Train Your Brain with FORBRAIN!

Use your voice to boost your brain! Increase attentiveness, speech, and memory! Have you heard of Forbrain? When Forbrain contacted me and asked me to review their product with my students, I was instantly on board after reading about their product and all of the amazing reviews on their website! Forbrain has been proven to improve...

Sounds pretty awesome, right? I have students with attention deficits, auditory processing disorders, short term memory, reading struggles, and speech/language delays. All of these needs exist in my classroom, so if you throw something like this at me, you bet, I'm going to give it a try! :)

But first, let's see how it works? How can this compact headset mic do this? As you can see below, nothing goes in the ears, but on the bone in front of the ear. The user speaks into a small attached microphone that is projected through this bone. Forbrain enhances certain patterns of your voice, delivering your voice to your brain through the bone structure. 

Forbrain has been proven to:

• Improve speech fluency, pronunciation, sound discrimination, and rhythm.
• Reduce sensitivity to noise.
• Train the brain to be more attentive.
• Improve auditory processing and sensory integration.
• Improve short term memory.
• Improve reading, writing, and speaking skills.
• Build confidence in the speaker and improve communication skills.

Sounds pretty amazing! So I tried Forbrain out with four of my students. Each student wore Forbrain for about 15-20 minutes. For my age group, Forbrain recommends just 15 minutes a day training for a duration of 6 weeks or longer. Here's a little overview of each student that was included in this experiment. 

Student A - ADHD, always off task, can't sit still, very hyper
Student B - ADD, mellow, can't focus, lack of participation, in his own little world, seldom looks when name is called
Student C - not very verbal, quiet
Student D - inattentive, unintelligible speech, speaks in a whining tone. 

Ready for the results?

Student A
-Forbrain did occupy this student enough to keep him in his seat, but it was a huge distraction for him. He couldn't stop playing with the mic and kept sucking on the mic, which in turn caused the mic to start squealing because it got so wet. Once I patted it dry with a paper towel, the squealing stopped. Yes, the mic does come with replaceable foam covers. 

Student B
-His focus and participation during whole group improved tremendously, as he wanted to hear himself talk. He was raising his hand and answering questions unlike before and was looking upon his name being called.

Student C
-Increase in verbal participation, louder voice, seemed to be more confident, but also became a distraction. 

Student D
-Less whining, more focused on speech articulation, but also easily distracted with device. 

So while I did see results with my students, it was also a distraction for them all. I also noticed that it was too large for the heads of my first and second graders, so the fact that it didn't fit their heads well was probably a large part of the distraction, plus the fact that it was new and fascinating to them.

I can definitely see the potential in Forbrain though, especially in small group settings or one-on-one where the device can be monitored easier, and also with older, less fidgety students. I can also see where Forbrain could be very beneficial for SLPs during speech sessions. 

If you are an SLP, or have students or a child that is inattentive, struggles with reading, auditory processing, short term memory, or maybe has sensory needs, or language or communication barriers, I definitely recommend giving Forbrain a try! Give it a try and learn more here.