'Training for the Brain' Technology Yields Academic Gains at St.
Thomas Aquinas H.S. Imagine introducing a new technology to
students that is similar to a video game - involving musical
tones, hand and foot tapping, as well as coordinated movements,
such as dancing - with scores to track improvement against
oneself and others. Now imagine that 25,000 repetitions of these
exercises in 12 one-hour sessions can improve mental processing
with significant gains in reading and math fluency. For the
2,000 students at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., this far-fetched description is a reality.
Dozens of elementary and secondary schools in southern Florida,
Virginia and Illinois now are introducing this innovative
'training for the brain' technology called the Interactive
Metronome (IM). Pilot Program Creates Demand In August 2001, 29
students from the high school's football team headed to the
computer lab. They donned headphones, and hand and foot sensors
for the dozen IM-powered training sessi