Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention. Working together, they take incoming information and move it into the bank of knowledge you use every day at school, at work, and in life.  

When learning is difficult, many times we look to tutoring or re-teaching challenging information; we try to redeliver the information that was not grasped the first time. That can be helpful in situations where the information was missed or the instruction may not have been clear. In most cases the challenge isn’t missed information, but rather, struggles in processing and brain connections.

The goal of brain training is not to reteach information, but to improve brain connections so that we can use that information, and store it for later retrieval. The focus is on brain ‘power,’ brain thinking, learning, and memory. In order to strengthen our cognitive skills for lifelong learning, we must first build a strong foundation. Some examples of cognitive skills are those that focus on attention, auditory processing, comprehension, logic and reasoning, memory, planning, processing speed, and visual processing, to name just a few.

The cognitive skills training offered at HearSay has shown remarkable success in supporting students’ learning and literacy skills in school, as well as building and rebuilding foundational skills in clients who have suffered from stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cognitive skills training has also been proven to slow down the progression of Alzheimers and Dementia.

Could you, your child, or a loved one be at risk? A cognitive skills assessment can identify learning problems associated with the following behaviours: 

• Difficulty sitting still
• Difficulty remaining on task
• Being easily distracted
• Avoiding work that is challenging
• Difficulty comprehending and recalling information
• Difficulty sounding out words
• Written work taking a lengthy amount of time to complete
• Difficulty completing tasks
• Difficulty copying material from a book, chalkboard
• Repetition of verbal instructions often required
• Difficulty with reading, written language and spelling
• Making letter and number reversals
• Frequently disorganized
• Frequently frustrated when trying to complete tasks
• Making careless errors

6941 Derry Road West, Milton, ON L9T 7H5

905.875.3345 | www.hearsay.ca