Challenging Our Minds (COM) is a cognitive enhancement system designed to develop and enhance cognitive functions across the following domains:

• Attention Skills ( about... )
• Executive Skills ( about... )
• Memory Skills ( about... )
• Visuospatial Skills ( about... )
• Problem Solving Skills ( about... )
• Communication Skills ( about... )
• Psychosocial Skills ( about... )

The COM system is based upon more than 25 years of work and research in this area conducted by Dr. Odie Bracy, a clinical neuropsychologist and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Indianapolis. COM is modeled closely after the clinically oriented www.neuropsychonline.com (NPO) therapy system that was designed for cognitive rehabilitation therapy with individuals who had experienced brain injury, learning disability, attention deficit, developmental disorders etc.. Numerous publications show the significant impact that this therapy approach has had on the lives and functioning of these individuals. The NPO therapy system and earlier versions of it have been utilized in over 5,000 facilities around the world. We first adapted the cognitive rehabilitation therapy system for use in schools in 1990 and have researched and modified the system continuously since that time. Two research publications have shown the significant advantages of participation in our intervention program for all children, not just those with special needs. In both research projects the children who participated in the COM program experienced statistically significant increases in measured intelligence while the control group showed no change.

Our primary focus has been to prepare this COM system for implementation within school systems, however, we are allowing individual (for children or adults), private registration and we are also allowing facilities other than schools, such as Learning Centers, to subscribe to the system. Go to our Registration page and check out our very special prices for the enrollment of whole school districts. Since June, 2006, individuals and facilities other than schools have been able to register online. Schools can learn more about obtaining our system for use within their school system by contacting us directly. We are also available for consultation to any facility or individual user.

The COM program is designed to run with very little administration. There are no administration demands for individual accounts. The system runs over the internet in your web browser. You may need to download the most recent Flash Player for your browser. One can access the system from any internet connected computer by logging into it with their unique username and password. The cognitive exercises are arranged in the domains listed above. Within each domain the exercises are arranged from simple to more complex. Progression through the system is automatically monitored by the system and each child can progress at his or her own pace. Mastery of each level of each exercise is required for one to be promoted to the next level or next exercise in a domain. One must have three consecutive passes on a level to show mastery. Each exercise has three levels. Once a child has three consecutive passes on each of the three levels of an exercise then they are automatically promoted to the next exercise within that domain. An assignment consists of one exercise from each domain, so there are seven exercises in every assignment. There are currently 60 exercises and more are being added weekly. The system automatically keeps track of where one stops work during a session and will start back on the next session at the point where the child stopped. We recommend devoting at least 30 minutes to an hour of interaction with the system every day.

The cognitive exercises are designed as games. Even though they are gamelike, each level of each exercise is specifically designed to address the development of important cognitive skills. Al, a cartoon character take off on Albert Einstein, acts as the host to the system. He is present on all instruction screens to provide a verbal interpretation of the written instructions. He also speaks and appears within the exercises to offer feedback, encouragement and an occasional hint when it becomes evident that someone is experiencing difficulty with a task. The gamelike atmosphere and Al make the cognitive exercises fun to do. Please have a preview of two levels of our Task 1 (Color Match) from Track 3 (Memory Skills). You must have Flash Player 8 or higher installed to run this preview.

It has been our experience and observation, during our several years of research on the COM system, that the children who have participated have been very responsive to our program. They have attended well to the tasks, shown self motivation and have actively engaged in the learning process presented by the COM system. Teachers and parents have commented on their observation of improved self-esteem evident in the children who have participated in COM, regardless of their individual levels of intellectual functioning. For some of the lower functioning children, COM has been their first positive learning experience in school.

The COM system has two login points that take one either to the Administrator's Module or the Student's Module. The Administrator's module allows the faculty to maintain a roster of student participants by Adding, Editing, Selecting, Viewing Rosters, Printing Rosters and Printing Username/Password labels. The Charting menu item allows the faculty to view and print data tables and progress data as detailed below. The Preview Tasks button provides the faculty member with an interface that will allow one to go directly to any level of any task and run it for preview.

Screen Shots From the School Administration Module
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A login to the Student's Module takes one to the student interface screen that serves the training session to the student. On this interface screen, the student can quickly see how much progress they have made on each track of the system. The Go button, on the student interface screen, plays the next exercise in the assignment list. The system keeps track of where a student is working. On each subsequent click of the Go button, the student is taken to the next task. Upon completion of the last task in the assignment list, the assignment list is cycled back to start over. Success is automatically monitored by the system and promotion to the next level or next task is done by the system when mastery is detected, without any intervention from the teacher or parent.

Screen Shots From the Student's Module ( from just 7 of our 60 programs! )
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All data that are generated by individuals using our system are automatically sent to the COM server and stored on our database. By using the Charting button on the Administrator's Module one can print summary reports of a persons's progress through the system
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and also data tables for each exercise on which the individual has worked, showing the baseline scores, the most current scores, number of attempts on a task, best scores etc.
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With just the click of a button a teacher can review the progress of a whole class and at a glance determine who needs more help!
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All reports are formatted for printing.

Our Weblog is a wealth of information about cognitive functioning and specifically about our system.

We have structured our pricing to make our system affordable. Visit our Register link and check our pricing options. There are no contracts! You can stop your subscription at any time via email or phone call. Give us a try!