RaiseYourIQ has made its unique on-line brain training for intellectual skills available at no cost to children of the education-focused JAAGO foundation in Bangladesh. This new on-line training course allows children to accelerate their learning and can increase intelligence levels. Brain training is the latest buzz in on-line self-improvement, and is being used my millions of people world-wide. Brain training involves engaging in a range of mental exercises and tasks that are hoped to increase general intellectual ability. However, access to such training can be expensive, and there is not a lot of evidence that many of the brain training programs available actually work.

But a new system of brain training, based on fundamental principles of learning, rather than vague ‘cognitive’ science, appears to be getting better results. This new system, called SMART (which stands for Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training), was developed at Maynooth University, in Ireland, and it appears to increase the Intelligence of users by at least 10 IQ points. The system has been brought to Bangladesh by Dr. Roche’s Doctoral student Micah Amd, who is currently studying for his Ph.D in Experimental Psychology at Maynooth University. Mr. Amd. has facilitated the donation of the training program and has travelled to Bangladesh to train teachers and students in the use of the online software. Mr. Amd, who is himself Bengali, was touched by the work of the JAAGO foundation when he learned about it on a recent visit. This non-profit organization provides education to children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. An increase in IQ of just 10 points is enough to move a person from the category of average or below average intelligence to above average or high functioning. If these kinds of increases in IQ can be offered to children at the JAGGO foundation the effects could be life changing.

What is SMART training? SMART training is a fun on-line educational training program that teaches both children and adults to be faster and more efficient in the cognitive skill of ‘relating’ words and concepts to each other. The training is based on research which shows that just about every intellectual skills we need involves relating one thing to another (e.g., a word to an object, a face to a name). There are lots of ways in which things can be related (e.g., same, opposite, more than, and so on). SMART training improves our ability to relate words and concepts to each other in a wide variety of ways, an in so doing increases our ability to think clearly, reason, and learn. SMART training does not teach children anything that they can use in their examinations (e.g., how to multiply, the capital of Canada). Instead it teaches the foundational reasoning skills crucial to vocabulary acquisition and mathematical reasoning. In effect, it gives the user the tools to learn more effectively. It is hoped that children taught by the JAAGO foundation will benefit from this program because it can help to make up for time lost in education.

Dr. Roche; “Many of these so called brain training games available on-line and on hand held-devices are based very loosely on scientific sounding concepts and they only allude to their ability to make us more intelligent. However, the SMART system is based on sound behavioural principles and has been built over two decades of pain-staking research into the skills that underlie intelligent thinking”. The new SMART training method is based on the learning principles of behavioural psychology and modern theory of language and cognition known as Relational Frame Theory, with which Dr. Roche is closely associated. For more information on SMART training visit www.raiseyouriq.com What is JAAGO? JAAGO means “wake up!” in Bengali, the national language of Bangladesh. Founded by Mr. Korvi Raakshand and a few friends in 2007 in a small, derelict building in 2007, JAAGO presently constitutes of 8 international standard English-medium schools (with more being built) and a live-in hostel that were established solely through donations and volunteer work. JAAGO Foundation is a Bangladesh based non-profit organization catering to the education needs of children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

JAAGO Foundation’s vision is to build an illiteracy free Bangladesh with access to quality education for all. JAAGO Foundation believes in working towards a better society—one in which every child has access to quality education and in which they can realize their full potential. Most charitable donations tend to be material and can often involve unwanted goods, although many donations also come in the form of essential services, such as medical aid. Many of these donations, however, function only as short-term “band-aids”. The donation of SMART training to the JAAGO foundation, however, is potentially of long-term benefit, insofar as it is hoped to increase the ability of disadvantaged children to learn and in so doing improve their chances of helping themselves later in life. It should help children in disadvantaged locations, to maximize their intellectual potential and educational attainment. This will hopefully help in some way to break the vicious cycle of poverty and scarcity that a lack of education can create. For more information on the JAAGO foundation visit http://jaago.com.bd/mission-and-vision/