Brain Age

My boys got Nintendo DSs for Christmas this year. I know what you're thinking, "What a terrible parent! How could he let his children's minds rot like that!" Well, how about this: Brain Age.

This 'game' has become a favorite of my oldest boy. He actually is excited to do speed drills on math and counting and all sorts of brain expanding exercises. I am excited to let him play on his DS. It's a win-win!

Brain age is based on the work of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, who apparently is some sort of a brain expert. The game grades you with a 'brain age' score, which is supposed to be the age at which your brain operates. If your brain age is 80, your brain is equivalent in raw computing power to a moldy orange. A brain age of 20 (the best awarded in the game) means that Einstein has a new rival. Actually, it means that you can do simple math problems really fast and you are proficient at recognizing colors, but you feel really smart!

In Brain Age, you do drills like answering 100 random math problems, keeping track of how many people are in a building while people go in and out, memorize the position of numbers placed on the screen, memorizing lists of 5 letter words, etc. The DS has two screens, and one of the screens is touch sensitive so you can use a stylus to write answers to the questions. The key to the whole thing is getting the answer right and FAST. There is a little floating head guy that encourages you if you do poorly and cheers you if you do well.

My 9 year old looked over the game and turned up his nose when he first saw it. He called it the 'stupid math game' and refused to even try it. I, on the other hand, was instantly hooked. I rarely missed a day of my training, partly because the funny floating head would make me feel bad if I did. Plus, the game tracks your progress with charts, so it's easy to see if you're improving.

Finally, about a week ago, my 9 year old sat down and watched me do my training. I could tell he was intrigued. When I finished, he popped it in his DS and wandered off. Next thing I knew he ran out to show me how well he had done on one of the tests. The game warns you that it is meant for adults, and the results for children are not particularly meaningful. But, hey, anything that gets him to work on math without threat of permanent bodily harm has to be good.

It's been amazing to watch him figure out how to do each type of training. His brain age that first day was 80. He didn't let that discourage him. He has improved a bit every day and his brain age is getting younger. Last night he came running in all excited because his brain age was 45! Almost the first thing he does every day is pull out brain age and do his training. (the game only lets you train/test each problem type once a day.)

What's my brain age? Of course I'm at a 20. That should you give you, dear reader, confidence in the opinions that you read here on this blog. Or at least give you confidence that I can tell you what 5+6 is very quickly! Also 16-9, and 8*9.

I'll have more to say about the Nintendo DS later, all of it good.