Special centres help children sharpen cognitive skills

GURGAON: Most academic battles are lost because students lack cognitive skills which boost the process of thinking.
Sahil Sonargare, a Class VI student of a city-based world school, left his English paper blank last year, which stumped his mother because she had helped him prepare for the exam thoroughly.
"That was the time I realised that my child needs something more than just coaching.Then I approached a centre which specialises in improving cognitive skills. There they made him appear for a Gibson test, which segregates a student's skills into seven crucial parameters - auditory processing, logical reasoning, short term memory et al," says Sahil's mother Neelam.
The test revealed some startling facts. Sahil's intelligence quotient and logical reasoning were exemplary high, but what he lacked was auditory processing, a skill which makes one comprehend what is taught in the class. Currently, Sahil is currently undergoing training at the centre where he is made to practice a series of games and mind exercises, all aimed at improving his processing speed.
Neelam is not the only one. There are many parents who are seeking help from institutes such as Quick Minds, My Club Spark and Genius Bug to boost their children's cognitive skills.
"At our institute, we don't teach students any curriculum or topic, but we solve the problem by correcting its root cause. If one is bad at mathematics, we improve his calculations, rather than teaching a topic again and again. This way, we solve the problem permanently," explains Bikram Sehgal, the centre head of Quick Minds, a one-of-its-kind centre in entire NCR.
Even psychiatrists believe that cognitive skills can be improved in due course of time if the right pedagogies are followed. "There are a lot of creative methods to improve mental prowess. Through experiential and pictorial learning, it can be done," says Dr Vani Jain, a psychiatrist at Manthan Centre, Gurgaon.
Like Quick Minds, Genius Bug is another institute which helps students improve cognitive skills, with the help of vedic science. "We opened our centre in Maruti Kunj eight months ago and we already have around 19 students in different age group from 12 to 15. We teach them how to do fast calculations. We don't teach them the school syllabus," says Manish Parasher of that institute.
A parent Shubda Sharma, a resident of Sohna Road saw a dramatic improvement in her son's performance after he attended a course on cognitive skills where he was taught "how to learn". "Now he can comprehend what is taught in the school, which used to be a challenge earlier. His grades have remarkably improved from E to A," she says.