Shaffer and Gee:…
EF as the New Standard for Brain Function
An article in this week’s Newsweek by Wray Herbert describes some fascinating research being done on enhancing preschool education by focusing the curriculum specifically to improve executive functions. From the article: […] Psychologist Adele Diamond of the University of British Columbia has been testing the EF concept in the classroom, with provocative results. In one…
Meditative Mindfulness May Be Good for ADHD
Sharpbrains.com, one of the sites in our Technology & Helping Kids blogroll, has an article by Dr. David Rabiner in which he reviews some new research on teaching mindfulness meditation to teens and adults, and how study participants with attentional problems were helped by learning and practicing these techniques. The article also provides this summary…
Using Video Games as Discussion Material for Anger Management
Rebecca Bell, Ph.D. has a fascinating post about how she uses discussion of video games to teach anger management. The post starts off talking about dating a pirate, who was a pirate in more ways than one, and goes on to explain how she uses discussion of video games as a way to get kids…
Music is Good for Executive Function and More
I have been thinking about music recently, ever since a colleague of mine questioned whether there is scientific proof of the effectiveness of music therapy. Hence, I started doing a little Googling on the subject and learned about a kind of therapy for ADHD called “Interactive Metronome.” If you visit the site, you can watch…
What is the Deal with Video Games and Violence?
In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, started doing research on the effects of video games. With $1.5 million in federal funding from The US Department of Justice, Kutner and Olson set off on an mission to review…
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