Effectiveness of a computerised working memory training in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities.

The team gave teens with mild to borderline intellectual disability a short computer workout. Half played memory games that got harder as they improved. The rest played the same games on a fixed level.

Everyone trained for about 25 minutes a day, four days a week, for six weeks. The researchers tested verbal and visual memory, math, and story recall right after training and again later.

The adaptive group beat the control group on verbal short-term memory right away and at follow-up. Later, both trained groups showed gains in visual memory, arithmetic, and story recall.

In plain words, the kids who got the harder games held onto spoken facts better. Everyone who trained, even on easy mode, later did better in school-type tasks.

Van der Molen et al. (2010) showed that teens with mild ID already score below younger kids of the same mental age on everyday memory tasks. The new study proves these gaps can shrink with short, game-based practice.

Maehler et al. (2016) found that working memory predicts school success in younger students with ID. The current trial links that idea to older teens by showing memory training later lifts math and story scores.

Hong et al. (2021) got similar memory gains after a 30-minute run. Together, the papers tell us both body and brain workouts can boost working memory in clients with ID.

You can add a cheap, six-week computer memory game to your teen’s plan without pulling them from class. Start with adaptive level games to get the fastest verbal memory lift. Keep the program running even after mastery; the later pay-off shows up in math and listening tasks you already track.