Focus, memory and critical thinking are all essential cognitive skills that help our children learn and perform well in school. Research has shown that these cognitive skills correlate with academic results and have a strong influence on one’s future career success.

#1: Focus & Attention – The ability to concentrate on the task at hand and not be distracted by unimportant or irrelevant information.

#2: Memory – There are many types of memory. More recently, working memory has been found to have a deep impact on academic performance and even intelligence. Working memory is the ability to not only store information but also manipulate them at the same time, which is critical for successful reading comprehension and the ability to solve multi-step Math problems.

#3: Critical Thinking – This means having clear, reasoned ideas and judgments. A person with critical thinking skills is able to understand the logical connections between ideas, construct and evaluate arguments and solve problems systematically.

It is vital that parents learn to understand these important cognitive skills, why some children may excel in them while others may struggle, and mostly, how to boost them in our children.

In a recent large-scale study on school effectiveness conducted by researchers from Harvard and MIT, it was found that while schools impart academic knowledge, they do not seem to impact cognitive development, highlighting the need for specific cognitive training.