Can Cognifit make my child smarter?
That’s a loaded question. I know you know that. My super-short, sorta-kinda verdict is that yes, I believe this program can help your student improve cognitive skills (don’t just take my opinion — its backed by research studies), and yes I recommend it. Here’s the longer answer:
I’ve been putting off writing this review post about Cognifit because I have a lot to say about it! While I want to be thorough, I know wordy posts aren’t always easy to navigate. So take this review as my impression of Cognifit and feel free to message me on Instagram; I will be happy to answer any follow-up questions. Also be sure to check out the video reviews from other homeschool moms linked here. We received an assessment + a year of Cognifit training in exchange for this review from Timberdoodle. As of writing this post, we are about 6 months into the training. I plan to give a follow up post at the one year mark (complete with score).
Ok so what is Cognifit?
Cognifit is part cognitive testing and part customized “brain training.”
I had first heard of Cognifit years ago (though we never took the jump to try it). I knew that the progressive program is based on the science of neuroplasticity: the brain can adapt and get stronger. I love that. But I wasn’t sure if it would help.
My daughter has had three separate, formal IQ assessments via the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (twice to qualify her for certain programs and once because she is taking part in a study at UC Davis per her genetic syndrome 22q11.2). She struggles a lot academically, and after homeschooling her for years, I am acutely aware of these struggles.
While we have had many standard assessments and diagnoses in doctor’s offices and various hospitals, I have never found these helpful in explaining why she struggles (and there is never real hope for correction of those deficits). Sure there’s a meeting with the clinician afterward to go over the test. Yes there’s a report of strategies to try, but there’s also a finality about the child’s abilities (or disabilities). My experience has been — here’s the score. We’ve concluded xyz is your child’s working capacity and range. Here are some adaptations to assist her. Follow up with her therapists. The end. That sort of thing.
Note: If you’re trying to get a foothold of your child’s disabilities — absolutely consult a medical professional. Cognifit is not a substitute for a proper diagnosis. Also this is not meant as medical advice. This is just my opinion on a service that can benefit homeschoolers like us. If an outline of your child’s strengths and weaknesses would be a help, or if you’re like me and despite extensive testing, you still want more details to research, Cognifit is awesome.
In its favor, Cognifit is affordable (as testing goes) and easy to access. You can complete tests in a short amount of time at home. You just choose what kind of assessment you want to take (we received the “General Cognitive Assessment” in exchange for this review). No traveling hours by plane for a battery of tests required. Yippee.
After you complete that, Cognifit breaks the scoring down for you into detail. While I knew my daughter struggles with spatial reasoning, visual and auditory processing, I have never seen her scores for specific mental processes like estimation until Cognifit.
While I’ve known about the relationship between phonological awareness and dyslexia for a long time, I never contemplated why auditory memory specifically is significant for reading and how a significant shortfall would impact it until I got my child’s Cognifit report.
The more I know as my child’s teacher, the more I can help her unlock her full potential.
What’s also nice with this program is observing your child’s learning strengths. When you have a child who struggles, it’s easy to focus only on those barriers. However, seeing average / high scores listed in a majority of skill areas will remind you to step back and see the big picture. As homeschool parents, we need to have a full picture of strengths as well as areas of weakness. It’s a fair reminder that our kids will navigate their own unique paths.
So to sum up, the assessments and the detailed breakdown of those skills is worth their weight in gold. I love doing a deep dive into the research and coming up with a better understanding of why my child works the way she does. I recommend Cognifit’s general testing as a foundation to understanding your child’s learning profile. Having a full, detailed view of your child’s abilities will allow you to target interventions and understand why some methods or curriculums (etc) don’t jive with your student’s learning style.
The other component of Cognifit, the training side, I’m not as confident about. I wish I could say I was totally convicted–that yes my child struggles in estimation and has completed six months of the progressive, leveled training and now has shown improvements.
But you know what… she hasn’t. Some of her strong skills have gotten a lot better. Some of her weak skills got stronger and dropped again. However I’m not saying this is in anyway a negative or any shortcoming of the program. I think that like fitness in general, the body trains, fluctuates and has seasons.
While I’d like to say 100% the training program works, and I can point to the research linked above, I haven’t personally had an overwhelmingly transformative experience with it. Possibly because my daughter’s potential is more handicapped than most — but on the flip side I think that would mean the training should be all the more beneficial. I do believe that by familiarizing her with targeted applications disguised as fun games but that reflect real world challenges — all through an obtainable, low-key online experience — it can only be beneficial. Plus there’s that ever present hope of neuroplasticity dangled there. Maybe she won’t get it in 6 months, but maybe after a year or more we’ll have gained ground.
Overall Cognifit is a program I intend to stick with in the future, and if I want to devote an ongoing chunk of our busy lives to Cognifit, you better believe that’s a high recommendation.
Cognifit has an extensive help center that likely answers every question you may have. It’s crazy in-depth. Seriously you could get lost in there.
Be sure to go through Timberdoodle, our favorite homeschool curriculum providers and reason for this review! They have included Cognifit in their 12th Grade curriculum kit. Overall Cognifit makes an excellent assessment tool for kids 7+ up through adulthood. Training is fun, leveled and shows hope for improving daily cognitive skill. Check back for a follow up review.
